Seven - O.Hummelincki

[DWhatley]

This "species" is so weird. The white on the iris is a new color to me. I have seen it red but not noted seeing it white. I see the orange/red in Monty that I never noted before but I am just not sure what Monty is because of his unusual color display and the black eyespot.

 

[bikeguy33]

great video and great ceph.....seven looks like a happy critter...

 

[CaptFish]

So far today he has been quite active. when i go over to the tank wit hthe camera he comes right over to me.

I was worried about the white eyes myself but of all me octos he seems to have tbe best vision. well Pen's is great too.

 

[DWhatley]

Monty's vision is also far better than the twins. It is clear he sees and has learned to recognize the dogs (and now accepts their presence without much care). I think he even sees me petting them as he would settle down when they were still unfamiliar if I would pet them with the hand that was not in the tank. Octane clearly recognized different people but I am not sure this was true with any of the briareus and did not really have an observation opportunity with the Macropuses (because of their very late night/early AM activity time).

 

[Lmecher]

The LFS said they are more than happy to ship these guys.

Really? Very interested, sent you a PM.

 

[CaptFish]

wow its been a month since I posted
Remind me next time! LOL

Seven is terrific. He is great little octo with lots of personality. He is out most of the day foraging and exploring. But he is always is a his den by lights out at 8pm and I have never seen him come out in the dark.

I went with an every other day feeding schedule with him and it seems to work well. He eats 1/2 a large shrimp tail. He'll eat both from my hand or from the stick. I like to use the stick with him because he really seems to love tug-o-war, on the rare occasion I let him win he carries his prize stick around all day it's pretty funny.

Although he is fine with hand feeding he is not interested in all in playing with my hand when its in the tank. He comes over to me every time I put my hand in the water but he either comes up and just sits next to it or he'll reach out touch it real quick the scurry off to the other side of the tank.
He likes to play follow the finger on the outside of the tank, but that and tug-o-war are about all the interaction I get from him.Which is fine.

He does do one this that none of my other octos have done whenever he is moving he keeps himself spread out, like a star fish. always, its strange, but it looks beautiful. A friend's four year old daughter was at my house glued to the tanks the other day and pointed at Seven and said "Look Daddy a starfish". too funny, but I could easily see how she was confused as he was crawling along the glass with one arm, except the third, out in each direction.

 

[DWhatley]

We have not passed touch-and-go with Cassy yet either. She will sometime linger on Neal's hand when he has the acrylic feeding stick (I am not sure if she does it with the bamboo) but pure investigative touching is still very fast and untrusting.

 

[CaptFish]

I'm not sure this guy is a Hummelincki after all. He just never looks like one. Maybe he really is from Indonesia. What octos from over there have eye spots?

I have a video uploading now but it will be awhile as its over 200 meg. and I have a crappy connection. I need more bandwidth!

 

[CaptFish]

Well Hummelincki or not what do you think?

 

[SabrinaR]

Well I will start with a question... Is that picture at the start of the video Seven? Because if so I saw the purple suckers that we expect of O. hummelicki. However in the video I didnt see any purple suckers. I remember that guy from that which shall remain nameless claiming that some of their "bimacs" came from over there so I dont know. Just my

 

[CaptFish]

Yes the pic in the beginning is seven. now you see why i'm confused too.

 

[DWhatley]

What makes you think he does not look like hummelincki? He looks typical of Octane and OhToo. The boring brown just means he is not putting on any camo now that he is comfy with his environment (same with my two males, the females brooded before they were in the tank a month). Unfortunately, I have yet to see are really good description of this species. Not even the eye spot is well described (just that it exists, Norman's is a copy of the bimac description and I believe in error for any of the Caribbean group) and I am sure this is not the same species as Monty. The question is, which one (if either) was described as filosus and is filosus really synonomous with hummelincki? I wish some grad student would take on writing up a really good description for the Caribbean octopuses (there is a great one on joubini done at the University of Miami)

 

[CaptFish]

I'm a little worried about Seven, although he is acting as he normally does he very very pale, white actually. He also took his shrimp yesterday but spit it out a few minutes later. I am hopiung he is just bored of frozen shrimp and not near the end. I have to say he is out of the den and on the glass more than any octopus I have ever had, in the past I though this was cool but maybe he is just senescent (sp?)

 

[CaptFish]

Well as I suspected Seven died just now. I had him almost 4 months which seems pretty normal for these dwarf O.hummelincki. He did not grow at all since I got him. He ate nothing but frozen store bought shrimp the entire time I had him. The last few days I offered him some live foods but it was already too late.

final measurements
Mantle Length: 2"
Arm length(longest, but still damaged): 4"

RIP Seven

 

[SabrinaR]

RIP Seven

I'm sorry for your loss Capt.