The "my hand is an octopus" trick

Joined
Sep 25, 2006
Messages
572
I've noticed, with both of the bimac's that I've kept, that if they are watching me from within their den, I can lure them out by using my hand to mimic the motions of an octopus. I do this from my side of the glass, not in the water. First I make my hand "jet propel" across the front of the tank, with my wrist leading, and my fingers trailing behind. My fingers start splayed apart, and then when I bring them quickly together, my bent wrist moves quickly forward about a foot. I repeat that a couple of times and my hand comes to rest on my knee, where it starts crawling, like an octopus, up my body, across my face, and then stops on top of my head. This always gets my bimac's attention, and he usually comes out to investigate.

Does anybody else do this?
 
I did something similar at a pubic aquarium, where I used a small octopus plushy toy and made it move like an octopus. It worked, got the attention of a young GPO.

Nancy
 
You can do the 'my hand is a cuttlefish' trick as well, just hold your hand up with your fingers close together and the thumb tucked under...it doesn't seem to stress them out, but you often get some communicative color play from them. Fun!
 
Has anybody tried a life-sized toy octopus (or cuttle fish)? If my hand gets a response, I'll bet that would get a bigger response. If I get really mad-scientist, maybe I'll try to make a hand puppet our of a rubber toy octopus (no offense to any of you real scientists who may have done this as part of your vital contribution to human knowledge :notworth:)
 
In the wild cuttlefish tend to respond really well to that game, I can often get them to come quite close. Although every time I've tried the game with a cuttlefish smaller then my hand the cuttlefish has gone white and tried to hide itself.
 
In the wild cuttlefish tend to respond really well to that game, I can often get them to come quite close. Although every time I've tried the game with a cuttlefish smaller then my hand the cuttlefish has gone white and tried to hide itself.

Mark "Monty" Montague spent some time giving it a whirl... I can't recall which aquarium this was at?

:monty:
 

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