Octopus digueti, here we come!

[cthulhu77]

Hey all,
We take off again this weekend in search of that elusive little critter...but, it is going to be an extreme tide this weekend (hence the trip), and we should be successful...the camera batts are charged, memory cards stocked up the wazoo, and a cooler for the portable beers...yeeeha!
Should have pics by tuesday online....wish us luck!
Greg and Shanlyn

 

[Colin]

GOOD LUCK

 

[cthulhu77]

Well, here I sit a little sunburned and quite a bit tired...and we didn't find ONE octopus digueti!!!
We found hundreds!
Lots of pics, lots of info...including a lovely rendition of envenomation by the little bas^*#ds written by myself...oh well.
Maybe monday....I am going to go to sleep!!!
8)
Greg

 

[corw314]

You are a cruel, cruel person!!!!!

Anxiously awaiting details!!!!

Carol

 

[Nancy]

So did this turn out to be only a photography expedition, or did you bring one back with you?

Can't wait to see the pics!

Nancy

 

[cthulhu77]

Ok, Ok...I took a nap, and am having a nice cold drink, so I thought I would post one pic...more to come! We had a blast...just really, really hot!!!
Greg

 

[Colin]

Excellent picture! Sounds like you had fun!

 

[corw314]

Great Picture!!!! MORE DETAILS!!!!!! Did you bring one back???? I'm not too good with the scienticfic names, is this a dwarf???

My daughtor and I went mucking yesterday, but the tide was too low!!! Forgot the camera, but brought back more of the "cute crabs", hermit crabs, and some what look like turbo snails, which Ink loves, and tons of shrimp.

Carol

 

[cthulhu77]

diguetis are wonderful little pygmy octos, very social and friendly (except the one that bit me )
More info to come later on today...I have to make up for lost time at work now!!
Greg

 

[cthulhu77]

Ok. I have a bit of time to tell you some more about the trip...
The extreme tide at Cholla bay left virtually miles of tidal flat exposed...and the octos were everywhere!!! Seriously, I don't think you could take more than five steps without finding one! The nice thing is, to the casual shell collector/observer, they were invisible, as they have this neat trick of hiding in bivalve shells and holding the shells mostly closed with their tentacles! I found the most by following the little streams and rivulets that occur as the tide is running out...we stopped counting after a while, there were just toooo many.

 

[cthulhu77]

more pics...
sometimes the octos can't find a bivalve shell, so they make do with a snail shell and pull in a piece to cover the opening! One tried to pull the shell shut and it got stuck on a fleeing snail...poor thing was frantically trying to push the well-adhered snail out of the shell while trying to look threatening to me...

 

[cthulhu77]

I took hundreds of pics...I am just sorting through them now...hope this isn't boring!

 

[cthulhu77]

and of course, we had to be careful of cone snails (very prevalent here), so we stocked up on essential supplies. The cooler is for the xx's, not the octos!!!
You can see what I mean by extreme tide by how low this boat is...on the ground!

 

[tonmo]

awesome pics.

 

[scarmig]

So, what is the attack speed of your average man-eating cone snail?