I just got home from the gym and walked into my room and I noticed some dried water marks on the side of the tank. I just cleaned it this morning and thought that was strange. I did a quick check in all the spots and noticed that the octopus was missing. Then I noticed the lid of the tank pushed up about a 1/2 inch, even though it fits very tight and had a wooden chinese stool sitting on top of it!!

After frantically looking around and checking the cats, my girlfriend spotted him by the bed curled up. It took me a bit to grab him (with a coffee maker) and put him back in. He inked a lot and was covered with hair and holding a quarter, but he seems alright now..

It was a big scare and made me realise I need to secure the tank a lot more and vacuum my floor! The guy must be really strong though to do what he did. Maybe I should stop feeding him crabs in little containers because hes getting too smart!

At least there's a happy ending!

I had an african clawed frog growing up. We'd find the hopping furball in every corner of the house!

Dan

IM glad he didn't dry out :)

Lol, I really wonder how long he was there for.

did he get to keep the querter? lol


chris

My sister had many hermit crabs, one of which did a Houdini out of a supposedly secure tank. Never found him. Shell or anything. :shock:
So glad you found your octo in time!

now u just need to teach it to pick pockets of your friends for more quarters!

Now that's one of the stranger octo escape stories - holding a quarter!
Glad it had a happy ending!

Nancy

LOL...I'm so glad U found him in time! Did u let him keep the quarter?
:smile:

Thanks for the great visual. I'm still trying to process the octopus hanging on to a quarter.

Thanks for the great visual. I'm still trying to process the octopus hanging on to a quarter.

Lol, it saw cash on the floor and made its way to it. Thank god it didn't go near any copper.

Hah! I took the quarter out of the tank right away. I didnt know he was even holding it until I put him back into the tank. Once in the water he inked multiple times, jetting away. He then dropped the quarter.

Last time I leave change on my floor!

I was gone for maybe an hour and a half if that. I suspect he was out at least 40 minutes or so considering the water trails it left on the tank were compeltely dry and the texture of his body.

Im glad hes ok as well for Ive lost one of my octos to escape before and never found him. We have cats in the house, so I just assumed it met its demise by one of them...

And the bad part is that octos don't leave bones, so even if a cat took it, there would be no evidense! (Unless the cat was covered in ink or had a octo arm tangling from its mouth)

Cool story, enjoyed it. Glad your octo's ok.

I remember an old National Geographic story by a married team of marine archeaologists digging up a sunken harbour (could've been Crete, could've been Turkey, could've been Greece - it was a long time ago). They were sectioning off the site and sorting debris - many of which were old coins. Some were gold, so still shiny. Every night, this one octopus would come and swipe some of them, moving them back near it's den. Every day they'd have to dive and move them back into the proper sorting grid. Didn't realize they were aquatic magpies, but your quarter story clinches it - at least anecdotally.

hehe
he was trying to get enough money to buy himself some water :)
Octo says " FREEEDOOOMMMM!!!"
:)

Hah! I took the quarter out of the tank right away. I didnt know he was even holding it until I put him back into the tank. Once in the water he inked multiple times, jetting away. He then dropped the quarter.

Last time I leave change on my floor!

I was gone for maybe an hour and a half if that. I suspect he was out at least 40 minutes or so considering the water trails it left on the tank were compeltely dry and the texture of his body.

Im glad hes ok as well for Ive lost one of my octos to escape before and never found him. We have cats in the house, so I just assumed it met its demise by one of them...

40 minutes?? You serious? Lol, mabye it was at least a bit shorter than that. I figured Octopuses can only stay out of water at the most, 10 minutes before it dies of suffocation. Thats unless it had a pool of water somewhere by it were it's gills were. My octopus hasen't attempted escape not even once. Im so confident it wont escape that I leave my tank totally un-covered on top, lol But I have to stop doing that cuz ya never know. I'll regret it.

They can stay out more than ten minutes - I read somewhere that the time is related to the size of the octopus.

Jean has some good escape tales, even one that was climbing up stairs!

Nancy

They can stay out more than ten minutes - I read somewhere that the time is related to the size of the octopus.

I'd be interested in this; it seems like "common wisdom" that cephs, because of using hemocyanin instead of hemoglobin and a lack of some auxilliary vertebrate system I've forgotten, can't store oxygen as long as fish and other vertebrates, but there is a lot of evidence that this "common wisdom" is wrong: many active cephs spend a lot of time at anoxic depths, and octos being able to survive out of water until they dry out rather that until they suffocate would seem to suggest this, although it's also possible that octo gills can breath air well enough that they are resupplying their blood oxygen rather than relying on stored O2. But I'd bet that there is a secret mechanism that cephs have evolved to store O2 in oxygen-poor environments, since they seem to have been more successful at adapting to low-oxygen depths than fish. (To obtusely give credit, some of this thinking was inspired by not-yet-published work someone presented at TONMOcon, but I won't get more specific in case that could cause publication problems.)

