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- Dec 22, 2004
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- 1,713
A while back I promised some photos of Mr. Octopus spending some time outside the tank. He very much enjoys coming outside, perhaps in the same way Captain Nemo enjoys taking an excursion outside the Nautilus.
In these photos he has taken hold of my me and is trying to pull me back in the water. Typically when I open the lid he will poke a few arms over the rim and the outside glass to see if I'm there. If he finds a finger he'll pull himself out onto it like shown. If he doesn't find a finger, often he will hoist himself up out of the water and sit on the trim anyway. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that right now--usually when he does this I'm keeping my hands cupped below him in case he takes a spill toward the floor. Sometimes he will lower himself down and crawl around on the outside glass.
He isn't very adept at supporting his own weight, so usually these jaunts end with a bit of a fall. Now that I'm expecting this I always catch him before he reaches the floor. He'll slither his way out of my hands, but usually not until I've brought him back up over the tank. The first time he landed on the carpet he was pretty surprised and was difficult to catch because he was squirming.
As you can see he became much more confident with the floor after ending up there a couple times.
I try to be very good about making sure these trips don't last more than a minute or so, since I don't want the little guy to asphyxiate. He sure likes coming out, though!
Dan
In these photos he has taken hold of my me and is trying to pull me back in the water. Typically when I open the lid he will poke a few arms over the rim and the outside glass to see if I'm there. If he finds a finger he'll pull himself out onto it like shown. If he doesn't find a finger, often he will hoist himself up out of the water and sit on the trim anyway. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that right now--usually when he does this I'm keeping my hands cupped below him in case he takes a spill toward the floor. Sometimes he will lower himself down and crawl around on the outside glass.
He isn't very adept at supporting his own weight, so usually these jaunts end with a bit of a fall. Now that I'm expecting this I always catch him before he reaches the floor. He'll slither his way out of my hands, but usually not until I've brought him back up over the tank. The first time he landed on the carpet he was pretty surprised and was difficult to catch because he was squirming.
As you can see he became much more confident with the floor after ending up there a couple times.
I try to be very good about making sure these trips don't last more than a minute or so, since I don't want the little guy to asphyxiate. He sure likes coming out, though!
Dan
