The Agent Update!

Joined
Jul 31, 2003
Messages
1,312
Sorry for it being so long. :frown:
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From 3-12-04 to 2-29-04:

3-12-04 Friday - He inked again today. :frown: It happened the same way again. I had gone down to get my watch which I had taken off so it wouldn't get wet. When I flicked on the light I saw the ink cloud. If I ever need some light that early I'll just slowly turn on the halogen light. It has a dimming switch so he probably won’t get scared as easily. I got it out though. It was easy with the fine holed net.

Later I gave him some more clams. He has a huge stack of them now. LOL!

3-11-04 Thursday - All of the clams were eaten. I saw him sucking/holding on to another blue leg crab shell. I need to get more crabs. I only have a few left in the tank and a couple in the 'fuge. I guess I'll take those out and give 'em to The Agent. One scarlet hermit crab has a small feather duster on it's shell that he has in his pile.

Also, he moved the emerald crab some and it looks like he ate a lil bit of it. :smile:

Later, I gave him about 5 more clams. I fed him using the tube and he eagerly grabbed it and stuck an arm in the gather the bounty. He's getting more trusting. :biggrin2:

I later took out the orange bottle cap and filled it with about 13 clams. I put it in and tomorrow we will see how much he ate.

3-10-04 Wednesday - This morning I went downstairs and when I turned on the light I saw a shadow move in the tank. I walked a little closer and a dark cloud of ink appeared. I watched it float around the tank. It flowed in the same matter as mucus. I grabbed the net with the smallest holes and caught most of the ink.

Later, when I came home, The Agent was fine. He was in his den and had repositioned the crab, again. I’m going to leave it in. He ate the right set of legs, I think.

When I fed him he acted hungry. He came out after I waved the feeding tube toward him. Not all the way out, but he had 3 arms sticking out. I'll see what he ate tomorrow.

3-09-04 Tuesday - The Agent didn't eat as much today. Maybe 10 clams. I guess because he didn't eat the first few days he was eating extra to make up for it. But now he should be eating a little less. He had positioned the crab in a funny way. It had it's arms crossed. He didn’t really play today.

3-08-04 Monday - We had a lot of interaction today! I guess it was because I made the water a better salinity. He seems much less shy, now. 8) In the morning he had eaten all of the clams from the cap and with no weight to hold it down, it floated. So I put 5 more clams in and stared at him, watching. Eventually he became confident and reached out, toward the clams, with an arm. He grabbed one and started to open it. After about 20 minutes he dropped a nice clean open clam shell onto his stack and reached for another. :biggrin2:

Later, I really had some interaction. I took my feeding tube (A great device shaped like a very slightly curved J. This allows me to drop the clams in wherever (and whenever) I want without getting my hands wet) and put the clams in. I steered the pipe above the bottlecap and was tilting it so the clams would come out when suddenly, Agent Smith, became interested. He had moved slightly so I froze. After about 2 minutes he stuck out an arm. He waved it around trying to find the clear tube. When he found it he pulled the tube toward him, resulting in the clams falling out. But then he eagerly snatched 'em up and ate 'em.

Also, I took a dead emerald crab (the death probably resulted from it getting too close to The Agent and he bit the crab with his toxic saliva) and put it next to his den.

After moving the crab I wanted to see if he was confident enough to touch my hand. When I first put my hand near his den I had it in a fully open. (I soon realized that's not the best way to gain an octopus's trust) I had my hand down near his den for about 20 seconds and I guess he felt threatened because he siphoned water at me at an incredible speed. If I was a small fish I would have been blown away. I should have stuck 1 finger out so he was used to the shape before sticking my whole hand down near his den.

3-07-04 Sunday - Today I just kept filling the bottlecap back up whenever he had eaten some. He probably ate 15 clams. :smile: Not much interaction though.

Also, I took some tank readings:
Ammonia: 0 PPM
Nitrite: 0 PPM
Nitrate: 45 PPM
pH: 8.2
Salinity (Specific Gravity): 1.028

Everthing was good except the salinity was a little high. I must have been from me replacing evaporated water with salt water. Bad plan. Salt doesn't evaporate. Anyway, I had 5 gallons of fresh water and I’m glad I did. I added that and checked the salinity again. 1.026. Perfect. :biggrin2: All was well for The Agent again.

3-06-04 Saturday - Really early this morning (like 4 A.M.) I had some more technical trouble but this wasn’t as bad. The hose had come off the beginning of the skimmer again. I superglued it once more and then went to sleep.

After I had woken up I checked the tank. The hose had come off again. :frown: So then I got to thinking, why is this happening? I followed the tube and discovered it had lots of extra tension. That was the simple solution.

Looks like The Agent has a new den. A better one in my opinion. The den is on a piece of live rock. He had some shells and Red Ball II near it. I saw he had eaten a clam and 2 blue-legged hermit shells were near the den too. :biggrin2:

After seeing he had a new den I checked the orange colored bottlecap. No, clams were in it! :biggrin2: I put some more in a moved it to his new den.

I ate some breakfast then looked in. He had pulled the bottlecap nearer to his den and eaten 4 of the 5 clams. The reason he didn’t get the last was probably because it was hidden under two rocks.

