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

great pics D, specially n3.
Great report and interesting aquarium setup. I'm on travel so had some time to read it from the beggining, but I think I'm gonna save it to disk and read it on detail.
Thanks for taking the time to share this
 
FPVigo (winter);132643 said:
great pics D, specially n3.
Great report and interesting aquarium setup.

Glad you like my journal. Hummelinckis seem to be more human interactive than most. I have a thread on the tank build out that shows it off better if you want to take a look :tongue:.
 
In an on-going effort to take a suitable picture for our calendar :mrgreen:, I am trying to get a "prize winning" picture of OhToo eating. So far my camera skills have not been up to the challenge and I find what is interesting to watch does not always provide a photogenic opportunity. Here are some of my rejects :wink:

The first one shows OhToo's suckerless arm and undevelopped sucker.

The second was a semi-posed supper picture where Neal put a live crab in the crossover tube and OhToo decided to eat it there. If you could see the darned crab, I probably would have submitted it for uniqueness but he hides his food very, very well. Even in the up-against-the-glass two there is a need for a find the supper game.

The third one was some trick photography where my camera played a trick. I have it set to take 3 shots with different exposures for lighting. With a moving object, the pictures are not exactly the same. The series with this picture came out strangely with one picture missing the mantle entirely and then this one that is very odd.

The last was also an almost candidate.
 

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The tank was manufactured with the tubes connecting the two tanks (we modified just about everything but the stand). The tank is also connected at the bottom and the top, with a single piece of acrylic spanning each. Trying to tie two tanks together this way without the single sheet top and bottom pieces would likely be a major leak situation over time unless the connecting tubes could flex and I am not sure where you would find something clear with a large enough diameter that would be suitable.
 
Eye infection

I have mentioned that OhToo has not been the healthiest octo and that he has an arm that did not grow suckers for most of its length, one of the suckers at the base of that arm is improperly formed and that another arm has two suckers that are joined together (all preaquarium abnormalities). Since being housed in my aquarium he has had an infection on one arm that was treated with antibiotics and healed without any detectable damage. He has doubled in size during this time and is very affectionate and eats well.

For about a week now he has been acting strangely and I have been concerned that old age may be approaching. He comes to his corner to request play time but only stays a short time and sometimes turns white (but does not flee) as if surprised. He has been showing this white, startled color a lot and has stayed in his daytime den (and sometimes his night den) for most of the day. Tonight he would not eat and I could tell that one eye is badly swollen. There is no sign of a cut but the swelling is obvious. I tried injecting his shrimp with tetracycline but he refused to eat so I tried a shore shrimp and was able to get him to take two (easily). I will put him on a 10 day diet of spiced shrimp to see if this helps and :fingerscrossed:. I wish I could have detected this sooner as I know eye problems are often, if not always fatal.
 
OhToo is not going to recover. He has lost control of his balance and is dying. I found him on the bottom substrate this AM with his bad eye in the sand. I picked him up to put him in a basket (to keep the clean-up crew away until he expires) and had a memorable, somewhat frightening experience.

He latched onto my hand and would not come off. He refused to attach to anything else and then started biting me. We had quite a go of it and I finally scraped him of onto the lid but he would not let go of that either and just hung at the top. When I tried to get him back into the water (he was partially in and all arms out), he would go after my hand again.

I learned that a plastic turkey baster makes a good octo handling tool when they start being impossible. He wanted to attach to something soft and the plastic tube and bulb worked well (with difficulty and much paniced patience).

He stayed suspended at the top of the tank, in the water, holding the floating basters (I put two in the tank for him) for a good part of the day but eventually tired, and kind of dropped into the crossover tube. Unfortunately, he could not hold on there and literaly fell mantle first to the bottom like a ball without any kind of control. I offered the turkey baster again and he accepted the lift. This time I put a breeder net under him and he did not fight the soft material like he did the hard plastic breeder I first tried (the net one was not assembled when I found him). Anytime I put my hand near the net he tries to latch on (my brittle star wanted to check out the net because there was food - OhToo did seem to want to eat - available. I picked, Pesky up and moved her but OhToo tried to keep my hand in his grasp again).

I have a soft plastic, open sphere (geodesic dome looking toy) that I put in the tank with him and he has stayed wrapped around it. He has had his arms inside his webbing most of the day and I am afraid he may start eating them but so far, the ends are still attached and I think he has eaten some food (he will grab anything offered but I know some of it has not been eaten).

His other eye is now also swollen and I don't expect him to live until morning. He keeps hanging in there but I am afraid the eye infection is just symptomatic of the senescence I have been trying to ignore for the last two weeks.

The bites, but the way, look like flea bites, with only surface skin scratched. I did wash and put antibiotic cream on them several times since he has an obvious infection but I was only barely aware he was biting me. Soooo different from his healthy, very gentle behavior :cry:.
 

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