What toys are in your octo tank?

**Ethan073** · Dec 02, '11, 3:34am

One of the biggest things I am looking forward to in my future octo tank is putting together a big playground for my octo. I'm definitely setting up a hamster tube maze in the tank for my bimac to explore, and am looking for other ideas for octo entertainment such as Lego blocks.

What toys have your octopus enjoyed? Do they have a favorite toy? Did you give them something fun to explore?

Share your ideas!
:)

**DWhatley** · Dec 02, '11, 8:58pm

Of all the different things recorded on TONMO, probably the one most commonly accepted has been some form of Lego block and opening some kind of food container. There have been a few animals that claimed cleaning objects (tooth brushes, siphons, baster bulbs) for a short period of time and on a couple of occasions, permenantly. I don't remember any octo maintaining an interest in a toy over a long period and removing and reintroducing items seems to have the most success. Several people have suggested using habit trail but I don't know of a journal where it has been tried.

**asid61** · Dec 09, '11, 9:41pm

What is a "habit trail"?

**rockhead01** · Dec 09, '11, 10:18pm

My bimac is not interested in toys at all. If its not edible she drops it within seconds! She is a big people watcher though and is obsessed with the cat!

**DWhatley** · Dec 09, '11, 10:29pm

Originally Posted by asid61

What is a "habit trail"?

The original brand is correctly spelled, Habitrail

(there are generics). It is a series of interconnecting tubes (that has expanded beyond just tubing now) designed for hamsters. Any pet store that sells hamsters or mice will have at least some of the many available options. Cleaning it is one reason I have not experimented, the other is that I prefer an ocean looking aquarium and don't like man-made things showing (as much as possible).

**Cuddlycuttlefsh** · Dec 10, '11, 11:15am

A habitrail (tell me if I spelled it right) maze with a crab to get her attention would be really new and fun. Sadly the octopuses personality tells me that it's not the curious and interactive kind. These are more likely to be common factors shown by many wild caught octopuses rather than octopuses that have been captive bred. Many organisms harvested from the wild have their mind so coiled and wrapped around food, life, and death that they don't exhibit any interest in enrichment. But of course, this is just my thoughts on the physiology of wild octopuses.

Edit: then again, plastic degrades into very toxic and harmful compounds.

**CaptFish** · Dec 10, '11, 12:32pm

Sadly the octopuses personality tells me that it's not the curious and interactive kind. These are more likely to be common factors shown by many wild caught octopuses rather than octopuses that have been captive bred. Many from the wild have their mind so coiled and wrapped around food, life, and death that they don't exhibit any interest in enrichment.

I'm confused. What makes you come to that conclusion? What captive bred octopuses are you using for comparison?

**Cuddlycuttlefsh** · Dec 10, '11, 2:00pm

Originally Posted by CaptFish

What makes you come to that conclusion?

Not a conclusion but just a thought speculated amongst other organisms. Though other aquatic animals have a very different way of functioning in comparison to cephalopods, there are similarities of behaviors that can be pointed out in a wide group of wild organisms. I have kept wild caught aquatic organisms before that do exhibit this kind of behavior. I did not do any enrichment but, the organisms did show a very similarity to the concept in my last post. This has also been pointed out during research studies from time to time on birds, and specifically dogs. The reason why I connect this to other animals is because personalities aren’t just present in octopuses and humans. It is present in a considerable amount of other organisms, aquatic and terrestrial. Now when I talk about this “personality traits” of octopuses on being interactive with non food related enrichment and food related enrichment I still consider other causes that could have carried out this response. Such as sexual maturation, age, and experiences and hardships an organism has faced before that may have influenced the decision making of the octopus in present, attention span on non food related enrichment, etc.

Also do consider the word choice of likely, it was a thought not as a conclusion

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Post #6/ These are more likely to be common factors shown by many wild caught octopuses
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Also as for examples of this behavior I think that it was described in

Wood, James B., Jennifer A. Mather, and Roland C. Anderson. Octopus: the Ocean's Most Intelligent Invertebrate. 1st ed. Portland, Oregon: Timber, 2010. Print.

**DWhatley** · Dec 11, '11, 12:11am

I think we can agree that octopuses are enough of an oddity (different from most other forms of life) that unobserved parallels should probably not be presented unless preceeded with something like "I wonder if" and even the then the statement following should be well qualified. Those of us frequenting the live animal forums on TONMO encourage keepers to observe, report and discuss how they interpret the observations. Conjecture without observation, however, is discouraged as there are already too many invalid or valid only for a specific species statements published and on the internet.