Still not much luck trying to get pictures of Shiitake but there are a couple of oddities with this one that I want to record in her journal with hopes of getting pictures later.
1. She positions her arms oddly when she is on the glass (particularly the front glass). The positioning is nothing like a corkscrew but he arms are bent in odd angles and often overlap. Tonight she positioned one arm so that part of it made a 1" loop very close to the body with the webbing deployed within the loop but not elsewhere. The water movement over the webbing made it look like the loop was breathing.
2. She does come out with the lights on when no one is around and seems to hunt around 5:30 PM. Several times about this time I have been upstairs (in my office), heard the skimmer pump sucking air and run down to the tank to avoid an overflow problem. This is caused by the tank starting to overfill (one of the reasons I have mentioned that two overflows should be considered when building a tank). She can't reach the bulkhead but I suspected and finally caught her sticking her arms through the weir openings and blocking flow with her body. I assume she is hunting and not intentionally raising the water level or causing intentional mischief.
3. She is probably the most reclusive octopus we have had. When I do see her in daylight, she does not dash for her den but either exists slowly (but too fast to get pictures) or waits until I turn my back or leave the room to hide. She does not come out again until sometime during the night. If she is hungry, it may be as early as 11:00 but sometime it is not 4:00 or 5:00 AM.
4. She is the first octopus I have had that will reject food but come back and pick it up from the substrate later. Tonight, it was clear she remembers where she placed the rejected offering. She has started taking an interest in my hand and will investigate it for several minutes, sometimes rejecting the food offering (that she will later eat). She uses multiple arms to check out my hand and arm, occasionally pulling but usually just lighting investigating. She will let me tickle her suckers but does not allow me to pet her head, mantle or top part of her arm. If, while she is investigating my hand the top touches my fingers she tolerates the touch but moves the arm without letting it linger.
5. Her sight is very poor. I have mentioned it before but wanted to add it to her oddities list. She seems to see movement a few feet outside of her tank (she appears to see the dogs come up and demand petting while I have one hand in the tank) but flails her arms around to locate food inches from he mantle. I move the food offering to provide its location with water movement and scent. She does seem to find live crabs without a problem.