Ollie - New O. briareus

[DWhatley]

I was way lazy this weekend and now have to do all that plus get the tree down tomorrow. Not like me to put off cleaning the tanks but I did a wc on the three octo tanks on Wed so the critters are fine but I failed in my experimental attempt to split the work over the week vs doing it all in one day.

I need to come up with a humble smiley. I happily accept your kind words but wish to extend them to all the Staff and long term members because I would like to repeat the sentiment to those who started me in the right foot and to Tony for not only having a gift for managing a forum but also for not deciding on oncology as a venue for the website

Speaking of videos, I took one today of Maya wrestling a star away from her den. If it came out well, I will post it on YouTube and to her journal.

 

[Lmecher]

I look forward to the video

I could see Ollie between some rocks as I was about to retire. My husband told me he isn't going to come out so forget feeding him tonight. (I never listen to him anyway) I defrosted a shrimp. (whole one this time, they are small) As soon as the shrimp came near the spot he was holed up, 6" away, and arm shot out and grabbed the feeding stick. He pulled so hard on it (plastic) it bent like a bow. Slowly his mantle and eyes appeared. He got the shrimp but continued to pull the stick. He decided he wasn't letting it get away. He was in full view holding the stick for about 10 minutes. Old crabby pants (husband) complained, he wanted me to come to bed it was nearing 1:00am. I didn't want to frighten him but I was not letting him keep my feeding stick. I slowly reached the other hand in, I have read somewhere a touch on the arm will make them release. He wrapped his suckery arm around my finger tip and now had me and the stick. He didn't seem frightened, just sat in the same spot. After a few moments I wiggled the stick ever so slightly and he let go but he stayed in the open. I stayed and just kept looking at him admiring how pretty he is and he just kept looking back. I am happy with the progress we seem to be making. I think I am going to try feeding a little earlier each night so I can get him on a scedule more comfortable to me. It would be nice to feed around 8:00 pm. I would love my daughter to give feeding a try, she'd really get a thrill. Tonight is Mark's turn.

D, what time do your lights go off in the evening? I have mine set to turn off at 6:00, is this early enough to expect to feed at 8:00??

BTW, my Christmas decorations inside and out went up before Thanksgiving, all but the tree which went up the day after. I have so much we can't do it in one day. It is a lot of work but so beautiful and really get me in the spirit of the season. I can them feel a little better about spening the insane amount on presents, gotta go order as laptop for my daughter today. Like my husband says, it's only money right? We woke up to an inch of snow this morning, I am loving it!!

 

[CaptFish]

Contact! excellent, Now the fun begins. Just remeber sometimes with briareus they will be shy after a period of being social, basically don't be worried if he does not do the same thing tommarow it may be a few days before you get to make contact again.

I have my lights set to a 6pm shut off as well. At this point Legs eats mostly live shrimp and usually hunts and eats between 5 and 6, and then if not satisfied she will come out for a second feeding just after the lights go out. Before Legs switched over to a mostly live diet she would feed at all times of the day from the stick.

 

[Lmecher]

Contact! excellent, Now the fun begins. Just remeber sometimes with briareus they will be shy after a period of being social, basically don't be worried if he does not do the same thing tommarow it may be a few days before you get to make contact again.

I have my lights set to a 6pm shut off as well. At this point Legs eats mostly live shrimp and usually hunts and eats between 5 and 6, and then if not satisfied she will come out for a second feeding just after the lights go out. Before Legs switched over to a mostly live diet she would feed at all times of the day from the stick.

Great, thanks for the reply. I am wondering why you switched from frozen to all live food? Did Legs refuse to eat the frozen?
I have been following along, your video is fantastic. How lucky are you to have caught a young octopus and I feel so privleged to be able to share in your experiences.
It helps to know what is normal behavior.

 

[CaptFish]

Actually believe it or not live shrimp are cheaper for me than the frozen ones. I buy them for around $1.30 a dozen but they are hard to keep alive for a long period so I will usually drop a few livies in the tank with her and freeze a few for hand feeding. at this point she eats an average of six a day, two feedings of three shrimp. I use to house a bunch of livies in a seperate tank but I had a low survival rate since it was such a huge bio load in such a small tank( 30 gal, with 4 dozen shrimp). so I buy them in smaller lots now and just put them most all in with legs and freeze just a few. Some days she juat cant seem to catch them so she will give up and come beg fora hand feeding, or if she has eaten all the livies she will also let me know too.

 

[DWhatley]

KaySo and Maya are in our "breakfast" room (our normal eating area) so the tank lights don't go off until somewhere around 10:30. We do cut the ambient lights off around 9:00. Creepy is in the living room and is exposed to the kitchen and dining room lighting (reef tank) lighting but the lights in the actual room are rarely turned on (no real walls between the other rooms though). We feed them somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00. KaySo and SueNami both come/came out to watch us eat and eventually SueNami would stay out from 6:00 until after midnight. So far neither KaySo nor Creepy spend time wandering around much with the lights on though.

I have yet to determine the reason for the absolute need to take the feeding stick (or your fingers) but almost everyone reports the attraction. Creepy is the only octo I have had that did NOT insist the delivery device was part of the offering. KaySo will ignore the shrimp initially, even after she finds it and insist on capturing the fingers, zip tie or stick. Beldar was so bad that I rigged a floating holder for the stick. We initially put a zip tie through the top for SueNami. The end of the tie would not go through the lid holes so we could dangle the shrimp in mid water column by attaching it to the end. This worked well for about a week but then he decided the zip tie WAS going to be captured. He grabbed the rocks under him and pulled for everything he was worth. I entitled the report Tsunami and it took me over an hour to reconstruct the rockwork.

