[Octopus]: Shiitake - O. briareus

They definitely mind the light and are rarely seen out until they are older. Even the adults only tend to stay out for an hour or so when the tank and room lights are on. I leave the red lights on 24/7 so often you will see the red showing even when the normal white/blue are on. One thing I have noticed but have not figured out a way to test is that they seem to be more aware of the ambient (room) light than the tank light. In this case the room lights were off but the tank light was on.
 
FINALLY, after 4 weeks this mushroom hugging octopus has a name, Shiitake. He came out around midnight and I watched him for about two hours. Much of the discarded video was waiting for him to do SOMETHING as he wore the mushroom as a hat. The only mushroom hat wearer I found was Toad in the Mario series so I went for a mushroom name (subject to an alternate from Neal). I did manage a few photos and a red light video.

huntingMushrooms_flash_4weeks_crop.jpg hunting_4Weeks_flash_crop.jpg huntingMushroomHat_4weeks.JPG

 
Last edited:
Not only did she/he get a name tonight but we had our first human/octo interactions. The first was unrecorded when she reached out for my face on the glass. The second did not record well but touching the glass brought her from inside the LR to reach out to my finger (you can see the action a bit better in full screen). Sadly, I missed the spread eagle pounce against the back wall just after she left me and climbed the rocks.

 
Week 7 in captivity
Shiitake's tank got new LED lights this week and I need to work with my camera settings. These are somewhat programmable with options for percentage of blue and white (sadly no red), and timing. This week I am using one of the presets and leaving the screw in red fluorescent on. The preset has an all blue night light and combined with the red the photos come out badly focused and magenta. I broke down and used the flash to record growth and get a good visual but the focus is not sharp.

Only a couple of my O. briareus have tended to take this upside down rock hugging posture. I know one was female but not sure about the other and will have to see if I can find where I mentioned it to see if there appears to be any sexing significants.

She stayed out and watched me for half an hourish last night but did not reach for my finger as she did a few weeks ago. She has been mostly reclusive for the last couple of weeks so I hope this is the beginning of more sightings but tonight I have only spotted her on the back wall behind the rock.

DSCN1519.JPG curiosity_flash_7weeks_01.JPG curiosity_flash_7weeks_03.JPG
 
Shiitake (4 months in the aquarium) is rarely seen in daylight so I am playing with the white balance to see what the camera can do to correct for the red lighting.

huntingEarlyAM_4Months_06.JPG huntingEarlyAM_4Months_04.JPG

huntingEarlyAM_4Months_02.JPG huntingEarlyAM_4Months_03.JPG
 
The latest pictures make her look much bigger than she is. Her arms ARE long but her mantle is still pretty small. She has a really nice web but rarely deploys it. Keep in mind you are only looking at about 1/3 of the tank.
 
Last edited:
Shiitake has remained very nocturnal. Her vision is quite poor, something I have noticed in others of this species but she seems to be worse than most I have kept as even distance viewing does not appear to be sharp. She has started investigating my hand in a more curious vs grabby manner and will hunt my fingers with multiple arms and then gently explore when she finds them (I move my fingers to create current to help her locate them). Her mantle remains quite small but her arms are very long and her webbing quite full but I have yet to see her fully deploy it over the rocks.
 
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. :biggrin2:

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.
 
I wish I had at least tried a video tonight. As with last night she ignored her supper and came to my hand but she was out on the front of the tank and was aggressive/insistent. If an octopus can jump then I would say she jumped on my hand and ultimately ended up on the open lid (my hand was mostly above the water and I twisted it slightly when she pounced). She just kind of sat sprawled out on the inside of the lid and looked at me. I closed the lid (making sure all arms were inside) and she slid back into the water and to the back wall. I retrieved her crab claw from the rock, handed it to her and this time she took it under her webbing and showed no further interest in me. I wonder if this is going to become a nightly routine. I suspect she is looking for a mate as her mantle has gotten noticeably longer in the last week. Having not seen other octopuses, I wonder if she thinks my hand is a male :roll:
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top