Introducing Calamari

Oh I agree bigger is better :smile:

I've almost got him down to hand feeding now... He's still a little shy and cowers away when I try to hand him a clam, but he doesnt run away and hide in his hole like he used to, I just drop it there infront of him and he grabs it.

Also something I noticed, about twice a day he goes clam hunting. walking around the edges of the tank sifting through the sand hopelessly to find clams to eat, when I see him doing that I toss a few at him or in his path and he picks them up and holds them at his beak until he can go back to his den to eat them.
 
Calamari is doing so well and is getting to know you! Those were good pics of him you posted.

He's getting large for those small clams - but continue feeding them until you're out, just add other things as well. Have you tried pieces of thawed frozen shrimp? He's big enough for hermit crabs and small fiddler crabs, too. Make sure he gets enough food but remove what he doesn't eat or the remnants after an hour or two.

Nancy
 
Hi everyone, heres an update on Calamari. I just finished posting a complete journal from day 1 up to now on a gaming forum that I visit. So I think I'll just copy and paste it as its a very good journal :biggrin2: The gaming crew doesnt know anything about octopus or aquarium life so thats why terms are very basic and I explained things for them, so just ignore those parts :nyah: A great record of his behaviour so far, some pics to come in just a little bit.... He's grown ALOT





Calamari is the little guys name. He was born early november and I got the little guy about the middle of december a few weeks before christmas, he was just a baby but he was pretty big for his age. His mantle(body) was 2" long and his tentacle were about 6" long each. As of now I estimate his body is 3+" long and tentacles at least 10". Its only been a couple of weeks (3 I think), Once I Started feeding him Oysters he started a growth spurt, and he's still in it. He just came out today so thats how I know how big he is today.

Calamari's social history so far:
When I first saw the little guy after opening the box from octopets.com, he was just a scared little ball of slime hiding in the corner of the bag, a surprisingly big scared little ball of slime. I adapted him to his new home, a 125 gallon aquarium. As soon as he hit the sand he went into hiding for a day. Now normaly baby octopus would go into hiding in their juvinile stage until they got a bit bigger and more comfortable with their enviroment, after that they would come out and interact and play, usualy it takes a month or two or more. Calamari was out on day 2 searching the tank for food, and didnt even shy away when everyone from the christmas party gathered around and stared at him and the kids even pointed fingers, he hasnt inked once so far. That whole week of christmas and new years he was out for everyone to see and play with, but after that he behaviour changed and he went into hiding, only to be seen when offered food. Today he was out searching for food, instead of his usualy habbit of just sticking his head out of his cave and waiting for me to notice and bring him some oyster meat, which he would then assault(including the feeding stick, I have pics >.>), and drag back to his den and hide and eat for the rest of the night. I offered him shrimp a few times, he would take a few bites of it, take it to his den, I thought he would eat it fine, but then I saw him spit it out accross the tank. It was really funny I wish I would have gotten a video, I guess he doesnt like frozen shrimp. He loves the live ones that are crawling in the tank though Poor little shrimp when they go exploring into octopus den, they never come back out.

Body Developement so far:
As you can see in the pics im about to post (from earliest to latest), His color has changed slightly. Octopus possess special skin that allow them to camoflouge and change different colors to hide in the tank. Most of the time I dont even notice he is out until he lets me notice by moving waving his 8 arms and say hello. Sadly I had some problems with the tank at one point and the ammonia spiked because of human error ( I didnt catch the problem fast enough ). You may have noticed comparing the newer pictures to the older ones that he is grayer and not as tan. I THINK the poor water quality may have stressed his camoflouge skin and ate away at it, giving him his new color. The water quality is perfect now and I'm told he will heal, but it will forever be sort of scared. He's still cute
He has grown from a 2" Glob of goo to a 3-4" Monster. And he's not even half done growing yet.

Behavioural Note:
As I'm writting this I'm sitting in my chair facing the octo tank. He's becomming a little more active. I'm watching him poke his head out of the den and search with his tentacles for clams and hermits to eat. He seems kind of lazy doesnt want to come all the way out lol, maybe he's teasing me. Cause I know he's watching me, very curious animals.

