[Octopus]: This is Omikron - Abdopus aculeatus

Our first try with frozen food, this morning, went smoothly. It took a thawed shrimp (size of a thumbnail) after one or two minutes - but you really had to touch his arms for him to get in action. I find it strange that he's still pretty shy when we sit in front of the tank, but is not bothered by the feeding stick (and the hand on the other side of it) at all.

Thanks for the hint about the night light, it's off now permanently. Question: What would be the maximum light duration for the day? We'd love to have the opportunity to observe it in the mornings and evenings, so light could be an issue...

Time to reveal the name: Denise,would you please change the title to "This is Omikron (Abdopus aculeatus)" @DWhatley - thanks!

Fun fact: I could not find out the meaning of "A. aculeatus", so I asked a person fluid in Latin. Turns out "Abdopus" means "hidden, concealed" and "aculeatus" means "sharp" - "pointy" as well as "smart". (By the way, "omikron" means "small O" as opposed to omega, the "big O", but you all did know that, right?) You're welcome.
 
Octopuses don't NEED anything more than ambient light but they will respond to a light cycle so I set my timers to come on when we get up and off when we go to bed. If your ambient light (ie there is a light on in the room) at night is not fully dark, I would suggest covering the tank if Omikron does not go to a den and sleep (generally this is not a problem if the room is pretty dark).

If I have a nocturnal, I set the daylight off time to when it is dark outside and try to keep the room lights off but have the red lights on all night.

I added your fun fact to our species notes for aculeatus
 
In the second week now, Omikron is still pretty shy. In her favorite den, where she spends most of the time, she peeks out and you can only spot the eyes, but she rarely comes out fully. She willingly takes frozen food, but as we see her mostly only once a day (in the morning), we can only feed her once. After this, she hides in one of the places where she cannot be seen to digest mostly for the rest of the day. In the evening, we occasionally see her sitting on a pane, but when observed, she retracts again to one of her caves.


We think she could take more food, but on the other hand, there are still some shrimp and crabs in the tank which she ignores - so she can't be starving, right?
 
We keep our octo tanks in the room where we eat. This gives them a long chance to observe calm behavior and adjust. As a follow on to @Nancy 's suggestion, if you can arrange to eat in the room or just read for an hour or so, this may help.

There is at least one of the Abdopus genus that is smaller than aculeatus and is nocturnal. I don't know the species (or if it has been named) but if the evening/early morning appearances continue after a month in the tank, this may be the nocturnal relative.
 
I do perfectly realize what fool i made of myself in that "crab incident". Nevertheless, Omikrons camouflage attempts are fun to watch. Here are some highlights.

"Look, I'm a snail" (and moves like one. Note that colored shell)

"look, I'm an anmone" (she thinks corallimorpharia)

"look, I'm the ghost of an octopus" (insert uncanny music here)

"look I'm ... er, wait..." (whatever she thinks)
 
If it makes you feel any less silly, I always find "octo rocks" when first looking for a new animal. There is a rock in one of my empty tanks that I want to photograph because you can see suckers, a mantle and an eye even though there is no octopus in the tank :wink:
 
Three weeks in now, and Omikron is getting more and more accustomed to the tank. She frequently goes over all the stones, and seems to enjoy foraging for any small animals. She takes usually two thawed (small) shrimp a day, although sometimes she will skip a meal. She takes them effortless from the feeding stick and reluctantly from the hand. Then again, she disappears for a couple of hours (but we are getting better in spotting her). Without feeding, she touched Kristinas hand, put in the tank, twice; both times, Kristina interrupted the interaction because quite soon she was pulling the finger towards her web what was, well, a little creepy. (She never bothered to touch my hand.) The missing arm has grown visibly; the whole octopus has grown visibly, in fact, she can easily stretch her arms up to 25 cm. We seem to be lucky, as so far, we really didn't have any problems with her.

Photos we have:

Sitting in the Kraken's Palace - an artificial den she really likes
P1110266.jpg


Examining some new corals we put in the other day
P1110314.jpg


King of the world (ok, the tank) pose (sitting on a bunch of shells she collected)
P1110335.jpg


Abdopus photogenicus (yay, let's start the taxonomy stuff all over!!!)
P1110336.jpg


... we'll keep you updated.
 
Another interesting report! Omicron is doing purples and lavenders well, isn’t she?
What is the Kraken’s den? I can’t see very much, but it looks something like a flowerpot.
Sounds like everything is fine. Interaction seems to be going very well.

Nancy
 
The Kraken's Palace is a clay ball with a diameter of 15 cm with a big main entrance and several outlets. Sometimes you'll find Omikron peeking through one of the outlets, sometimes she'll be sitting inside and have a couple of her arms hanging out through different holes, which looks really nice.

P1110198.jpg
 
I’m really curious about The Kraken’s Palace. It’s perfect for an octo den. But if I wanted to buy one, what would I look for? It’s not really a flower pot, so what is it, please.

Nancy
 
Well you wouldn't have seen that because a friend of ours made it according to our images :smile: still i'm glad you like it! Probably, a strawberry pot is the closest thing to this ... or you find a potter at your local market and show him or her this image.
 

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