[Octopus]: Ollie - Abdopus (sp)

GKat66

Blue Ring
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Dec 20, 2013
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I ordered Ollie from Divers Den, he was listed as O. vulgaris from Indonesia. He was delivered 12/27/13. His mantle is almost 2" and his longest arms are at least 5". He is very active in the early morning 3am is when I get up and he's already out and about then. He goes to bed at around 5am.
He already has a den picked out, and I'm happy to say I picked that rock and placed it hoping that he would use it for that reason. He uses shells and sand to cover both entrances and I will post a video showing him doing that. Most of my pictures will be hard to see as he will only come out under red lights, and hides when any other light is on.

[edit DWhatley] Ollie's preshipment and arrival pictures can be found here.
 
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Hello Ollie! Don't worry if your photos aren't great, we are all used to red light shots! This is the second "vulgarism" from Live Aquaria, so I am very interested in seeing some shots of these guys! Usually Live Aquaria has abdopus and macropus, I'm wondering if they've got some different things available now...
 
I buy all my livestock from Divers Den , yes they are a division of Live Aquaria , however they are located in Wis. much closer to me than the facility in Cal. Plus everything they offer is WYSIWYG and very well cared for and shipped with outstanding care. I'm not sure if the Wis. facility uses the same wholesalers as the one in Cal.
 
I love Live Aquaria, and you're right about the Wisconsin facility. One of their gang came to MI a few years ago to our local Marine Club convention to talk about WYS/WYG. It's just that ottos can be so hard to ID, so when I hear that different things are coming, in I'm excited to see it!
 
I got out of bed last night at 8:30 to see if Ollie was up, he was. He seems to enjoy hanging out on the glass where the power head is pointed , I have found him here quite often. After about 20 minutes of watching him cruise back and forth I tried feeding him a crab. He is not afraid of the feeding stick ,but he doesn't seem to like the tongs I use, or the crab. As soon as I lowered the crab into the tank he transformed into the grumpy old man look. This is when he grows horns that look like bushy eyebrows, and forms a tuft on the end of his mantle that looks like bushy hair growing out of an old mans nose. I don't know how else to describe it , but it seems to be his " I'm perturbed " look. Someday I hope to get a picture of that look. Well the crab got away from me and headed straight for Ollie, and he zoomed in the other direction. The crab scrabbled around awhile and whenever it got near Ollie he would quickly move away from it. It was the smallest one I had , small enough for him to handle , but he seemed scared of it.
 
This morning at 3:30 Ollie was on the glass, just chilling and after we stared at each other for awhile I turned on a small lamp in the room. He was not happy about it and slowly made his way to the rocks. He didn't seem to be hungry this morning , so maybe he ate the crab after all.
Instead of going to his den he made a new one. He scooped sand away from the base of a rock , hunkered in then scooped sand over himself.

On another note, I've been trying to upload video to you tube, but it tells me my 1 minute video will take 1126 minutes to load , holycats, does it take everyone else this long ?
So no video ,but a pic of Ollie chilling.
20131230_035913_LLS.jpg
 
When you feed live crabs, I recommend disabling and strong pincers. The easiest way to do this and provide the most meat for male fiddlers is to break off the tip of either the upper or lower part of the claw. For crabs with claws that can close fully, break off the smaller (usually the bottom) section. It is not that octopuses can't handle them but you take the chance of skin damage which can lead to infection. The octopus will never go back into the wild so eliminating caution has no negative result.

Have a look at the first paper in the Octopus Burryi description post (full pdf available free from the linked reference) Note the pattern of papillae on page 753 (pdf is only a couple of pages). This octopus looks very much like O. vulgaris but the distinct diamond shape of the papillae finally made me decide Margay was this species (the odd little horn marks on the eyes would fit as well).
 
I disable the claw or pinchers by snipping the ends off with a wire cutter.
I read everything about O. Burryi and reread Margay's journal , Ollie still looks more like Diablo. Hopefully I will get better pics and video in the future.

 
I got up at 1am today to spend more time with Ollie , I had 4 good hours. This morning was the first time he came to the front of the glass. He made several passes and flashed me at least 4 times , I think he was trying to see if he could scare me away. I'm going to date my age , but oh well. Do any of you remember the horizontal adjustment on old T.Vs ? A solid stripe would roll down the screen and you could make it scroll faster or slower until the picture was stable. This is what he did, it started at the top of his mantle and rolled down his body like a wave to the tips of his arms, sooo cool. Unfortunately I didn't get it on video but I did get some of his pacing back and forth. When I put my hand on the glass he would move away , then come back when I removed it. He was out the entire 4 hours , only going back to his den twice, once when I tried more light and again when I tried to give him a crab. His den has a front door facing the front of the tank, and a back door facing the back of the tank. He makes a huge production of rearranging the shells at the front door while peaking over the rock from the back door, he's reaching through and moving the shells , but still keeping an eye on me. This is a bad video, but the best I can do for now. If you watch closely you will see the papillae on the tip of his mantle, it's white while he's moving around the glass, but turns dark brown when he's closer to the rocks or mad.

 
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There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to – The Outer Limits.
(now who's getting dated :old:).

Google (or use the TONMO search) "passing cloud display" :wink:

Did you post the right video in #10? I think it is the same as in #9
Edit: I found the one from this AM and modified the post. What a cool showing of regal pomp on his walk along the substrate! I am not sold on vulgaris because of those prominent eyes.
 
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Thank you for fixing it , my computer is being weird today and I haven't had enough coffee, and the passing cloud display is what he did. I knew I'd seen it somewhere but couldn't remember( That's age related I'm sure ) I loved the Outer Limits, scared the you know what out of me.
 
I've been reading articles and more journals ,and Ollie looks very similar to Alex's A. aculeatus Durzo. The article says they can be from Indonesia. So it's another maybe ID.
 
I've thought about that and the Abdopus complex is the most common but Ollie's eyes look odd for any of our most common imports. I'm thinking maybe Ollie is something in the complex but not aculeatus. Hopefully @mucktopus will have a look and give an experts' opinion (her thesis was on aculeatus and she spent a couple of years observing them in situ).
 
I read the paper she wrote and the pictures of the males look just like Ollie.
True to form ( per reading most of your journal entries ) after the long encounter with Ollie yesterday ,he wanted little to do with me this morning. I found him hanging out on the side of the tank and when he noticed I was watching him he slowly moved to the rocks ,then crept along the back side of them doing the " I'm a rock ,I'm a rock , I'm a rock " thing until he got to his den. At least we know what to expect a little better , by reading others experiences, that's a big help.
Whether he is young male of one species or an adult of another doesn't really matter , I can't change the outcome. All I know is I've had more "face time" with Ollie in a week ,than I had with Oscar in 2 months , but of course this too my change :hmm:
 

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