[Octopus]: Licik/Misty - A. Aculeatus? - Jocco's Pus

[Jocco]

INK !!!! 12:17am

I was filming her from the opposite side of the couch, as usual. She was swimming and dancing as usual. Tonight she was facing the back wall of the tank instead of facing us which is a little unusual. It happens, 1 x out of 10 that we see her dance about per week.

She was doin' her thing, and then she let out a big cloud of ink, and I caught it on cam!!??!!!

She flung herself to the bottom of the tank and is hiding under octo rock -- I think she scared herself -- ???

She is all black now, she was tan while dancing.

No one is walking around, the tv is on as usual, no weird sounds, no house shaking, nada. There are the 2 shrimp in the tank, and I put in 2 fiddlers around 10pm - still uneaten. She even dance around and observed but didn't snatch.

OK - took me like 5 mins to write this up - maybe less - and she is now regular tanish color and dancing around the tank again ...

What the heck??!!
12:20am

She did it on the left side of the tank and in the placement where the water cycles back into the overflow box, so it looks like it was sucked up pretty fast, thankfully.
12:26am

edited to add times

 

[Jocco]

Inking video
Happens after the 3:50 mark

We txt one of the guys who works at the LFS, hopefully they can fit us in for a cleaning/change tomorrow :/

 

[Jocco]

Did a search on 'ink' on tonmo, and it was a mist of brown - not stringy goopy black etc.

Did I just freak over pretty much nothing?

Ugh.

Please don't die.

Protein skimmer is always on. Is it more normal to turn it on during part of the day? I'm still reading threads on inking incidents. Should I do the pantyhose thing right now?

She's now back to dancing, facing us, like nothing happened.
12:49am

 

[Jocco]

So, she's totally fine.
Scared the bejesus out of me though.

She caught a crab and was swimming around with it for a while

 

[Jocco]

Took some video, had a little fun with a capella music groups for the music

 

[DWhatley]

Well, I don't know what happened to my response to your inking trauma but I DID respond . I'll try again, better late than never.

Most aquarium (shipping bag ink is an exception) is not a problem as long as it is in small amounts and you have a skimmer. Sucking out what you can with a turkey and an unscheduled water change are recommended but small events can happen when you are not watching.

I only recall two major inking events that were dangerous. One was with my hummelincki who completely blackened her tank. Fortunately, I had a suitable, empty (as in cycled with no octo in residence) tank and we were able to move her into a bucket until she stopped spewing ink and then transfer her. She never repeated the performance and lived out a normal lifespan. The other, El Diablo, O. vulgaris died after the event. @Lmecher did not have an alternate 130 gallon (or anything close to suitable) tank available and the octopus blackened the tank so badly it took months to get it clear again. Neither of us knows what brought about the events. I have read that a dying octopus will do this but after keeping over 20 of various species I have only had it occur once and the octopus was not dying.

 

[DWhatley]

It looks like she picked up something to eat at about 2 minutes in.

 

[Jocco]

Put in 2 crabs a few days ago, 1 is still wandering around.

My fiddlers were dead in the keeper tank, 1 by 1. I lost 5 in 4 days. So I put the remaining 9 crabs all in the tank. Her eating seems to be slowed down.
Her behavior otherwise is much the same. Plenty of tank dancing and such.

There are crabs everywhere now, and Misty is pushing them away from the spot she chose to hide in today. An artificial cave under the green tube.
I put food pellets by that area too, the crabs come in for them, and she just watches.

Sigh.

 

[Jocco]

Welp, she ate all of the crabs and seems to be just fine

Last 2 days we have given her shrimp.

Anyone else get enjoyment when your feeder shrimp come over to take a nibble of whatever you're feeding your octopus... and the octopus basically punches the shrimp in the face to make it go away?

 

[Jocco]

Munching on some shrimp. Also sulking because we moved one of her balls.

I'm really enjoying waking up to how she built up her door. I still have yet to catch her.
Even with the super strange hours we keep.

 

[Jocco]

Added a brittle star!

 

[Jocco]

Misty will sometimes get an even better wind up balled punch than this video

First time through tube - I'm thinking about disconnecting it at the 2nd red piece or at the blue piece before the bent red tube.
Our best frustrated commentary yet... lol

 

[DWhatley]

I started laughing just before you two did when she poked her eye out and looked at you. You might try putting a piece of food in the tube or, as you suggested, shortening it initially and then extending it.

 

[Jocco]

There is food on the other end of the tube. She bumps into the other side a lot!
Ahhh.... the suspense... lol

And we offered her food when she was out after the tube incident... maybe she will do the touch and go after she realizes we feed her when she touches or goes in the tube.

Frankly, she doesn't give a damn about the tube, grrr.

 

[DWhatley]

I tried a red semi-opaque tube with a nocturnal dwarf under another member's suggestion with hopes of it being visible during the day. I finally did get a picture of him on top of the thing