'Legs' - O. briareus

[DWhatley]

Have you noticed a stretching of the siphon (as well as the obvious stretchiing of the mantle)? I notice it most with post brood females but also in senescent males. In particular the end of the siphon eventually seems to become straight rather than curved in at the top (as if the muscle has weakened). The suckers seem to dry up and become less pliable (not hard but far less flexible then when they were young) and the sheds more frequent. ALso breathing is more labored even at rest.

I see that her eyes are not fully open so I suspect she can detect light. Has she found any of the crabs on her own?

 

[CaptFish]

The siphon still seems pretty normal to me.
The suckers still appear to be the same and the definitely feel normal as we were playing just after I snapped those photos.
She is able to detect light but it has to be pretty intense. She responds to a 110 lumen white laser police flashlight (Surefire), but not too my Mag light.

 

[CaptFish]

Well, she has been very social but I am still having trouble getting her to eat. She seems to have adapted to being blind. She will only eat a few small chunks of shrimp at a time, I have stocked her tank with everything she liked to eat in the past. Right now she has 12 shrimp, 4 Pinfish (about 5.5"), 3 perfect baby blue crabs 3", and 3 decorator crabs. She has shown no intrest in the live food she still hunts and catches everything but she will hold it for a second then release it. One poor Pinfish has been caught and released 4 times he has sucker scars all over him. The only thing I can get her to eat is a few pieces of thawed shrimp.

Legg's uneaten diner

 

[DWhatley]

I keep trying to get some kind of handle on what happens with eating during senescence. It has seemed from the start of my ride that senesent animals that WILL eat need small, easy to eat foods. Trapper (my first octopus) would only eat Cyclop-eeze in the end (there is a video of her taking it from a pipette) but she did continue eating and lived 11 weeks post hatch. I keep wondering if the muscle around the beak gets stiff or the radula no longer functions well.

 

[CaptFish]

I'm not sure what it is. Sometimes it seems that her grip is weak and she just cant hold on too the live food, but then again at times i see her grab things/food and her grip seems fine. She still has purpose with everything does, which i know is good. She still hunts and plays which i know is goo-.......I think she just laid eggs....stand-by

 

[CaptFish]

Ok so I was typing the above message and Legs was sitting there watching me as she usually does, nothing seemed diffrent then I looked down she was gone and saw these...

 

[DWhatley]

She sure seems to do things backwards. Are they as deflated as they look? Are they just out in the open on a rock? I was sure she had already laid them and that they decayed in the two+ weeks before she went blind.

 

[CaptFish]

They are in the very corner of the tank hidden from rest of the tank but visible to the outside world. They all look very deflated. super strange! i thought she had laid them already too just outta sight.

 

[CaptFish]

She was only sitting in that spot for about 15 minutes and then she was gone and they were there

 

[CaptFish]

She is out right now molesting the other live stock. her mantle doesn't look any smaller like you think it should. still lumpy and firm like the picts in post 165 of this thread.

I'm very confused my octopus doesn't act like an octopus.

 

[DWhatley]

The mantles don't seem to shrink back at all so I don't think there is much elasticity. KaySoh's was very floppy after she brooded but she did not come out right away. Beldar (macropus) could barely make her way around the tank because her mantle was so distended and she had no muscle control. Neither were apparently blind before laying eggs and neither had mated. I never saw the eggs from either octo (but I never saw either set of eggs from my mercs either and those hatched).

Kooah is starting to show that forward lump (likely more a factor of the ovaries growing than anything to do with the front section) and act recluse but is still eating.

 

[sedna]

I'm glad that Legs is still doing o.k. and that she's adjusted to the blindness. With any luck she'll love up to her unpredictabillaty and those little eggs will inflate with life...

 

[CaptFish]

......... With any luck she'll love up to her unpredictabillaty and those little eggs will inflate with life...

I wish! but they look pretty inactive and deflated, Kinda like my failed cuttle eggs.

 

[DWhatley]

From what I can find, 4 months is pretty much a max time from mating to fertilization (Trapper brooded at 3 Months + but she only produced 6 young). Additionally, Legs would not have been sexually mature so I would say the chances are zero.

 

[CaptFish]

Behavioral note: she has been out of her den for 12 hours now. she just hanging out on the front glass. For the first time ever I played with her til i got tired of it, usually she swims away first not me.