[Octopus]: Octane - O. Hummelincki (filosus)

[Nancy]

Very interesting video, even if I didn't get to see Octane out of the water. Nice shot where he's climbing up and then he's gone!

When at rest, does he have any yellow in his coloring? John Forsythe once told me he looked for the yellow to identify a bimac -and they do have it, as part of their "flower" pattern.

Nancy

 

[DWhatley]

Very interesting video, even if I didn't get to see Octane out of the water. Nice shot where he's climbing up and then he's gone!

When at rest, does he have any yellow in his coloring? John Forsythe once told me he looked for the yellow to identify a bimac -and they do have it, as part of their "flower" pattern.

Nancy

I have seen Octane show many variations of color (no yellow though) and texture but the instant he leaves the water, the look is always the same and altogether different than anything in the water. The skin becomes smooth, is always mottled brown, looks shiney and reminds me a lot of Thale's picture with an octo on his head or the photo of the young men who found a rather large bimac in the wild and posted a picture of them holding it before release. Since I have not kept one, I am going from pictures only and is one of the reasons I wanted you to see the look.

 

[DWhatley]

Octane has me a little worried but I hope I have an answer. Last night he "went to bed" quite early and did not come out for our nightly play time. Today he slept in until after 6:00, coming out briefly when I did his water change. When he came out, his color was normal but all during his naps he has been a dull greyish color (normal for sleep mode). We have seen this behavior once or twice before but not since he has been coming to play every night. On reflection, I did notice during his tank cleaning that his circulation pump was packed with sucker shed and now wonder if suckers are slightly tender after a shed. He did come up to play tonight but for only a few minutes and he blew at my hand a couple of times (not the norm) but did not hurry off. He sheds a few sucker linings every week but the sheds in the pump showed large numbers of little skins. I will try to make a mental note to watch for similar behavior next time he does a large sucker shed.

 

[DWhatley]

I am still not comfortable with Octane's behavior. He is refusing his shrimp (but has caught a couple small fiddlers) for the last three days (he often fasts for 1 day a week but has never refused shrimp 3 days in a row). He continues to sleep for very long periods of time and play time is very short. I noticed that his breathing seemed a bit labored yesterday so today I put an air stone directly in his tank (there is a variety of CO2 exchange options in his sump). I was concerned about the bubbles and had a defunct pump on a pipe (part of the DIY UG that is not functional) so I used the pipe to shield the bubbles until close to the top (also reactivating the UG to some extent - the second pump on the UG died last week so it should not be particularly nitrate laden). He caught another crab while I was mucking with where to put the air stone so I am hoping all is well.

During play time now he seems to try to show me that he can be out of the water. Sort of a "see, I can come out for a little bit" (human interpretation of course). I don't see him climbing around on the back pipe or trying to walk on the cover except during our interaction and he continues to test to see if I will let him put his arms out of the tank but only on the side where my hands are in the tank. Sometimes he will go to the other side and come to the surface but does not put his arms over the edge. Very strange.

We completed the problematic stand for the sump today so maybe he will still get to enjoy his larger environment.

 

[DWhatley]

I am afraid Octane may not make it through the night. He has been sleeping more and more each day and had not come out of his den at all tonight. When I check in on him, sometimes he will move an arm tip as if waving or attempting to come out but he does not move the rest of his body. I have been checking his water nightly and the normal parameters are fine. He has been with me just over six month, more time than I expected given his arrival size but it is very hard now that it seems his time has come.

On the other hand I went down to check on him once again and put my hand in the tank even though he was not out. This time he moved around a bit and then came out for some attention. He was not out long and I closed the tank, the lights went out and he came back out and wanted to play for longer than he has in a week. I missed the wave and part of the stitching but ... that's OK.

 

[gholland]

 

[Animal Mother]

 

[Nancy]

Oh, I am so fond of Octane (from afar).
Hope he's just having a few bad days.

Nancy

 

[monty]

 

[DWhatley]

Thanks for being fans! He seems to just sleep most of the time. Tonight I turned out the lights early and he finally came out but would not take (again) his shrimp. I put a couple of live fiddlers in but he seemed to ignore them. Octane came up to the top of the tank to interact but was not very playful and just kind of held my fingers rather than slipping through them but I noticed he had something in his maw and realized that he had, without me seeing him, caught a crab. He kind of juggled the crab and held my fingers, not quite releasing it but not eating it either. Next he started pulling on my fingers in a manner previously described and then let go frustrated and sulked off to eat. I get the definite feeling that if I let him pull my fingers into his webbing, I am going to experience an octo bite first hand. In his normal play mode, he does not pull on my hand at all and I have become somewhat careless about watching how he plays but this attach and pull mode is quite different. I suspect he tastes the shrimp that he refused to eat (I chased him around for maybe 5 minutes trying to get him to take it) still on my fingers and liked the texture of the fingers better than the shrimp ;>). I do think we are nearing the end as his behavior has changed so much over the last two weeks but I now have some hope that it won't be immediate.

 

[corw314]

I hope he's with you for quite a bit longer.

 

[DWhatley]

He has almost stopped coming out with the lights on and seems to run out of energy. Not quite becoming nocturnal but waiting until his tank lights are out and the overhead light is off (the other tank lights can still be on as well as the shrimp tank light). Needless to day, I forwarded his timer so that the lights are off earlier.

 

[DWhatley]

Suckers In Action

Video of Octane removing an empty fiddler shell after dinner

 

[Octavarium]

I love the up close and personal footage!

 

[DWhatley]

Octane's tank is holding cycle very well, the pump had to be reshipped as FedEx lost it and both the new and the lost (in a mangled box) pumps showed up Friday so I will probably move Octane next week. I am hoping he will swim through the joining tubes but he may just walk like this little guy decided to do today.