Penelope - O.Vulgaris

Wow, that must have been wild. Sometimes Diablo makes me nervous, super aggresive. When I appreach with food, he swims to the surface, he'll even reach out of the water for food. I am waiting for the hard pulling to stop. He will latch onto me sometimes unexpectedly and my heart races. It was different with Ollie, gentle as a whisper, I never feared him. I think I am most fearful with my daughter's hand is in the tank, I'd feel horrible if she got bit. Very glad your quick on your feet and avoided a bite.
 
The bite is less than that of a medium bird and although I try to avoid being bitten (for a number of reasons, avoidance of pain is the least important, avoidance of infection the most), it is just not as scary as we have in our minds (believe me, I panicked when OhToo latched on to me but later was ashamed of myself and don't THINK I would react as badly again). Actually seeing an open beak facinates me but I don't know how brave I would be if it was my own hand that was the target.
 
I was thinking about looking that up just to hear Jesse squeal and Carol's evil laugh:lol:

I can't find the darned post. I was thinking it was Spike and I found where Spike nipped Carol and some 2007 references to the video but I can't find it or the discussion. :old:
 
I'm pretty sure I would FREAK the hell out if that happened to me! I know the bite is reletively harmless but still, there is something creepy about an octo coming at you fully with an open beak to get you. I can totally see why Capt might be a little gun shy about it.

About 10 years ago, I kept cayman alligators for a while, and though I used gloves... and though I knew there bite wasnt much to worry about, when they hissed at me.... I found it really hard to put my hand in the aquarium.

Has she calmed down at all? Have you gone to feed her since this happened? How does she respond to you?
 
So far I Have not seen her at all lately. Legs used to go through spells where she did ot come out to play, so hopefully that's whats going on. When she emerges again I'll let you know. I do have a video to post of her hunting shrimp the other day. I just haven't edited it yet.
 
I keep thinking there is something odd about their memory and last night I read something in Octopus The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate that suggests my thought might have some biological merit. My observations have been that it seems to take octopuses about 2-3 days to sort out new experiences. The most obvious observations have been when they first start coming to the hand for play. The citation in the book remarks that something they see with the left eye will not be integrated and understood by the right eye until a day or so later (noted in experiments with following glass mazes).
 
I haven't had an octopus bite me, but I do remember my S. officinalis flaring all of their arms and opening their beak to bite me - it is an impressive and scary display no matter how big the cephalopod is... you just want to back away as quickly as possible.
 
Well today I saw here spying on me but as soon as she saw that I was watching her she scurried back to her den. Oh well, we must have scared each other pretty good hopefully she will feel comfortable with me again.
 
I was thinking more in along the lines of kiss and make up by being OUTSIDE her environment but inviting interaction. At this point she likely knows about the glass boundry so if she extends an arm to approach your finger, she probably forgives you :razz:
 
Well, I guess kissing a making up is out right now. I was just 'attacked' again. I did not see the beack this time, but the tank is dark now. This time she really had a good grip on my and a had to scrape her off my hand with the lid to keep her from climbing up my arms. Of course there is water every where again!


I am starting to wonder about species. I was looking at some pics by James Woods of Vulgaris, and a lot of what I saw and read seemed very similar to Penny. and I still have not seen the signature eye spots of the Hummelincki.
 
Having her this long and not seeing the eye spot is unheard of (especially during aggression) and there are not a lot of other common octopuses in the area. Hard to know about the behavior. Octane would crawl up the lid but never attacked me or tried to crawl up my arm (video was posted but I think it disappeared with the new release of VBulletin). Vulgaris are known as being more prone to escape (they change dens frequently and I am thinking this has something to do with it). I always wanted to keep one but tank requirements may ultimately be a problem (if she is vulgaris, lets hope she is on the small side and not on the Legs side of average). Fortunately, our Atlantic variety seem to be considerably smaller than the Mediteranean group. The recommended tank size for the larger animal is 350 gallons :shock:. I tried to get a gallonage on the tank at Mote (they had a pair that were found together in the wild in a tank that did not look that large and the pair had been there a year). Unfortunately, I never received a tank sizing.

I think I am very jealous!
 

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