New Octy

[Tintenfisch]

My sister had many hermit crabs, one of which did a Houdini out of a supposedly secure tank. Never found him. Shell or anything.
So glad you found your octo in time!

 

[joefish84]

now u just need to teach it to pick pockets of your friends for more quarters!

 

[Nancy]

Now that's one of the stranger octo escape stories - holding a quarter!
Glad it had a happy ending!

Nancy

 

[corw314]

LOL...I'm so glad U found him in time! Did u let him keep the quarter?

 

[Fini]

Thanks for the great visual. I'm still trying to process the octopus hanging on to a quarter.

 

[Armstrong]

Thanks for the great visual. I'm still trying to process the octopus hanging on to a quarter.

Lol, it saw cash on the floor and made its way to it. Thank god it didn't go near any copper.

 

[Paradox]

Hah! I took the quarter out of the tank right away. I didnt know he was even holding it until I put him back into the tank. Once in the water he inked multiple times, jetting away. He then dropped the quarter.

Last time I leave change on my floor!

I was gone for maybe an hour and a half if that. I suspect he was out at least 40 minutes or so considering the water trails it left on the tank were compeltely dry and the texture of his body.

Im glad hes ok as well for Ive lost one of my octos to escape before and never found him. We have cats in the house, so I just assumed it met its demise by one of them...

 

[chrono_war01]

And the bad part is that octos don't leave bones, so even if a cat took it, there would be no evidense! (Unless the cat was covered in ink or had a octo arm tangling from its mouth)

 

[Infusoria]

Cool story, enjoyed it. Glad your octo's ok.

 

[erich orser]

I remember an old National Geographic story by a married team of marine archeaologists digging up a sunken harbour (could've been Crete, could've been Turkey, could've been Greece - it was a long time ago). They were sectioning off the site and sorting debris - many of which were old coins. Some were gold, so still shiny. Every night, this one octopus would come and swipe some of them, moving them back near it's den. Every day they'd have to dive and move them back into the proper sorting grid. Didn't realize they were aquatic magpies, but your quarter story clinches it - at least anecdotally.

 

[Mizu]

hehe
he was trying to get enough money to buy himself some water
Octo says " FREEEDOOOMMMM!!!"

 

[Armstrong]

Hah! I took the quarter out of the tank right away. I didnt know he was even holding it until I put him back into the tank. Once in the water he inked multiple times, jetting away. He then dropped the quarter.

Last time I leave change on my floor!

I was gone for maybe an hour and a half if that. I suspect he was out at least 40 minutes or so considering the water trails it left on the tank were compeltely dry and the texture of his body.

Im glad hes ok as well for Ive lost one of my octos to escape before and never found him. We have cats in the house, so I just assumed it met its demise by one of them...

40 minutes?? You serious? Lol, mabye it was at least a bit shorter than that. I figured Octopuses can only stay out of water at the most, 10 minutes before it dies of suffocation. Thats unless it had a pool of water somewhere by it were it's gills were. My octopus hasen't attempted escape not even once. Im so confident it wont escape that I leave my tank totally un-covered on top, lol But I have to stop doing that cuz ya never know. I'll regret it.

 

[Nancy]

They can stay out more than ten minutes - I read somewhere that the time is related to the size of the octopus.

Jean has some good escape tales, even one that was climbing up stairs!

Nancy

 

[monty]

They can stay out more than ten minutes - I read somewhere that the time is related to the size of the octopus.

I'd be interested in this; it seems like "common wisdom" that cephs, because of using hemocyanin instead of hemoglobin and a lack of some auxilliary vertebrate system I've forgotten, can't store oxygen as long as fish and other vertebrates, but there is a lot of evidence that this "common wisdom" is wrong: many active cephs spend a lot of time at anoxic depths, and octos being able to survive out of water until they dry out rather that until they suffocate would seem to suggest this, although it's also possible that octo gills can breath air well enough that they are resupplying their blood oxygen rather than relying on stored O2. But I'd bet that there is a secret mechanism that cephs have evolved to store O2 in oxygen-poor environments, since they seem to have been more successful at adapting to low-oxygen depths than fish. (To obtusely give credit, some of this thinking was inspired by not-yet-published work someone presented at TONMOcon, but I won't get more specific in case that could cause publication problems.)

Regardless of how it worked out, I am very happy your octo got to have his adventure, collect his quarter, and live to tell the tale! (and is no doubt very smug about it as a result!)

 

[Paradox]

Well my 40 minutes estimate was pretty much a big 'guess'. He had an awful lot of dirt and hair stuck on him and my floors really arent 'that' dirty heh. To the touch he was very slightly moist, mostly dryish and kind of sticky.

I dont have any scientific evidence, but my assumption was that they can actually stay out of water a good amount of time. I definetly feel they can survive longer then fish out of water. Im sure in tidepools, they have to endure all sorts of extreme conditions such as change in salitiny, temperature, and lack of oxygenated water. In a marine Bio field trip a good many years ago, I did find an octpus in the tidepools. It was in a very shallow pool with hardly any water, clinging to a rock. The water level was no more then an inch deep if that. I assume theres often times in which an octoupus would find itself stranded and waiting for the next high tide in this circumstance.

Id love to know the turth as well, but I wouldnt have the heart to put an octopus under stress tests such as this..