Lerxt

Lerxst (the octopus)

I've been having so much fun with music that I forgot to post about last night's encounter with Lerxst. It was after 10 pm and Lerxst was wide awake and had been playing at the surface of the water. I was going to stick feed him but the shrimp fell off and sank. to the bottom of the tank. I couldn't jab it back on to the stick, and Lerxst had retreated to the back corner, so I put my hand in to get the food out to put back on the stick for a second try. He rushed my hand and grabbed on with several arms. I didn't want to get bitten, and he was beginning to envelope my whole hand. I instinctively pulled my hand out of the tank, not all the way, of course he held on. His eyes were completely out of the water for a few seconds before he slid back into the tank. He continued to swim at the surface before he noticed the shrimp, then calmed down to eat. I have to say, I'm a little bit afraid of my octopus...

I don't consider anything to do with music or related stuff to be "wildly off topic!" Six degrees of separation can work for this thread- it's not like getting id request from a newbie on your journal page. Unless you want to start a different thread in the Supports Only forum for GOOD MUSIC :no_diamond: it's fun to talk with people who have even more like interests:zappa:!
 
back to off topic...

Ha ha, charade you are! Master Wilson did a lot of "borrowing" for The Incident. The first time I heard it my husband was playing it on the basement stereo, and I thought he was listening to Les Claypool's "Live Frogs," second set. I knew it was Dogs, but I also knew it was NOT Pink Floyd. Again, Steve does a tasteful job of borrowing- right down to keeping in line with the lyrical "mood." He threw in just a hint of "The Wall," too.

ob, thanks for that KC clip, total mastery! I watched it with my husband and after reading your edit note he commented, "How could that be 'wildly off topic,' the name of the thread is Lerxst, after all." What instrument do you play? I don't play anything, but John play keyboards and "aspires" to play bass.

What has anybody been over playing lately? Them Crooked Vultures is still getting an almost daily listen. John Paul Jones is one of the most overlooked bassists around- and he's still got it! He also gets some funky 70's style organ playing into the mix- it was very cool to see him live. Dave Grohl is back to his punk speed drumming, but with more sophistication than ever. Of course, Josh Homme's deliciously dirty mind churns out plenty of cleverly suggestive lyrics that are just fun. My husband doesn't care for his style of guitar playing, but then I'm a bigger Queens of the Stone Age fan than he is. We saw them in concert before their album came out and they were still sneaking around underground. It was at a small place in downtown Detroit so they actually looked life size!

I also got the latest Black Crowes album for X-mas, "Before the Frost." I love those guys. Good old fashioned blues-rock and roll. I always ask John why he doesn't play more 'Crowes tunes because they are so simple. He says that's why I like them, they are deceivingly complicated.
 
Lerxst has been doing well, I can't believe how fast his arm tips are growing back! It's looking more and more to me like he's a "he," as that 3rd right arm tip most often looks like it's in a knot. A big, tight, jumbly knot. He's been steadily growing overall, I''d say his ML is almost 1/2 inch longer.

Socialization still seems irregular, but it might be us more than him. I think he spends more time watching us from hiding spots than we realize, it's hard to make him out in the evening when the red lights are on. He spends less time on the glass than some octos I've had, but lurks (lerxsts) more than the others. Also, I think when we leave the room he comes to the front, we'll walk in and he'll be holding still as death. Then, out of no where, he'll come up and grab my whole hand. None of that shy little tickling for him. He likes to envelop my whole hand and pull it in the tank. He hasn't bitten me but it still freaks me out when he does that!
 
new photos

Lerxst isn't always happy about the camera flash, but he cooperates sometimes. The vertical photo is a shot of how Lerxst works the feeding stick. Instead of just taking it from the end of the stick as offered, he grabs far up the stick and pulls it toward him, in the process forcing the shrimp to the middle. Then he sits on the stick until he's eaten his fill. It makes clean up easy and it's fun to see him there all morning. He gave up much sooner yesterday, I think because it was a busy Saturday morning and everyone was in the room.

