[Octopus]: Wink - Octopus Digueti

[DWhatley]

Post and story away, it is the reason for the thread! Still a bit sad seeing pics of my Chewbear. He was one of my most loved dogs but I will not have another. Too much drool and too many fur/skin problems living in the south but a personality that will forever missed.

 

[QueenB]

I fed Wink about 3am and boy did she latch onto me! Over half her body came out! She grabbed the shrimp, skewer, and my fingers! She pulled but I held still and didn't want my fingers near her mouth so she just kept pulling till she got the shrimp off and released my finger. I left her have the skewer to play with for a bit, and she released that as well. She's getting bolder I think. lol

 

[sedna]

I have yet to try to make contact w/ my mercs, I'm never able to keep track of all 3 in the red lighting... I am always a bit weary of their beaks and getting bitten, too. We had one last summer that "mouthed" my daughter like a puppy or toddler does. She liked the contact, said it tickled a bit!

 

[QueenB]

It's definitely scary at first because I jumped & water went everywhere. But lately I'm doing it while playing or feeding her. I play with her with the Zip Tied Ice Cube. I use it to play tug of war and rub her suckers to peel off the dead skin. I really think she likes it cause her arms go everywhere and she tugs at it and plays with me for at least 5 min. I just rub her gently and she takes her tentacles all the way up the zip tie she'll touch my finger and pull on it a little. She tires after a while and you can see tons of tiny little shedded sucker skins all through the tank.

I'm gonna try and video it one of these nights, I have to dig the duct tape out again to hold the iPhone in place. I want to buy one but doubt I'd use it as much as I think I would. I'm still up in arms about it because of having to find one that takes decent video with red lighting or decent video's period. I'm gonna toy with the iPads and iPhone a bit more.

I reapplied the red plastic vellum wrapping on her plexi glass lid. I wrapped it 4 times instead of 2 this time, so it's pretty dark. Pictures will be impossible without flash or lighting.

Still waiting on the shells and Barnacle to finish cycling. It's been 1 month since I started cycling them. I was wanting to wait about 6 weeks. you think that's long enough? I have a HUGE conch seashell that is amazing. A few smaller ones and some clam shells. The other IM 38 has cycled nicely and the fish are happy in there for now. Trying to find a home for the green brittle he's getting pretty large.

 

[DWhatley]

Check your shell/barnacle water for ammonia and nitrite. If they are not 0, change out the water and test again in a week. You are not so much trying to create bacteria as to make sure you will not be adding dying stuff to the tank that will not be processed by the existing bacteria.

 

[sedna]

I have an awesome shell in with the stomatopod but my daughter won't let me relocated it with the mercs, or the nice small chunk of Texas holy rock I was going to steal for them. At least the kids are paying attention! Hope she goes right for your conch shell!!

 

[QueenB]

I've been checking the water parameters and It never even spiked. Ammonia & Nitrates went to 5 and that was it. It's also a small tank less then 5g, but I would have thought it would have went higher then that. That's why I want to wait a little longer. Prob gonna give it another 2-3 weeks and then hopefully by then it will spike. I have a tendency to use Bio Spira for starting my tanks and CaribSea Live sand and substrate so my Spikes normally aren't high or for very long. But I do normally wait at least 6 weeks before adding anything. Except this last time with the Fish and coral being moved to the IM 38. Fish do pretty well with it but corals can get finicky. Their doing pretty well luckily.

I've been on the hunt for LR for the Octopus tanks that they would love. Nice sized holes or cave like pieces. I was even thinking on putting a Sunken Helicopter in one or a nice looking Sunken ship. (shrugs)

 

[sedna]

I love Texas holly rock for octos. I can only get it all dry and white, but it's fun to watch it become "live" in your tank! My LFS has some great aqua cultured Bali rock which is porous and has lots of holes. Beautiful stuff.

 

[QueenB]

She's eating about every 2 - 3 days now, and I got this crappy photo of her when we came home late one night but couldn't resist posting it. She does this when I think she is hungry and wants food. Arms go out and touch and wiggle like mad. Mat says she was just stretching...lol

 

[QueenB]

My busband had bought me a new iPad 4 in Dec for my birthday because it had a better camera on it then my iPad 2 they said. They unboxed it and stuck it in a Pink Camo Otter Box case that I picked out.

I tried taking pictures with it so many times, and was never satisfied with how they turned out. Always cloudy, fuzzy, and out of focus. So I kept using my iPhone 4 because the photos turned out better. Until tonight when I noticed they never took the plastic wrap off the iPad.

I was messing with it and trying to take pictures and figure out what I was doing wrong. I started to clean the lens with a Q-Tip and noticed the plastic on it. I took the case apart, noticed the plastic wrap, and did a face palm.

Needless to say I can take decent photos with it even better then my Olympus E600 since the red messes with the photos on the Digital camera.

Here is tonights photo of my darling. I made a out of a few shells I found and I'm gonna see if she'll play with them.

Yes thats the shell I traded the damsel for. She has learned to put it down when I go to feed her. She will release it when she sees the incoming fiddler crab.

 

[DWhatley]

That sounds like something I might do and then complain and Neal or my oldest son would spot the problem and give me the look. Impressive shot with the red lights! My Canon used to make my merc tank look like they had just attacked something that bled red blood (obviously NOT ceph blue blood )

 

[QueenB]

Yea I'm starting to like the photos coming from the iPad. I'm gonna practice some more with it and might test the video capability of it to... I guess I need more duct tape? lol

 

[QueenB]

My appologies for not having any updates in a while. It's been a sad stressful house the past few weeks trying to figure out what is wrong with 2 of my dogs. (fused vertebrae & pinched nerves) They are 9 yrs old and little dogs tend to have back problems they said.

Anyway she's still eating and winking at me all the time. She still plays tug of war with the ice cube or the skewer. She doesn't come out that I see, but she is collecting shells. When I try to feed her some mornings she norm is holding 2-3 hermits hostage. Still not killing them, but not letting go. The shells I have put in there now are too big for her. They are cycled, and the big conch shell looks gorgeous! A piece of the barnacle broke off, so I took it out in case it started fouling the water up. It's back in the QT tank.

 

[QueenB]

Wink's still eating decent in my opinion. I try twice everyday (10a-12pm-m & 11-2am) and she norm takes the tiny little bits and spits out what she doesn't finish. I cut them up pretty small. If not she just spits them out anyway. (reminds me of an always unsatisfied princess) She is starting to refuse the fiddlers. Its been a week and still won't eat one.

I've been a tad worried about her color. She still looks kind of greyish. So I tried to make her mad to see if I couldn't get her to cloud or at least change color. But only the skin around her eyes is changing color now. She still doesn't come out at all. She just sits on her porch like a little old lady watching the passer by's mumbling to herself. I absolutely adore watching and interacting with the foods, finger touch, toys with food attached.

 

[DWhatley]

I believe you are correctly guessing that you are in senescence. The symptoms are common but the length of time varies considerably from animal to animal. If she is eating at all then you likely have more time with her.