[Octopus]: Wink - Octopus Digueti

[QueenB]

She's still refusing the fiddlers & there is only 1 shore shrimp in the tank today swimming. But she still takes thawed shrimp pieces and seems to be enjoying the blue legs. She's has eaten 3 already and has a 4th large shell in her den. (faintly hears tiny crab screams..."Hey, I'm not supposed to be dinner!" )

She's has been shy since I introduced her into the bigger tank.(RSM) She's always in that piece of rock I have with just that one little eye peering out of the rock. I've been sitting and watching her while I'm cleaning up pieces of crab or debris out of the tank and sump sponge, and making sure it's tip top. She just sits in her den and if I get too close moving the corals around or wiping the glass down she pulls in tighter. She's always watching.



I have read so many journals and don't remember anyone warning to keep a camera or cell phone ready for photos. Because she sure is fast when I want to take a photo. She likes to come to the edge and watch and take her arms through all the holes in that piece of rock. (I swear that rock has a vacuum in it) I'm in slow motion when I slowly try to grab the camera to not make any quick movements and (sucking sound) she's gone out of sight.

She has been getting braver and more trusting I think, but hard for me to maneuver a camera or cell phone while feeding. So I try to take what photos I can and try not to stress her out or scare her.






Yesterday afternoon when passing through the living room I see this. I think she was trying to pull the piece of Zoa Rock to her doorway.



That's all I have for an update today. I'm satisfied with her coming to the edge and watching me, that she's eating, and starting to get comfortable. I just hope I have a few months with her before she passes. I'm enjoying her in the living room immensely with those curious arms in and out all the time.

 

[DWhatley]

LOL, you must have missed some of my suggestions on keeping a camera on a tripod in the room and getting a remote control if your camera accepts one . Somewhere I posted about holding the camera with my LEFT hand (note all cameras are set up for right hand use) and trying to feed and video at the same time.

The zoas make me nervous. They tend to have a nasty poison and may be why the octopus is trying to place a rock between its den and the zoas (not all zoanthids have strong palytoxin, but few aquarists know much about the species they keep).

 

[QueenB]

Tripod is out and ready but where the rock is positioned my tripod is not tall enough to get a decent shot when she's at the den entrance. Time to look for a taller one.

I pulled out all my Zoa's. Now theres just a handful of Blue Legs, 1 Lg Mexican Turbo Snail, 1 Shore Shrimp still dancing around, 1 Palythoa group (7heads), 1 Toadstool (small), & 1 large Gonipora. But everything is spaced out so I can watch over her and make sure she is ok with them. I might still even pull those out to be safe. I'm getting nervous about corals in there now.

She took 3 pencil head size peices of thawed shrimp tonight! That's the most she has eaten since I have had her. Normally it's 1 maybe 2. Sometimes she will spit out the piece she's still chewing on to grab and devour the new piece. (I wait about 20-30 minutes between pieces. I'm not sure how long it takes them to eat) if she doesn't want more she normally blows at the skewered shrimp and that's my signal she is full. She isn't aggressive with the skewer much anymore, just one arm wraps around it as she pulls the shrimp off and back inside the den she goes. I love the full cheek look she has when she eats! Reminds me of my kids in the high chair shoving grapes or watermellon balls in their mouths. Lol

I want to try another fiddler, but I'm waiting until she comes out more and explores the tank at night. I don't mind putting it on a skewer, but she doesn't eat them. I'd rather not waste any, and hope she just needs to become more relaxed in her environment.

I also don't want to let a fiddler loose in the tank except if she is out ready to feed.

OMG!!!! You were right the fiddler tank does foul fast! I put about 2 tiny pieces of shrimp or a few fish pellets for them to eat on the dry part of their tank. I do clean it every 3 days, but today I got a good wiff of the fiddler tank as I was cleaning it. Boy that'll wake you right up! Husband looked at me and just smiled because his sniffer doesn't work. (He was born without being able to smell) Lucky bugger! Lol

 

[DWhatley]

(He was born without being able to smell)

I am not sure if that would be a blessing or an encumbrance. I have, at least twice, avoided a likely serious fire (one gasoline in a leaky carburetor hose and one an electrical fire in an aquarium light) but there are plenty of times I would love my nose to be less sensitive. I hope you made him change diapers

Fiddlers don't eat much and the simpler the environment the better. I kept two 2 gallon plastic tanks. One housed the crabs, water and a couple of rocks for them to climb (in the center, otherwise they will escape and go farther than you think possible). At the end of the week (or sooner if necessary), I put new water in the empty tank, added the fiddlers, rinsed the rock and put it in the new tank and cleaned the old. The second tank was not really necessary as a bucket would do but it was easier on my maintenance schedule just to swap them to a new home.

 

[QueenB]

I move the fiddlers to a spare tupperware container and rinse them clean with fresh brackish water. Then put some pieces of shrimp or fish pellets and let them eat. I clean the rock and substrate that's in their tank (Large pet carrier) and put them back in.

As for my nose he swears I can smell an ant fart. I have an extremely sensitive nose and has paid off when his old pickup sprung an oil leak from an oil pump breaking on a long road trip. Once in a great while he can smell something I'm cooking. I don't know what It would be like not being able to smell. I hope I never lose my sense of smell. I love the smell of fresh baked cookies, or the smell of my BBQ grill going. Oh my 3 am and I'm craving a BBQ!

 

[QueenB]

Going to start a journal on this as this is turning into one.

Octopus Digueti

 

[QueenB]

Dwhatley can you change this title and place in the Journals under Octopus Digueti Wink

Thanks so much!