I haven't been quick enough with the camera yet, but the other way Lerxst eats is "hermits in a bottle." Every 3rd time I feed I give him hermit crabs. I was worried the first time that if I just threw the hermits in there he might not find them (this was after he lived with the live peppermint shrimp for a week), so I put them in a glass bottle. No matter what time of day I put the hermit bottle in the tank, he'll come for them. The thing is, he waits until I'm not looking to make the attack, and by the time the camera is ready he's vanished into his den with his meal. I do have a short video of his retreat from the bottle, I'll have to figure that out...
 

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I too was suprised at the regrowth rate of a severed arm. Mine came to me with one arm severed at the webbing, (I was worried/upset even though I knew they regenerate) 6 weeks later it is hard to pick out the new arm. I would say rate is an inch a week. Great photos!
 
Elise's first contact

Last night Lerxst was doing his outrageous dance at the top of the tank and I was playing with him. Elise asked if she could try, of course! He did his thing, were he envelops her whole hand. Her hand is so much smaller than mine and appeared lost under all the webbing. His arms came up over the top of her hand, out of the water- it tickles so much more above the water line! Her riotous laughter was music as beautiful as any "THE" Lerxst might produce.:lol:

I am less worried about getting bitten, it will happen or it won't. Lerxst has begun to let me touch him back, and although I think he likes it he still seems unsure how to react. Right now he'll let me stroke his mantle, then he'll swim away, but turn half way across the tank and come back for more.
 
I agree with you on biting. I no longer worry, worrying over something that may not even happen is only going to diminish my enjoyment of any given situation. Congratulations, sounds like you are making wonderful progress. :smile:
 
Even with the hummelincki/filosus, I saw (and someone remarked on one of the early videos) the advance and retreat behavior and have seen it in all the octos that come to be petted. Ater they are fully used to the attention, you will still see it but the retreats are closer and the return quicker. Hopefully CaptFish will mention if Legs does this or not as I have yet to have a briareus become as social as my hummelincki. Puddles (I think we are going to add an s on the end of her name since we always refer to her that way) is beginning to come for pets but only returns once or twice before doing her puddle impression or moving back to the LR.
 
When I first started making contact with Legs she would do the play and retreat, then return to play more and retreat again,Like D said over time she played more and retreated less but now it is all action all the time. If she is awake she wants to hunt live shrimp or play with me.....

I am even more worried about biting than I used to be. Before, when legs was small, it would have been a real bad pinch now if Legs gets me I'll be missing a huge chunk of flesh i'm sure...
paranoid.gif
I always make sure I dont get too close to her beak area, and I dont let her totally envelope my hand like she tries too.
 
You should film this!!! Years ago when Jess was around 5 she got nipped by I think it was Inklet....I still have the video which was very funny! I do not let my octopuses' beak get close to my fingers but I know of others, like Nancy's Ollie who never nipped cept her husband once I believe. They are all so different but for me, I choose not to take the chance of a bite. On the flash...my son flashed Inkler the other night, by accident with his cell phone and now she runs the minute she see's the camera. Someone mentioned using a light directed towards the tank as this will not startle them like a flash will. I will not use a flash as I want them to associate the camera as a good thing.
 
Legs was shy of the flash at first but i took sooooo many pictures that I either blinded her or she got used to it. Now she loves the camera. She used to do Passing cloud displays for it but she rarely does it anymore I have on occasion used an LED flashlight which worked well but not as good as the flash.
 
i'm posting the photo that was reproduced in our Ceph Care book. We had been keeping Ollie for 3 months, so my estimate is she was 6 or 7 months old at the time of the bite, with a mantle length of about 4 inches. Bill was cleaning the tank, Ollie was hanging about, and she slowly floated down on his hand. I know many of you already know this story, but I'll repeat it for new Tonmo members. At that time, we had heard that bimacs never bite. So when Ollie nibbled a bit, Bill said "Nancy, Ollie is biting me." I assured him she wasn't!. She nibbled very gently, maybe out out curiosity. You can see on the photo that little damage was done, and it hurt less than a bee or insect sting. She never bit either of us again.

Come to think of it, I don't think we've had any reports of briareus bites. Dale (Animal Mother) needs to verify that Kalypso never bit him.

There are octopuses known for biting - O. rubescens, for instance. Some time ago at the NRCC, they were showing me a small octopus of this species, and it bit the person handling it! That was fairly common.

Nancy
 

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