His Home:
As I mentioned before he's housed in a 125 Gallon aquarium. A typical recomended setup for O.Bimac is 55 Gallons, so as you can see his tank provides him with alot of extra grazing room. But interesting enough, just the tank isnt his home. He has taken residence into one of the artificial caves I crafted myself just for his tank(one of many since I knew he wouldnt like some of them, they are picky). THey never like things they way they are though, He's moved in some sea shells inside the cave (ornaments for him to play with scattered in the tank). He uses a big shell as a door when he wants to hide. Thats right he acctualy props the large sea shell up so you cant see him inside his den. Really smart little guy.

Diet:
I started feeding him baby clams. He ate about 4-5 of these a day, and then started eating 10 a day shortly after within the first week, he outgrew them fast and I had to upgrade his diet. He now fiests on frozen oyster meat daily. He loves that stuff, and aparently he's doing well off it as he's doubled in size since I started feeding him the stuff. There are also going to be a few pics attached of him attacking the feeding stick to get the oysters :P
I order 50 live Vulgaris shrimp , which are each about 1" long, just a meer snack for him if he catches one, I keep about 5 in the tank at a time for him to eat if he gets hungry when im not around to feed him. In the future he will dine on Fiddler Crabs, the big juicy ones, I cant wait to take a video of him eating one of those . I'm sure he'll make quite a mess. Octopus are amazing eaters, they just eat and eat and eat, and grow porportionaly to how much they eat, the more you feed him the more he grows. I hope to have a monster Bimac soon

Future Plans:
First and foremost when he gets out of his shyness stage I plan on teaching him how to open a screw lid jar, by putting food inside it.

I plan to teach him how to play tug o war. Let him grab one of my fingers with one of his tentacles and then yank him out of the tank until he's half out of the water, which he will then hopefully retreat back into the water, maybe he'll attach himself to my hand and I'll have to stick my hand in the water until he lets go :/ I also plan to take him for rides around the tank one he grabs my finger

I plan to teach him how to dribble a basket ball. One of the rubber floating basket balls. Hopefully if he's interested I can float the ball in the tank and he'll grab it and pull it ot the bottom, and let go, and itl float to the top, and then he'll grab it again and bring i back to the bottom and repeat, Kind of like a reverse dribble Can do this with anything floating really.

I'm pretty sure there are more things to teach him, but I just forgot atm.... One thing I wont teach him is how to escape from his tank, although He'll probly figure it out and try to make a suicide run for the TV(they love the TV for some reasonO.O). Hopefully that doesnt happen.
 
This is him in the first few weeks I housed him, when he was a bit more open.

BTW, now he's gone into a sort of seclusion stage, although he's starting to come out more especialy around feeding times... He's getting HUGE.... (recent pics after this post)

These are my favorite pictures of him so far and probnly going to be some of my favorites ever... Notice how he just confiscated my feeding stick and then SAT ON IT. Showed me whos boss lol.
 

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Latest pics of him. I had one hand holding the feeding stick and the other holding the camera so thats why they are sloppy, still think I got some good shots given the situation, 4 am at night :nyah:

Kind of hard to tell in these pictures how big he is. But by my observations his Mantle is near 4" long and his arms when stretched out have to be at least 8-10"... He's growing fast.... Its a big tank I think he'll be a monster by the time he stops growing.
 

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Calamari looks good! Cute pics of him sitting on the feeding stick.

Is he a solid grey - do you see any white and yellow spots? Can he change colors at all right now?

You have ambitions for the little guy. He'll enjoy so much attention!

Nancy
 
It looks like a solid grey covering his body. Where his tentacles start seem to have not been affected by the spread of that grey, its still like they were on day one. However I havnt noticed him doing any color changes lately, although I could have just missed it, but I dought that he's able to do very good color changes where his body is grey unfortunetly :frown: I really hope that heals..... He's starting to become more active, he's out and about watching me in my room more lol. Guess he's getting bigger and curious
 
Good News!!!

Calamari was out roaming his tank today, hasnt done that in a long time. He wasnt shy about hiding when I noticed either.

but most of all I noticed that his skin is starting to heal!
 

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