[Octopus]: Octane - O. Hummelincki (filosus)

Since 'Tane's misadventure he seems to want more attention (my fear was perhaps he would be afraid of me after I scooped him up and held him upside down). Tonight he played with me constantly for two full country and western songs (the Braves game was over and I could not get to the radio so I was forced to listen to a ballad about tractors blocking taffic and a love sick song). Earlier in the week he had taken to having one arm stroked but tonight he continually wanted a full mantle massage (both top and underside). He shows me where he wants to be petted by placing himself either at my finger tips (for a between the eye and upper arm rub) or comes all the way into the corner then swims up into my hand for a mantle rub. Some nights he only wants a quick pat or three but tonight was the longest he stayed at one time and the longest he kept returning for more attention. Also of note, he insisted on using the escape corner and not his normal petting corner (opposite sides of the tank) tonight.

We did one new thing tonight too. He had one arm turned with the suckers toward my fingers (vs on the acrylic) and put the tip of my finger on one sucker and "tickled" it. He seemed to like this and would extend just that sucker to my finger.

I still wonder if they shed more skin cells than just the sucker linings. He has been doing the crazy arm wiggle (which seems to be a precursor to a major sucker shed) for two days. I know my iguana like to be "scratched" when it is shedding and still wonder if Octane's massage theropy is linked to "itchy" skin. Since he interacts nightly, I think it entertains him but the duration may be linked to a biological process.
 
Octopets2

More video (self photographed - me not Octane :cool2: - with a delicate balancing act). There are 4 videos taken a minute or so apart, the first is linked here and if you don't get totally bored, the other 3 can be viewed from the photobucket link.



Tonight we modified the game a little and Octane will squeeze his mantle through my cupped hand. Once he went through mantle first and decided he did not like it so he crawled to the center, aimed and fired :sun: (we need a squirt smiley).

I also recently discovered that there is another setting on my camera for larger videos - wish I had noticed it a couple of years ago! I thought I had read the manual from front to back several times!
 
Octavarium;120879 said:
lmao, this must be the video I asked about in my last post. Poor guy needs to get a grip!

No, 'Tane actually does just fine now but when he first came he could not LEAVE the acrylic. He would try to swim and would just stick and flail. Now, when he is not playing with me, he glides easily on the acrylic. The herky-jerky movements are a combination of the changing water movement and his, "I want to play, I have had enough, oh maybe one more time" actions. He will interact for nearly an hour this way and tonight I was the one who said enough (usually he will go to the back of the tank near his sleeping quarters and "sit" until I close the lid when he has had enough "fun").

With Octane and it appears with Kalypso, putting a wiggling finger in the water and just waiting for the octo to come to you resulted in trusted contact. I make a rule never to follow him down more than half way and if he shoots water at my hand, I bring it back to the top corner of the tank. Even after he used me for target practive tonight, he came back to my hand for more attention.
 
He's so gentle. I can't believe how large his mantle is. That's A LOT bigger than either of my hummelincki's were.

I've become convinced that Kalypso's intentions aren't genuinely peaceful. Since I got comfortable with physical contact I've been playing with her a lot more and she has been trying to force my fingers to her mouth. No doubt about it. She has no use for me touching her mantle or stroking her between the eyes. She will let me, but she gets bored/annoyed by it quick.
 
AM,
'Tane will, occassionally, pull insistently on my fingers and I don't allow him to complete the intent. I can't say that he is or is not trying to bite but he always gets mad when he does not get his way and will swim off for a few minutes. The full contact (yes, he is extremely gentle but remember he is way older than Kaylpso and the Mercs were pretty rough when they were young) was a slow process and continues to change. I have let my finger get closer to the underside as we experiment as long as he does not show an interest in being grabby. I am curious but do not want him to bite me as I worry it might start a bad habit (now that he has been out of the tank once, he is showing interest in exploring outside).

This week he has started "flowing" though my hand. I either wrap my hand around his mantle starting from the mantle end or he will swim up to my partially closed fist. When his mantle is cupped in my hand, I make it tube shaped with just a tiny amount of pressure and he glides through by elongating his mantle. The day he went all the way through, mantle first, is the day he squirted me and has not tried that approach again but still likes only his mantle to got through my hand. I still think that the interaction is based on a "feels good" scratching post rather than playing with the human but the human is having a terrific encounter.

On the other hand, Octane comes to me almost immediately when I go over to the tank and is usually waiting when I get the top open but does not interact the same way with Neal or Luis (son). Stangely enough, he let my mother pet him the first time she put her hand in the tank but it took Neal months before Octane would accept simple petting from him even though he is the primary food slave.

