- Joined
- Sep 7, 2012
- Messages
- 173
Hello to all of you crazy people like me! I agree with everyone that says it's great to find a place to discuss such an unusual topic! I am actually a preschool teacher that works from my home. So basically my family and I live in a preschool! I have been keeping salt water tanks for, I'm afraid to say, over 30 years! (Scary thought!)
Anyway, I feel it is very important to teach our children about how amazing and important the ocean is, so I have a 125 reef tank and a 30 gallon seahorse tank. A couple of years ago my class started asking about octopuses so I set up a 40 gallon "octopus tank". Our first octopus was only a couple of inches long. It had so many places to hide that I interact with it much until it grew a bit! It started interacting with me and was doing great until I found it dead half inside a toy I had made for it. We had gone on vacation and I had someone taking care of the animals. They were experienced, so I am not sure what happened.
We now just got our second octopus a few days ago and I am wanting more of a support group to help with new ideas and knowledge. This one came from Pete's Fish Place. Not sure if anyone has dealt with them, but he was great on the phone and sent me an awsome 8 inch long octopus! It's probably the common octo v, but it seems to have extra long stringy arms and is much more outgoing than the other little guy was. This morning it came out and climbed onto my hand to explore. I tried to give it a toy, but it only held it for a second and dropped it. Then it crawled back into its den.
My main concern right now is how to interact with it. I don't want to overdo it, but I feel like I should at least check to make sure it's still alive once a day? Or is this bad? The last one was so small it didn't matter! I appreciate any information you might be able to share.
Lastly, I have had trouble getting a good picture of it, but I will try and upload something later today. Just in case anyone is interested, I could put a couple of pics up of kids with it... when they saw it in bag, etc... am excited at the idea of them getting to see it up close and interacting with toys, etc in the future!! The kids are sooo excited about this one because it is so much begger than the last one!
Thanks and sorry if I rambled! Look forward to hearing from you!
Anyway, I feel it is very important to teach our children about how amazing and important the ocean is, so I have a 125 reef tank and a 30 gallon seahorse tank. A couple of years ago my class started asking about octopuses so I set up a 40 gallon "octopus tank". Our first octopus was only a couple of inches long. It had so many places to hide that I interact with it much until it grew a bit! It started interacting with me and was doing great until I found it dead half inside a toy I had made for it. We had gone on vacation and I had someone taking care of the animals. They were experienced, so I am not sure what happened.
We now just got our second octopus a few days ago and I am wanting more of a support group to help with new ideas and knowledge. This one came from Pete's Fish Place. Not sure if anyone has dealt with them, but he was great on the phone and sent me an awsome 8 inch long octopus! It's probably the common octo v, but it seems to have extra long stringy arms and is much more outgoing than the other little guy was. This morning it came out and climbed onto my hand to explore. I tried to give it a toy, but it only held it for a second and dropped it. Then it crawled back into its den.
My main concern right now is how to interact with it. I don't want to overdo it, but I feel like I should at least check to make sure it's still alive once a day? Or is this bad? The last one was so small it didn't matter! I appreciate any information you might be able to share.
Lastly, I have had trouble getting a good picture of it, but I will try and upload something later today. Just in case anyone is interested, I could put a couple of pics up of kids with it... when they saw it in bag, etc... am excited at the idea of them getting to see it up close and interacting with toys, etc in the future!! The kids are sooo excited about this one because it is so much begger than the last one!
Thanks and sorry if I rambled! Look forward to hearing from you!