Waldo - A. aculeatus

[SabrinaR]

OK so I finally saw Waldo moving around in a way that I got a much better idea of mantle to leg ratio. WOW he has REALLY long arms. His mantle is about 1.5 " but his legs are 6+ inches long. What is the leg to mantle ratio of an Aculeatus, cause now i'm wondering again if it is or not.

He is definitely diurnal, He sleeps through the night and he has been hunting during the day.

I give him a a 1/2 a shrimp tail in the morning which eat eats right away. Then he perches in different places around the tank and observes the days happenings. I catch him eating a decorator crab every now and then but I have yet to witness the hunt. Today he did quite a bit of exploring and we had a little game of hide and seek going but he is still pretty shy of me.

HP has REALLY long arms too. I was suprised by the length. I wanted to ask you... How long did it take Waldo to start staying out during the day? So far HP has been out mostly at night. I woke up around 5 this morning and she was out. The second the sun came up she was gone. I didnt see her all day until 7 tonight when I saw her hunting so I fed her a shrimp on a stick. She took it then went right into her den.

 

[CaptFish]

It was about a week before he settled into a routine.

 

[CaptFish]

 

[sedna]

Oh, man, she's a beauty!

 

[CaptFish]

Feeding Waldo

 

[Lmecher]

Wow, great video. How many fish you have in Waldo's tank? I would love to have something swimming around in mine to look at. Have you lost any to Waldo yet? Were they collected by you? I am looking at everyone's rockwork, getting ideas for new tank. Never planned one for octopuses, last one was an old reef. Any wisdom you can send my way, somethind to keep in mind, maybe what you'd do differently etc... would be appreciated. I am thinking caves and such for dens.

 

[CaptFish]

There is a wild caught File Fish and about six assorted pacific Damsels from my LFS, they were the fish I used to cycle the tank. Waldo pays no mind to them, and they ignore him. the only time they acknowledge each other is when Waldo is eating. As you can see in the video the file fish likes to get a few bites of the shrimp before Waldo grabs it. I had fish in with Legs as well and I have found that as long as the fish is Larger than the octopus they are OK. Legs killed one of my Gobies once beacuse it was trying to take over her Den. The Rest of the fish she ate once she was large enough to get them, about six months. Penelope lives with A pair of black Pericula clowns which she ignores also, these two are the size for Penny to eat, so we'll see what happens. I was forced to take the clowns when I purchased my 40 gallon tank, I really didn't want them and tbe only place I could put was in that tank. I tried to catch them before i got Penny but catching two fish in 125 gallon tank is impossible.

 

[CaptFish]

CONTACT! Only 25 days in the tank and we touched for the first time today. Now granted its not like I was holding him or petting him, but we made progress.

So at around 1 pm my neighbor came over to play with my tanks as he does everyday, he has had many in the past he even had a 400 gallon tank at a bar he owned that he did all the maintenance on, it was very impressive; anyway, he has no tanks now so he uses mine. Well he was making his rounds checking the various beasties an noticed that Waldo was on the front glass which so far has been rare, he is always out but on the back glass or the rocks. So he proceeded to put his finger against the glass and play which I thought was going to send him running but too my surprise he followed hi finger all over the glass and seemed to be enjoying himself. Cool! That lasted about 5 minutes and the new friends parted ways. Later I was walking by the tank and sure enough he was right on the front glass bobbing his little head. So we finger played for awhile and he went right to the surface of the water, So feeling lucky I decided to stick one finger in the water about a foot away from him. He bobbed his head a few times a slowly crept over to my finger and stuck out one arm to investigate. she felt my finger for a little and the n slowly retreated back down. Most excellent!!!

 

[SabrinaR]

MOST EXCELLENT!!! I'm very happy for you!

Question for you Capt, You said that you put crabs in the tank and let at least one of your octos hunt for the food as they wish... How do you find the shells after they have been eaten with out the tank getting completely disturbed?

 

[CaptFish]

You said that you put crabs in the tank and let at least one of your octos hunt for the food as they wish

All my octos have snacks to eat when they please. Waldo has decorator crabs, snails, and hermits. But his primary food source is frozen shrimp. but he has eaten a little of everything so far. Penny has a dozen live shrimp at all times, which is her primary food, but I also give her shrimp on a stick to help with learning to be social. Izzy eats only snails and hermit, and has stopped eating frozen, mostly cause I dont see her to feed her, she has a few decorators too but does not eat them.

How do you find the shells after they have been eaten with out the tank getting completely disturbed?

I dont. If I see remains that have meat I will remove it, but I have huge clean up crews that include fish, snails, crabs, starts, cucumbers, and shrimps of all types. so really I never find any remains except hermit and snail shells, those I leave. All the octos eat the shrimp shells. and the fish eat the crab remains.

 

[SabrinaR]

Very weird, HP doesnt eat the shells of shrimp. I find the empty shells floating around and remove them.

 

[CaptFish]

Hmmm, something in my tank eats them.

 

[sulley]

thats great capt

 

[DWhatley]

I suspect it is not the octo eating the shrimp shells as none of mine have eaten them either, maybe the hermits (but usually anything that will eat shells, creates a shell of their own).

 

[Lmecher]

Waldo is really beautiful, has got me wanting one like him. Maybe once the 50 is empty. Congrats on the contact