Monty - Unknown (brown eyespot Caribbean)

[DWhatley]

So much for my theory that the smaller hummelincki's are less social than the larger one . Monty was in a viewable rock cave this afternoon so I sat down near the tank and tried to get him to come out. He obliged and would come and touch my fingers but then acted a bit strangely by just sitting in one spot on the glass with his arms mostly curled. He would touch and hold my offered fingers but did move from his position on the aquarium wall. He occassionally flashed his eye spot but there was no other change in color. It was close to his supper time (6:00 ish) so I thought perhaps he was expecting supper and not a playmate. Neal fed him and he took his shrimp without excitement but did take it to a sheltered area to eat. Later he was back in his viewable cave area and I sat with him again. This time he was all about having his mantle massaged and squished in and out of my fingers for the better part of an hour (much more contact than the tickle touches in the above video).

When I have an interactive octopus, I try to establish a "petting" area that they will approach when they want attention and a "take your hand out of my tank" signal. The area and signal are established by natural actions and not perdetermined with each animal but the human action is reinforced and the ones that have come for petting learn/establish these two things very quickly. Monty's tank is small so estabilshing the play area is difficult and is anywhere in the upper half of the front three sides of the hex tank. Leaving the wall and embracing the live rock is the hands out of tank signal. During the second round of interaction he went to the LR twice, the first time he waited for me to remove my hand and then returned to the wall shortly to play more.

After my hand had become a prune and he went to the LR a second time I expected that to be it for the day and left the tank but an hour or so later Neal saw him again in his cave opening. Just as Neal mentioned it, Monty slipped down into the LR and we expected him to go to sleep for the night but as he was disappearing it appears that he spotted me and wanted to play more. He came back out for another maybe 45 minutes but refused to come to the side of the tank with the camera. I tried taking photos but they did not come out well enough to keep. I am almost certain that he identifies me as an individual or at least can tell the difference between Neal and me. His reactions when the dogs pass by also suggest he knows they are different again.

It will be interesting to see if he shows up for interaction tomorrow or sleeps all day from all the activity today.

 

[DWhatley]

Monty was funny today. I ran out to the store and came back about 6:30. Monty was out on the wall in his typical (for him) yellow and flashed his eye spot and one other area a dark black as I moved toward his tank with arms full of groceries. About the time I was directly infront of his tank, he stopped flashing and started dancing. Once again, it seemed as if he "recognized" me. After putting away the groceries, I returned to his tank and put my hand in. He came over and grabbed a finger more like he wanted supper (Neal feeds him) than wanting attention but did not try to drag it to his beak. We confused him a little I think when Neal offerred shrimp on a stick while he was holding on to my finger. Ultimately, he released me and took his supper to his above ground cave (he sleeps/hides deep in the live rock). I expected him to come back out later but he was nowhere to be seen.

As he was taking his food to the table, he flashed his eye spot and for an instant I saw the vibrant blue. The spot is always visible as a pale bulls eye and has been black when displayed. This is the first time I have seen any of the typical blue (it is only about the diameter of the clicker part of a ball point pen top).

 

[Lmecher]

Well it sounds like you are really enjoying your new interactive toy.

 

[kpage]

Yes I thought Curla was able to recognize me vs the rest of my family. She would come out and flash at me, then move back and forth along the glass. Is that what you mean by dancing?? Still Hoping to get an email from your friend!!

 

[DWhatley]

kpage,
Yes, the back and forth "look at me" movement is what I call dancing. Kara has been on vacation but should be returning this week. Keep in mind that they don't normally collect octopuses but occassionally find them in the live rock when they collect new batches. This fall looks like a good octo year if Tom's supply is an indication so she may take on a few of the crab trap animals but there is no telling what they might be.

Monty is showing up at all different times of the day and early evening without a noticable pattern. He is eating and growing well but his schedule if most peculiar. He was in his upper den (where we can see him) early this AM but nowhere to be seen at 6:00PM feeding time, nor did he come out while we were eating dinner. Neal called me to come downstairs quickly around 9:30 just as Montly smuggly subdued a live bait shrimp. He had planned just to hand it to Monty when he spotted him out and about but the shrimp got away (as did two he was trying to feed to Cassy and the one for Tatanka. Tank did not let the shrimp get far but Cass will have to go hunting tonight). Hummelincki's have much better eyesight than the briareus and he made short work of the catch using his arms to snag it. No pictures, unfortunately and my supply of live shrimp is running very low.

 

[kpage]

the back and forth "look at me" movement is what I call dancing.

That's cool, has this behavior been observed of any other octos?

Yes I know, I'm just crossing my fingers! People have been getting a lot from Tom, I wish I could get a briareus.

Hummelincki's have much better eyesight than the briareus

I did not know this, so do the nocturnal and crepuscular octos have better sight than diurnal ones?

 

[DWhatley]

IME after keeping 4 and watching the hatchlings, the briareus have poorer eyesight (atleast within arms length) than the mercatoris or the 2 little nocturnal macropuses I have kept. They may have better range vision though as SueNami could detect my son at the top of the stairs. We are seeing the twins beginning to notice things entering the water which might suggest that their eyesight is improving a bit with age. Monty sees anything inside his tank and at least 4 feet outside but I may try to do some experimenting to see if I can determine a distance for motion detection in both species.

 

[DWhatley]

We gave Monty a crayfish (crawfish, crawdad) tonight (claws removed) and he was a bit surprised. He has been given one before and pounced as you see in the video but this time something was not quite as he expected. I spliced together three clips as it took him about 15 minutes to decide on a second approach.

 

[CaptFish]

LOL, that was hilarious!

His yellow color is cool, has there been another O.incki that showed yellow like he does?

