It looks like Pablo has started brooding. I have been on an extended trip to Florida, but Kathy (The other KA), was back last Friday and noted that he behaved fed normally until Wednesday. Wednesday he entered the birdhouse and sat with an eye peering out and one of his arms covering the rest of the opening. 3 days later, today, I get home and this behavior is persisting. I tried presenting him with a piece of shrimp and he almost politely put out an arm and pushed it away both times I tried. There was a good deal of force behind the shove, like he was plenty familiar with what it was and deliberate about refusing it.
Backing up a little, around the 2nd week of November, he did a similar thing, spending all a day in the house peering out with one eye. In the evening he did come out for food and the following days he returned to normal behavior and resting places. The photo I included here is actually from this event. He looks exactly the same today, although his house is turned sideways to give him a little more cover, and so you can't get as good a photo. I was suspicious the first time and after he left the house I did look for eggs, there were not any. I was and am still thinking he grew a little in the time we have had him so I was really hoping he was more or less at the beginning of his adulthood.
Kathy said that sometimes he would pull a shell in front of the opening and he did this for me as well too. He reaches for a rock or a shell and does the best he can to cover up the opening. So I covered up the front of his tank with a towel to give more privacy. As much as he likes the bird box I think he would appreciate more rocks to give it a little more shelter.
How much of a chance is there that Pablo has viable eggs??? I suspect he has been in captivity at least a couple months. There is lots of room inside the house to lay eggs but unless I push him aside I won't be able to see them. I know from D's Maya journal that I may be able to confirm that they had been there at a later time. This story, especially the seasonality, is playing out similarly.
I was disappointed (even though I had been getting updates) not be greeted by Pablo dancing all over the glass. The last part of my trip was the Florida panhandle, St. Marks and Apalachacola and St. Joseph Bay, so I came back with live fiddlers and shrimp and I was really looking forward to giving them to him. Oh well, we can still hope for baby octopi. If this were to happen I would like to offer offspring to anyone within range and is interested in trying to raise some because I am not confident in our experience and resources.
Incidentally, on this trip I visited the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea. What a wonderland of touch tanks! In fact everything was touchable if you are discrete. It is the most assessable, non traditional, aquarium I have ever visited. The only thing keeping you from touching pretty much anything were signs giving a green or a red light and I would say a third to half the pools had the green light. There were 3 very friendly O. vulgaris in one tank and and where ever I approached the edge they clamored for attention, sometimes fighting each other off.
Anyhow, the lab is actively collecting both the common and the dwarf species but their clients are limited to research. Still its good to know these species are available here. I may try my own collecting trip next summer. But I will definitely need a larger tank for a vulgaris, I did not realize how big they can be!