So throughout the day I kept giving him his fill. He would eat some and I’d fill it back up. :smile:

3-05-04 Friday - This morning I went down to look at him as soon as I woke up. I saw him to the right of his rock. I shined a light above him so I could see him but he wasn’t as scared. He circled the rock and went behind it. I angled the flashlight trying to get a better look. Suddenly he came out the other side! He then did a circle around the rock again. :smile: Wasn’t expecting him to come out again. I guess he's getting used to me. :biggrin2:

When I got home I had couldn't find him. Then later, I spotted him in a piece of liverock. I counted the clams in the bottletop. 3. Good that means he ate. I added 2 more then put the makeshift plate near his den. At the end of the night he bobbed his head at me. :smile:

3-04-04 Thursday - I ate breakfast down in the basement today, watching him. The tank looks alot better with the Red Ball II from www.Octopets.com. Makes it look more alive and organic. :smile:

He was still in his den. That must really be his den. I can’t see any shells as a door but it's hard to see in; as it’s at the middle of the tank. I can sorta see around it but not in.

I’ve found a way to see if he's eating. I got a clean waterbottle top and put rocks in it. That way it doesn’t float. Then I put 5, repeat, 5 clams in it and stuck it in the ground. Tomorrow we'll see if he ate during the night. He is does, that's great. :smile:

3-03-04 Wednesday - This morning I looked in and he was in still in the same place. That must be his den. I shined a light in and he bobbed his head at me. LOL! Now I bob my head back!

Later, when I got home, he was out, but under the rock. He had the "eye horns" going on. As soon as he saw me though, he shot back to his rocky den.

Also, I noticed a shell with no crab in it. He may have eaten it or it might be from the shell substrate I got.

At the end of the day around 10:30 P.M. I looked in at his den and saw him waving an arm around. 8)

3-02-04 Tuesday - Today I got my octo! The shipment got here at 10:20 A.M. I quickly opened the box to see the octo that now has left me with 6 tanks. LOL! I put him in a bucket and started a drip acclimation. I added a PVC pipe to make him feel secure. He went right on in. Some 3 hours later I decided it was time to add him to the tank. I carefully picked up the PVC and put it in the tank. That’s when I got this pic: http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=2103. Later he pulled a shell up in the tube as a little door! Genuis!

He eventually left his tube. I looked in and he was no where to be seen. Well, unless he wanted to be seen LOL! He was under a rock very close to the PVC. He would always look at me with at least one eye. He was hiding behind a rock near the PVC.

3-01-04 Monday - Well today I had some technical problems. I had used tape to keep a hose connected to the skimmer pump. It had gotten wet and come undone (now I see this as a big duh) so that meant the skimmer wasn’t getting any more water and so the sump had had alot of the water pumped out and was just barely full (and my heated cracked :-( ) while the old fuge was totally full. It had overflowed but luckily had not been spilling very long before I got home, so I only lost about a gallon (I also had a backup siphon on it, which slowed the spilling to only a few drops a minute so it probably could have lasted a few more hours and not have been über bad).

It's fixed now. I got another, bigger hose that fits better. But because it was a different size, I had to rematch the pumps again. The pain in the arse began again. I also had to get another heater because the other had cracked. It's good the pump didn’t burn out because I had to order them specially.

2-29-04 - The tank is cloudy because I added some sand yesterday. Ive been talking with a friend from www.TONMO.com and he's been helping me sort through some problems. I had to match the speed of one pump to the speed of another exactly right and it was a pain in the arse.
 
Hi BOE,

You're doing a good job with your journal!

You might want to add how big the Agent is/was, for future comparison.
Also, you might mention color from time to time - that would be helpful.

The amount of detail you're including is very good. Very good information about the eating. I really enjoyed reading it!

Nancy
 
Excellent!!! I was going to ask how "The Agent" was!!!! What a great way to document our babies lives!!!!

Can hardly wait for the pics!!

Carol
 
Hi BOE,

I have a suggestion for you to stop the inking. Turning on the light in a dark area can startle an octopus. I caused Ollie to ink once by doing that.

Then I read that it is never entirely dark in the ocean. After that, I left a small light on in the room, but not beside her aquarium. Then I didn't need to turn on a light when I entered. Octopuses startle easily. A dimmer switch for your main light would be good, too.

Nancy
 
Thanks Nancy. Similar to moon lighting I guess?

joel_ang said:
WOW :shock: That is alot of stuff, a wonderful journal! Did you also write the stuff down, I imagine its quite hard to remember.

I write it down a little later than it happens. Usually I watch him in the morning and then write it down on my iPAQ when Im gone. Once I get home I interact and then right before I go to sleep I right what happened that afternoon. :smile:
 
Inklet inked today! I didn't see him do it, just saw this black cloud in the tank and realized he must have been out when I sat on the bed and I freaked him! Net works great on ink!!! Also, I leave my light on 24/7 on my tanks. Just always have. They seem to find darkness when they need it.

The Agent will come out more as he adjusts.

Carol
 
:notworth: BOE, do you want to type my handwriten Jornal out for me :lol:

Sounds great.

I have siphoned out the ink like a water change. Pulled it all out in about 1/2 a gallon of water, and added fresh stuff back. Knew that way I got it all!

Nets sound like they work, but I didn't want to be waving it all over and scare him again is why I didn't do it!
 

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