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.