Regardless of how it worked out, I am very happy your octo got to have his adventure, collect his quarter, and live to tell the tale! (and is no doubt very smug about it as a result!) :mrgreen:

Well my 40 minutes estimate was pretty much a big 'guess'. He had an awful lot of dirt and hair stuck on him and my floors really arent 'that' dirty heh. To the touch he was very slightly moist, mostly dryish and kind of sticky.

I dont have any scientific evidence, but my assumption was that they can actually stay out of water a good amount of time. I definetly feel they can survive longer then fish out of water. Im sure in tidepools, they have to endure all sorts of extreme conditions such as change in salitiny, temperature, and lack of oxygenated water. In a marine Bio field trip a good many years ago, I did find an octpus in the tidepools. It was in a very shallow pool with hardly any water, clinging to a rock. The water level was no more then an inch deep if that. I assume theres often times in which an octoupus would find itself stranded and waiting for the next high tide in this circumstance.

Id love to know the turth as well, but I wouldnt have the heart to put an octopus under stress tests such as this..

I would agree with paradox. I once found a bimac that was sitting on a sort of beach part of a tidepool under a rock. He wasn't even in the water and looked completely healthy and happy to.

Octopus can spend quite some time out of water (up to several hours depending on species). Harry (the one Nancy mentioned) was found out of his tank, heading up the stairs towards the staff tea room at around 10.30 pm. The aquarist was doing the late night checks and hadn't turned on the lights to head down the stairs.....she heards a sucking noise and decided that she should perhaps put the lights on and there was Harry halfway up the stairs (wasn't that a song???) Now she was a pretty slender 5 foot 2 and Harry was a large (2m arm spread and 18kg) octopus......it took her nearly 1 hour to wrestle him back to the tank!...................she quit soon after :lol:

(actually she was moving home to Aussie!)

J

Wow, a 2 meter arm spread! What kind of octo, and what size tank!?!?

They can defiantly stay out longer than 10 minutes.

I had a bimac climb the vertical blinds by his tank. My wife found him when she went to explore the noise. She couldn't/was to afraid to get him into the tank so he climbed around and was on the floor, covered in dog hair when I got home 15-20 minutes later.

Wow, a 2 meter arm spread! What kind of octo, and what size tank!?!?

Sounds like a definate GPO, but I remember Jean talking about an octopus they had at their NZ aquarium which wasn't Vulgaris...but a different species that could grow up to maximum of 8 ft arm-span. Mabye it was "that" species which I forgot. Lol, im getting anxious again for an octopus, but I'd love to keep a vulgaris until its an adult or an octopus 6 ft. across. Those are my favorite species. I love GPO's too, but would need an immense size tank for that cuz they can exceed 6 ft.

40 minutes?? You serious? Lol, mabye it was at least a bit shorter than that. I figured Octopuses can only stay out of water at the most, 10 minutes before it dies of suffocation. Thats unless it had a pool of water somewhere by it were it's gills were. My octopus hasen't attempted escape not even once. Im so confident it wont escape that I leave my tank totally un-covered on top, lol But I have to stop doing that cuz ya never know. I'll regret it.

Thats the way my octo is, he doesnt even try and stick his arms out. but that is the obvious minority

Wow, a 2 meter arm spread! What kind of octo, and what size tank!?!?


Sorry to be so long getting back to you, I've been offline for a couple of days!

The species is our local common octopus Pinnoctopus cordiformis and we hold it in a 1200L tank (completely sealed at the top with perspex doors!). Although we've just had a young one in our 5000L tank- nervous making as this one can't be sealed off! so we did the old astroturf round the rim thing.................but only held it there for ~3 Weeks, ie not enough time for the turf to get slimy or the octo to grow big enough to reach over it!!!!

J

Huge tanks! I'd love to see pics of that, cant even imagine.

I wish I could have seen the petite aquarist wrestling with the large, slippery octo. Gives new meaning to the term arm wrestling.:tentacle2: :tentacle1:

I wish I could have seen the petite aquarist wrestling with the large, slippery octo. Gives new meaning to the term arm wrestling.:tentacle2: :tentacle1:

She was a tad grumpy the next morning!!!!!

I'll post some pics of the tanks later. Now I have to go unlock the aquarium doors...............beginning another day!

J