Octavius smashing mantle against glass

[Octavarium]

My octopus has been jetting backwards into the corners of my tank recently, never noticed this behavior until about a week ago...and never with my other hummelincki. Im worried because now theres definitely some patches of destroyed skin. He does this jetting and parachuting out arms and webbing motion very quickly, and occasionaly hits the glass and keeps going. Would there be any parasites that could cause this behavior, as a sort of "itching"? Its the same 29 g tank, but it doesnt seem to be a room issue, because he only does this once he gets near a corner.

 

[Nancy]

Jetting is not uncommon. One person who'd kept many, many bimacs reported that only one of them didn't jet and run into things, and this was in a large tank. I don't think we know why, maybe just want more swimming room.

Nancy

 

[DWhatley]

Our local aquarium's GPO was heart breaking to watch when she was first introduce to her tank and I saw her jetting into the walls the whole time I was able to observe her. Octane liked to swim (and still does some) when he was first introduced. If he hangs on long enough to be installed in his larger tank, I am hoping he will do more of it again. He learned the tank boundries pretty quickly though and I never saw him bump hard (the GPO really slammed into the walls).

You might try putting a strip of something dark (if you are a guy, well, duct tape is a consideration but the residue is hard to remove) on the corners to act as a demarcation of the tank boundries (like some people mark glass doors to be able to tell if they are open or closed). Since they see differently than we do, something (a reflection?) may make the corner seem open.