The Agent bites!

:shock: Wow.....The Agent reminds me of Inklet!!!! Same type of personality!!! Has he ever bitten you before? Was this your first encounter with your hand? Sounds like he even tried to paralize you and then would have dragged you in the tank!!!! I'm a chicken when it comes to handling with my bare hand!!! Jess has no fear!!!!

Will you try again??? Did he seem unnerved after he realized you weren't food???

CArol
 
I wouldn't worry, he probably won't do it again. Octopus are smart. Now that he knows that you aren't food, he'll leave you alone.
Look on the bright side....Maybe this is a sign that he's becoming more outgoing.
 
er, how long was the whole proccess? seems like a rather long time. If only it was captured on video, then all i would have to do is be bitten by a cuttle and we could have a new video gallery :shock:
 
Did you take the pics yourself while you were being bitten? Actually, they're a good record of the processs. Notice that he's enveloping you with his mantle and of course his beak is making contact!

I don't think he'll bite again, either. He's discovered that your hand isn't food, which is just one more step on the way to your being able to play with him with your hand and pet him.

I also hope these pics will reassue those who are afraid of being bittten - Jess survived, and now BOE. I was never bitten by Ollie - my husband Bill took the hit for me. Here's a pic of that bite.

Nancy
 
Hi BOE et al,
I'm a bit nervous as this is my 1st time outside of Fossils & History !

Great shots of an all out oct-attack, something may be leaching Humboldt pheromones into your tank !
I had a similar experience in Spain years ago when I still had a "sixpack" when :snorkel: ing. The assailant rushed me when I disturbed him :sink: I think both of us inked then he legged it (octopusses do it soooooo well) back to his Coke bottle.

Impeccable nails, I wouldn't discount keratin envy for your mauling :whalevsa:
 
Ok let me take all your questions and comments at once:


corw314 said:
Has he ever bitten you before? Was this your first encounter with your hand?Will you try again??? Did he seem unnerved after he realized you weren't food???

He hasnt bitten me before but hes taken my fingers into his den. I will try again, yes. Not that I can tell.


Ceph Roy said:
Now that he knows that you aren't food, he'll leave you alone.
Look on the bright side....Maybe this is a sign that he's becoming more outgoing.

I doubt he wont try to bite me again. Hopefully, he will still be small when he does. I dont see this as a bad thing either; its a great way to interact.


cthulhu77 said:
you have impeccable fingernails !
:biggrin2: greg

:oops:


joel_ang said:
er, how long was the whole proccess? seems like a rather long time. If only it was captured on video, then all i would have to do is be bitten by a cuttle and we could have a new video gallery :shock:

It was pretty long. He grabbed my hand, held it for about 20 min, then let go. At that time I got the camera. Thats when I took the pix and vids.


:smile:
 
You probably don't want to hear this, but here goes anyway.

The human skin serves many functions and one of the primary ones is to keep out alien life forms and toxins. Break the skin, particularly in a non-sterile environment, and you risk the introduction of viruses, bacteria, protozoans and metazoans that can cause infection as well as toxins that can trigger an allergic response. The bite of an octopus can qualify as a risk in this respect. I've been bitten by O. cyanea (lots of blood, not much venom) and O. rubescens (blood and a response similar to a bad bee sting) and I can't imagine why anyone would want promote such behavior. I guess it must be sort of like putting your tongue on the pump handle in the middle of winter.

Let me give you a non-octopod example of what can go wrong. A few years ago a surgeon in South Africal wrote me asking if I knew anything about stomatopod-carried infectious agents. He had been stabbed by one, developed a bacterial infections that was eating away the connective tissue of his hand and eventually resorted to amputation. The bacterium could not be identified and did not respond to any of the usual broad spectrum antibiotics. It is not clear if the bacterium was associated with the stomatopod - it could have simply been in the environment and was introduced when the skin was broken, but either way, the consequences were very serious. Even if you aren't worried about what might be living in an octopus's mouth or developing an allergic response to its saliva, there are several organisms associated with marine aquaria that can cause serious infections. It really isn't worth the risk.

Roy
 
I don't think that anyone here is promoting getting bitten, but we're just saying if you do, it probably won't be the end of the world.
Plus, I've been bitten by spiders dozens of times, from tarantulas to house spiders, as in, I had lots of pet spiders.
An octopus bite probably won't come EVEN CLOSE. So, I'm not worried. Sitll, it would be a good Idea to try and treat the wound.
 
Neogonodactylus said:
I've been bitten by O. cyanea (lots of blood, not much venom)

That so rings a bell, last summer i was doing a study on O. cyanea in Indonesia and and some point i was elbow deep in a box full of octos. Ok, they were dead, spearguns tend to do that :frown:
Spent about an hour, weighing and measuring, with a big grin on my face :heee: I don't recall having had any cuts at the time but my hands felt numb for a few hours after that, do we know if the venom of O. cyanea can permeate through the skin? Another thing is that my heart was racing after it too, neurotoxin or just hapiness? :lol:

TPOTH
 
BOE has the right idea. Octopuses are curious, and you want them to find out about your hand early, when they're small. (Although they won't bite out chunks later!) Putting your hand in and playing with your ocotpus and even petting your octopus is very rewarding, but he has to understand that you're not food.

I did once get a small infection because I had a tiny cut on my hand when I was cleaning the tank, not from an octo bite - was cured easily by antibiotics. Now I know more people who've been bitten by octos, and none of them had any problems with strange infrections. Of course, it could happen, but not usually.

Nancy
 
I probably spend too much time reading CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Reports and fighting infections in the field. It is amazing what nasty infections people can pick up from their aquaria and anyone who spends much time diving in the tropics knows that the smallest cut can turn ugly in a hurry. I don't think it is paranoia, but I try to be careful about cuts and scrapes.

I don't know of any reports of O. cyanea venom directly penetrating the skin, although it would seem possible. Generally I work with Hapalochlaena which is one reason I try not to let my animals bite me. I have on two occasions had neurological effects handling blue-rings. The parathesias only lasted a few minutes and were restricted to my hand and arm, but it was enough to convince me to wear gloves when handling them.
 

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