 

[Lmecher]

Sorry that happened to your rockwork, I am not suprised, they seem awefully strong.
I am assuming they must make the connection with the stick and food and think more will come out ot it or something along that line. I know they are smart but without common sense.
Ok, I have a confession, last night, I tried hard to leave the camera on the counter but in a moment of weekness I had to snap a picture. It didn't send him fleeing in terror. He stayed out for about 5 minutes afterwards. We like to just sit and look at each other.
Tonight we have another staring contest planned.
Here is Ollie last night.

 

[DWhatley]

If Ollie is not reacting negatively to the flash then I would continue taking pictures (albeit with some reserve on the number of times you strobe him). We have seen some that will run and hide if a camera is aimed and others that don't mind even the flash. If he is sitting and staring at you without leaving, I would see what he will do if you slowly move your finger on the glass. If you see him blowing your finger away with his funnel, keep it on the glass but move it further away until he stops huffing (this will be pretty obvious when and if you see it).

 

[Lmecher]

I will try next time the opportunity presents itself.
My husband just fed him and got a thrill. Ollie was in his den when the shrimp entered the tank. The peppermints and the serpent star attacked first. It looked like a peppermint covered lollypop. Ollie got a whiff and slowly we saw 1 arm, than 2, then his head. He summed up the sitiation for a moment then made the grab. It was a snatch and run, no stick holding tonight. He got his meal and went off to eat in private. I am hopping he will emerge again before I need to go to bed. Shampooing furnature and carpets tomorrow. Did you get your tree up?? It feels so good when it's all done dosen't it?

 

[Lmecher]

Actually believe it or not live shrimp are cheaper for me than the frozen ones. I buy them for around $1.30 a dozen but they are hard to keep alive for a long period so I will usually drop a few livies in the tank with her and freeze a few for hand feeding. at this point she eats an average of six a day, two feedings of three shrimp. I use to house a bunch of livies in a seperate tank but I had a low survival rate since it was such a huge bio load in such a small tank( 30 gal, with 4 dozen shrimp). so I buy them in smaller lots now and just put them most all in with legs and freeze just a few. Some days she juat cant seem to catch them so she will give up and come beg fora hand feeding, or if she has eaten all the livies she will also let me know too.

You are lucky to be able to get them so cheep. I have 7 peppermints in Ollies tank. They will come really close to him and he seems uninterested, there have been times like tonight, they were all over his frozen shrimp on a stick he could have easily snagged one. I am sure in time he will get one. I wonder if maybe the peppermint shrimp taste bad,don't know. Maybe he just isn't hungry enough. Thanks for hte input : )

 

[DWhatley]

Of course, after I mentioned that Creepy did not seem interested in the feeding stick, tonight he decides he wants it.

Unfortunately, I only got the 140 cleaned today. It was a bear and I hate cleaning it. It is 3 feet tall and my arm only reaches about 2 feet, the opening in the hood is small and I have to stand on a ladder. One day I will make it a ceph tank and reduce the ligthing so the algae is not so much trouble (this particular acrylic surface is just myserable). I keep hoping to convert it to a cuttle tank but have a mandarin and trigger that would be hard to catch as well as the lord of the tank, Harvey, our banded coral shrimp terror.

Mantis tanks tomorrow and hopefully, I will at least get the tree down and the half bath decorated with its red yarn octopus ;>). I used to decorate all the ground floor rooms but do less and less each year now but I do have a seahorse/ceph small tree I alway put up for the critters in the breakfast room.

 

[Lmecher]

seahorse/ceph small tree I alway put up for the critters in the breakfast room.

Ok, I am not nearly as far gone as you
Once we get our shampooing done we have to work on a bathroom. New toilet, medicine cabinet, fixtures. We have out of town guests for the holidays. (god help me) The bathroon needs to be finished before they come. I need to kick start my husband. There is not enough hours in each day.

 

[DWhatley]

Well, at least I don't leave a TV seup for the octos to watch when I am gone! My son swears his fish watches TV so it has to be on in his room during the day (and if you go in there you WILL see the fish appearing to watch the TV that has been angled for its viewing pleasure)

Since we built this house in stages with a lot of sweat equity, I feel your pain. Fortunately, we did not move into it until is was mostly finished (we lived in our first house while we were rearranging the walls and I swore I would not do THAT again). This was our weekend lake house until the kids were out of school. It was supposed to be a small retirement house on the lake but grew bigger than the "big house" and turned into an every weekend project rather than a weekend retreat . Neal is the absolute most wonderful man in the world for NEW projects but forget the maintenance or finishing the trim end. If I can't do it myself it just doesn't get done until we call someone else in to do it. I have a driveway and roof that whisper ugly words daily.

 

[DWhatley]

Octopus eliminations? Oh wow, something to look forward to! That may have sounded sarcastic, but I really am looking forward to seeing this.

Just for you - watch the movie , it is better than the book

 

[Lmecher]

Just for you - watch the movie , it is better than the book

I am confused, does she eliminate in the video, I didn't catch it?

Speaking of your home improvments, I am no stranger. My home (built in the 1890's) has been gutted from top to bottom. We moved in 20 years ago, I had 2 small childeren and pregnant w/3rd. The second floor was gutted to studs, for a while we slept in the living room, ugh! We do it all ourselves. It is easier now with 2 grown boys ( men) to help. This is off topic but our summer project. I am so happy to be moving inside once again, it never ends.

http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll139/Lmecher/parkway2.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll139/Lmecher/parkway3.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll139/Lmecher/parkwaycomplete.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll139/Lmecher/pavers1.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll139/Lmecher/walkonsideofhouse.jpg