As an asside, the great price I found on my (your) camera was bust. The company, TechonDigital called and tried to get us to spend another $250 in accessories. We declined (the final offer was very attractive) and today they cancelled the order - bummer. Neal did some checking and the wonderful rating that showed when we found the company was fraudlent. There are dozens of reports of similar cases. Since there is no money lost in this kind of underhanded selling, it is hard to stop them from continuing this kind of false advertising.
 
Nancy;120910 said:
Nice video and I love the sound effects!
Nancy

If you are referring to the overly loud overflow, I had my camera's sound turned off but sort of missed the noise when I reviewed the clips. If you saw the last of the series and are referring to my "Oh, you scared me" comment, that was directed off stage to Neal :biggrin2:.
 
Octos and cleaners?

Cool thread!

I'm not an octo-owner, but I do like to come and read the posts here now and again.

One thought I had while reading about Octane: do octos interact with "cleaners" in the wild? I'm thinking of cleaner shrimp, wrasses, etc. I know many fish are regular visitors to cleaning stations, but I don't know about octos or other cephs.

If they do visit cleaners, perhaps this is the reason that Octane and others enjoy the "petting". Maybe your finger is the "cleaner"!

That's probably a half-baked theory, but maybe someone out there knows more than I do.
 
:welcome: nimbusco. We have lots of vicarious octo keepers:wink:

nimbusco;120986 said:
One thought I had while reading about Octane: do octos interact with "cleaners" in the wild?

Good thought. I was thinking about brushing against corals but the cleaner idea might explain why they don't always eat (at least right away) some of the live food items presented. The TONMO member that has spent the most time observing insitu is Mucktopus and she might have an observation. I think she is off on a cold boat somewhere but I will post a PM question to her for when she gets back.
 
Octane's second escape

Octane does not like have his tank cleaned and I try to do it on Saturday mornings before he wakes up but with the holiday weekend, I was not home until today and didn't get started until after he was up and about. I started cleaning the acrylic opposite his location and he came over and tried to "shove" my hand away. When we are "playing", I always respect this push so I guess he decided I should react the same way at other times. He managed to pull this off twice but otherwise was not a problem. I left the lid open while changing out the sump filter that is directly under the tank and ... Plop, out he came on the opposite side from the first time. No camera, again. I did briefly look for it and realized it was upstairs but I don't know that I would have used it in my panic to get him back into the tank. His fall was further this time (no interum counter top stop) and he was crawling toward his new tank :roll: (still under construction). When I blocked his travel he went UP the WALL for at least a foot. He was much harder to pickup this time (I could hear his suckers poping when I tried to pick him up) and managed to find more dirt and dog hair so a second water change was in order. He did not ink but was badly shaken and spent the rest of the day quite pale and sleeping (at least his eyes were closed and he was very still) in his normal "bedroom" behind the live rock. Neal couldn't get him to come out to eat so he put the shrimp on a stick and offered it to him in his hidey hole. I would have stopped Neal from disturbing him but was too late. Surprisingly, this appears to have been a good move since Octane took the shrimp (and yanked the feeding stick from Neal's hand, something he has never done before). Eventually, he came out for some play time but he stayed low in the tank. Normally, I keep my hand near the surface and he comes up to it but he was obviously still upset so I tried putting my hand halfway down and he came to be petted. Playtime was short but he still made several long contacts and slowly started showing normal relaxed coloration.

I am thinking about making a blocking panel for the new tank (it has two chambers connected by two six inch tubes) so that I can clean one side while he is contained on the other. Hopefully this will be less stressful for him as cleaning day seems to bother him more and more. The conversion is almost complete but we had to order a couple of plumbing parts and won't be able to fill it until next weekend. I will use the contents of an existing aquarium and possibly part of his current tank to establish the new one. Since the transfer will be immediate, I don't expect even a mini-cycle but will likely wait and watch for a week before adding him and anything from his tank (the aquarium I am striping will become the sump and I have additional live rock in two sumps I can use to either reestablish his current tank or set up in the new tank).
 
I used to have Bill distract my octopus and play with her while I cleaned the tank.

Given Octane's propensity to escape, you seem to need a temporary tank cover to use whenever you aren't directly watching the tank! Those escapes are hard on Octane (and you, too).

Nancy
 
Nancy, I can AND WILL close the cover when I am working in the sump (or leave to go to the garage to get water or something)! I was litterly in front of the tank (the sump is directly below and fully exposed) when he plopped out. Octane is not as rambuncous as Kalypso but he has gotten sneaky. He only attempts exit occassionally when I play with him (he climbed up the lid once) or, now, when I aggrivate him by cleaning his tank. It may be that stirring up the sand bothers his gills and will be something else I can minimize with the split tank if I put a sponge divider in the tubes when I clean. When he or his tank are not getting attention, he never approaches the top of the tank (he will, of course now start cruising the top since I said this).
 

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