 

[DWhatley]

That color is totally new to me for hummelincki (as was the bright red he showed when smaller and can still be seen in a more muted shade in patches on occassion) but I keep thinking someone else has reported it as well as the green spots I sometimes see. I am guessing it has to do with the outdoor fluorecent that is over the tank but we will see if it goes away when he is transferred to a more traditional lighting (targeted for the end of the month, clean up crew coming tomorrow, short cycled but rock from other the several year established tanks. So far the live bait shrimp in the tank is doing well as are the two gorgonians and small test polyp). I have seen blue in the eye spot only once and only for a quick flash, normally it looks black. He takes on normal "hummelincki" coloration when he is in the live rock but is always that brilliant yellow gold when on the wall. I continue to think the Caribbean two spot is more than one species. I just wish we would discover a large egg animal in the collection but then getting one again would be a life long search.

Of note, going back to the difference in eyesight between this diurnal and the two nocturnal O.briareus, notice that he knows exactly where the crayfish is when he reaches for it. The twins will flail an arm in the general direction of the food and hope to make contact.

 

[Lmecher]

Great video! I wonder what spooked him on his first try. It was too funny, wow can he move fast! That yellow is different although I am very unfamiliar with this species. I am upset, my son mailed my memory card back to me last week and I have yet to receive it. I may need to buy another, thinking it is lost forever. I want to take photos so badly, withdrawl is setting in and I need a fix bad.

 

[DWhatley]

My crab shipment was delayed (should have been here Thurs) and did not arrive until Monday (all OK thanks to the cool weather). Paul thinks the day off last week set them behind so maybe it will still show up.

As I mentioned to CaptFish above, that bright yellow (I have been calling it gold) is not exaggerated in the video, nor is the bright red in the initial posts and I have not seen either color before on any octopus. The closest on the red would have been the early days with Beldar but his red was not quite as orange. It will be interesting next month when he is under normal PC ligting (50/50) to see if the yellow disappears. They have light reflecting cells in addition to chromataphores that may have something to do with reflection from the unusual light wavelength in this lights. The manufacturer calls is a "Flourex" bulb and I assume the name has something to do with the gases used inside the tube. We would not have noticed any effects it on the mercs because the lens was shielded with red velum and red paint. When he is under cover of the LR he is the normal mottled brown we see in hummelinki and a number of others. If it does turn out to be the lighting I can see a whole new set of ideas on lighting an octo tank

The fast movement was not exaggerated either. I did not know he had not taken the craw because I was watching through the camera and it happened so fast I could not even move to attempt to lower the focus level.

 

[DWhatley]

Monty No Show

I am going to try to remeber to write everything I can think of when a social octopus does not come out just to see if a pattern emerges. One thing I forgot to record is that I put a rubber duck in the tank for a few seconds while he was out playing. He did not like it and I took it back out. I did not see signs of trama but wanted to record that factor.

October 18
Monty took a large meal of crayfish. The cray was longer than his mantle. It scared him when he first attacked it but later worked his way around to sneak up on it and ate.

October 19
Monty was nowhere to be found all day as well as at feeding and our supper time. I took a flashlight to the LR to try to locate him to ensure he was OK. After 5 min or so of looking he finally showed an arm so I let him be.

October 20
Monty came to his hidden but visible part of the LR today (vs completely hidden or in his, I know you can see me cave). This den area is inside the LR but eyes and arms can poke in an out of various coral branches. He was wearing his all white coloration (which we have not seen for a while) but I don't think is was a fear color as when I have seen it on adults. He grabbed his fiddler through an opening and managed to get it to his beak. We know this because the opening really did not fit the crab and we could see the crab arms react as the poison took hold. Monty never came out to the wall but did stay where we could see parts of him. I found the cray exoskelton from the 18th pushed out of the LR. It was in two parts completely free of meat (the brissles were not even attracted to it) and I wonder if it took him two days to complete the meal. It was not big as crayfish go but was a lot of meat for a little octopus.

October 21
All is normal again. Monty was in his it's OK for you to see me den all day and came out to dance on the tank wall from about 6:00 PM to about 10:00 PM. He usuall retires before this so his self inflicted time out must haver created extra enegy.

October 23-25
And then again maybe not. He is being shy and not coming out of his live rock and only waving a gold arm when we look for him. He did come out to catch a crab when no one wasl looking. I happened by the tank just as he decided to make a cross tank flight and pounce. He did not secure it immediately (it got away, his aim was right on target) but he fished it out from under the live rock very quickly and took it to a back wall but when he saw me watching, he moved to a place where I could not observe (or steal his meal).

October 27
Monty finally came out to play and be petted. He returned over and over to my hand without much encouragement and did the squish through the fingers and immediately return to the hand trick for probably 20 minutes. So I am going to say that the trama is finally over after 7 days.

 

[Lmecher]

Monty's color changed for a split second too. He lost all the yellow, he turned tanish, a color I am more familiar with. I have no experience with Hummelinki but in birareus and vulgaris (from what I have seen)when startled or scared they will appear very dark almost black when scared. Have you noticed this in the past. Since color is related to emotion, as you have pointed out in the past, this little guy will be very interesting to watch. This is one of the things that draw us to them, so full of suprises.

 

[DWhatley]

Hummelincki will go bright white with glowing eye spots if REALLY startled. We have seen this only a few times (usually the dogs are involved ) with some of them. I caught one photo series but it was started slightly after the most dramatic display (a little farther down you will see a half white half brown combination that was cool too). Monty did this a couple of times (with the eye spot looking black not the vibrant blue) but I have no photos. He shows more color variety and texture changing than any we have had and it will be curious if we see less in the new tank (which could also be a sign of aging so I won't know for sure if lighting is involved ).