[Octopus]: Mama Cass - O.briareus (tank hatched)

DWhatley

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May 28, 2010 - May 29, 2011

No pictures of Cassy yet and I don't expect any soon as she has not ventured out into the daylight. I have seen her during the day for the last week on the back wall in a dark spot behind the live rock but she appears to be sleeping and does not respond to finger waving. I think her eyesight is worse than Tatankas though so it may be she just does not see me.

For the last two nights she has come to the edge of the rockwork and stayed there when I put my hand in the tank and make enough wave action that she can detect my hand. At the beginning of the interaction she turns white, swells up and turns her eyes very dark, looking much like an owl. Next she will try to find my hand with her arm and when she makes contact she withdraws it like she touched something hot. However, she does NOT retreat. She adjusts her color to a non threatening dark and will let me pet her between and behind the eyes and ducks down into the rock after a minute or two but then comes right back for more. When she has had enough (about 20 minutes for the last two nights) she slowly slips down into the live rock.

Her first 4.5 months are journaled in the Raising Octopus from Eggs subforum - Kooah's Hatchlings - O.briearus
 
She is considerably larger than when you saw her but still pretty small for a briareus (much longer than Monty but roughly the same sized mantle).

Of course now that I reported she is starting to accept my touch, she wanted nothing to do with me last night. I saw her sitting at the front of the LR so I pulled up my stool, opened the top and she promptly (well slowly but steadily) slipped to the back of the tank and did not reappear all night. :hmm:
 
Cassy has been accepting food off and on for the last two weeks during tank feeding time (around 6:30 PM) but has never come out into the open. Tonight she must have been hungry. She definitely seemed interested in the camera. Unfortunately, she stayed very low in the tank and the camera picked up more dirt and scratches than octopus but I am posting a couple anyway just because I am glad to finaly have had the opportunity to take them :smile:

 

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Their arms are long and thick but I can't tell much about how healthy they are (other than they eat well) since I really don't "see" them in anything but red light. So far their coloring is splotchier than the adults I've kept but I don't know if this is normal or not. Their eyesight it very bad (Tatanka's seems to be slightly better than Cassy's). It seems like it may be improving somewhat in the last week since they have both put their arms to the front glass in response to hand movements.
 
Cassy Showing Passing Cloud

Cassy was poking her head out of the LR again tonight before lights out (about 8:00 PM). We thawed a frozen fiddlers (live ones expected tomorrow) to reward her for coming out but by the time the food was ready she had gone back into the LR. Fortunately, we watched and scratched on the rocks for a few minutes and she gave us a light show.
 
Cassy sampled some seafood market scalllop (but left most to the worms) and at a freshly cracked mussle tonight. At about 11:00 PM she was fully on the front glass, another first. I put my hand in and she touched it but was not overjoyed at its taste and left the glass. She took a second opportunity to explore but then went back into the LR. Odd night for the octos as all three were out an about at the same time. I hope that does not mean some kind of impending natural disaster.
 
Cassy is still more reclusive than Tatanka (neither are out in the light often) but tonight I was able to coax her out on to the glass for just a few minutes and without a food offering and with one of the other tank lights on. There was not enough light to try to take pictures but at least she did not ink at me today like the other two.
 
Cassy is getting bolder. She came to the wall for a crab during early feeding (lights on) after accepting and only partially eating a piece of scallop (that I suspect is fish).
She let me take pictures in the process and is the only one that does not seem to be camera shy (perhaps her poorer eyesight is partially responsible). Cassy seems to still be slightly larger than Tank and shows a lot more webbing.
 

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Cassy is just really showing leaps forward toward understanding the tank environment and accepting humans (as least where food is concerned). She was out on the wall waiting for us around 6:00 (another first) and started pacing when I entered the room. :biggrin2:
I called Neal up to feed her (standing joke that starts out with a call from one of us to the other, "someone is looking for you")
The stills are very grainy but otherwise came out well.
 

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