Ragnar Danneskjold

sedna

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Staring into the 55 gal Elise says, "Mama, I think you should get another oculatus."
Me, "What?"
Elise, "You know... 'a-cutie-ate-us.' Like the Once-ler, only a boy so he won't brood!"

:arr:Done. After a few months of patient waiting, I brought Ragnar home last Monday (8-3-09). After Osgood died, I decided to wait until the "just right" octo came along. It was worth the wait, Pet Connection came through for me again!

He is the smallest (non- hatchling) I've ever seen. His mantle is only just an inch, if that. He keeps late hours for a diurnal octo! He's out for an hour or so in the late morning, then not again until after 6 or so! I put the red lights on from 9 to midnight (just for effect now that I've got them) and he's out until after 11. He chases the large pods on the glass, sometimes doing an umbrella pounce after "herding" them a bit. I don't think he eats them, though.

He has been eating hermit crabs very happily so far. I didn't realize how many were still crawling around the tank. He seemed to do nothing but eat and sleep for the first few days- an over fed octo just sleeps all day! Now I think the resident supply has been hunted so I can put him on an every other day feeding schedule.

He is an abdopus for sure, a real beauty. He sometimes displays a "passing cloud" flashing light- more like a cuttle- it's awesome! I'm wondering of some of the behavior differences I'm observing are due to his younger age? I do really wish I knew how old he is only because now that I've seen hatchlings I wonder how long it took for him to get even this big...
 

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Interesting that you should have come up with that name. My daughter-in-law's father was rereading the book while we were waiting for Chase (new grandson) to be born.
 
That book is as timely as ever right now! Both of my girls have t-shirts with John Galt's oath on them and can tell you what it means to them. Not to get too political, but when the president took over the auto industry all I could think of was, "Engineer, isn't this train going too fast through this tunnel?" As a libertarian in the metro Detroit area I often find myself on the fringe...

CONGRATULATIONS on Chase! How many octo clothes does he have already?
 
I only bought him one octo outfit and one toy as he has tons of clothes to start and I won't see him wear most of what he has now. I am, however, hunting appropriate clothes for Xmas :biggrin2:
 
Quick update

Ragnar is doing fine, but as we have been out of town the last two weekends, I've had little time to do anything but clean, unpack, wash laundry and pack some more. I have no pics to post but am hoping to get some video of him sometime this week...

Ragnar still doesn't keep regular hours. Some days he's out before I'm up (7:30) and up after we go to bed at 11. Other days he sleeps all day long and we don't see him at all. Those are usually the days after he eats. I'm still wondering if he keeps odd hours because he's a littler guy.

I continue to see him round up large 'pods on the glass. The other night one got out from under his "umbrella" and he grabbed it up with an arm so I believe he means to hunt them. I'm not sure how much of them he's actually eating, though. Once I saw him discard one and it was certainly dead. He also still loves to hunt down hermit crabs and litters the outside of the den with their shells. Sometimes as he sits at the opening of his den he'll get an empty shell and just hold on to it while he's watching me.

*A note to travelers: I leave hermits in small glass jars in a separate tank, that makes it easy for my neighbor to come over and just dump on in for the octo. We are super lucky, our neighbor lady will also feed crickets and worms to the lizards and take care of the cats. She's only willing to mist the snakes, though.:shock:
 
Missing, presumed dead...

The Wednesday (8- 26) before last was the last time I saw Ragnar out, he caught a hermit and ate it. That Friday (8-28) I did a water test and change (H2O Q right on). By Monday night (8-31) there were no sightings, so the next day I checked the H2O and everything was o.k. except the nitrates, up to 20 ppm. I did a H2O change, cleaned the filter again (I do every week), gently rinsed the rock he lives in with tank water and nothing came out except the usual "dusty" detritus. Absolutely NO sign of him anywhere in the tank.

I only have two thoughts on what could have happened. The temp in the tank took a dive to 74F before I noticed, but that happened over at least 2 days. He certainly could have died in there and left no sign as there are bristle worms as big around as his arms in the same rock.

The other is that he's still alive and very nocturnal, as his hours continued to shift around. I think this is very unlikely, one small hermit is still wandering around the tank. I don't think he'd still be living on the pods he'd round up.

My birthday is later this month and my family always gives me $$ since they know I want tank stuff. I'm SERIOUSLY considering fish...
 
Forgot to add to the post, today (9-7) H2O is testing fine, as it was 9-3. Only that one off reading. Two hermits were in there, can only find one walking around (doesn't mean other one isn't just hiding..).
 
From the beginning, I have been afraid that you have an Abdopus abaculus (Octopus abaculus in Norton pg 238) rather than an aculeatus. Mucktopus has said there are many in this complex with likely many more still with the sp (undescribed) species listing.

With my very limited in-tank observations, I think the young of most species are too shy (and thus not adventureous) to be captured so unless the animal comes as a LR hitch hicker, it is likely to be an adult.

The kind of disappearance, however, suggests brooding ...
 
I know there is are a number of abdopus species and it's nearly impossible to know what Ragnar is/was. Brooding was one of the first thoughts that entered my mind but I saw no evidence of it around the den- littered shells but not purposely placed. It is a habit of mine to keep the shells around a den picked up so I can keep track of eaten crabs and signs of brooding, so I'm pretty sure that's not it. However, I'm still not rushing into anything- my birthday isn't until the 22nd so I don't have money to spend, yet.
 

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