Waldo - Macropus Complex

[Dools]

That worked.

Thanks D.

 

[Dools]

Sorry for the video quality.

 

[Dools]

Last night I set up a red CFL bulb over Waldo's tank. It illuminates the tank really well and I wasn't sure he would come out. When I went to check on him this morning, he was out and his usual active self. I really focused on his 8 arms to see if I could confirm his sex. I do believe he sometimes coils the 3rd arm (from clockwise) at the end, so I will continue to regard him as male. I also noticed one his arms (5th from clockwise) is missing the tip.

I filmed a short video of his activity which is a better quality than th previous video. It is hard to get really sharp quality with a red light. He also ate another freeze-dried krill, so I am glad to see he is accepting non-live food. I purchased some frozen shelled-shrimp which I will try to feed him next.

Happy New Year

 

[DWhatley]

Happy New Year to you and Waldo!

I'm glad you tried the red light. As I mentioned it works very well for viewing but miserably for photography. My camera has a way to compensate but I have never gotten around to trying it out so I don't know how much its the white balance adjustment would help.

If Waldo does not accept the shelled shrimp right away, try shell on and then go back to these after he takes them easily. I expect you will not have a problem though as it has only been the very young animals that we have found the shell makes a difference. DO be sure that it is tank temperature before offering (thawing in tank water is fine).

If the tip truncation is new, look for something in your tank that he can get into. I can't tell if there is a little thread coming off the shortened arm or not. If there is a thread like extension (new growth but initially it looks like a string that should not be there) then the damage was more likely done before entering the tank (it takes a few weeks to be easily seen). They almost always find uncovered power heads so adding a screening on intakes is heavily recommended (I find zipping media bags work really well for this and even keep my Koralias inside them even though I have not seen damage to an adult).

 

[Dools]

Question about Interaction

Dools - Hi D,

I have question. Is physical interaction important? Waldo keeps reaching out (it seems anyway) when he is on the front of the glass. I let him briefly touch my finger, but to be honest; I am not sure I want him grabbing hold of me (color me a wuss). I did let him touch me briefly this morning, but I pulled back and he shot across the tank (no inking though, ).

I meant to say the shrimp I purchased still have the shell; so I will see how he likes them soon. Also, I did remove the mollie from the tank; so now it is just him, a hermit crab and a conch.

Lastily, I am pretty sure his arm was like that when I purchased him; so I do not think anything happened in my tank. I will keep an eye out to see it it starts growing back. Compared to his other 3 "back" arms, not much of it is missing.

Happy New Year and thanks for all the great info.

Dools

DWhatley - If you don't see any regrowth, then he has likely found something in the tank that he should not have, they stick their "fingers" into everything looking for food (child protection caps on all electrical sockets ). Regrowth is pretty fast once you see the little "string" but may take a week or two before it starts. It is quite normal to receive them missing all or parts of arms though so try to get a good look at it (hard, I know they don't hold still well).

There is no requirement to interact but they are curious about you and touching is their way of showing that curiosity. You don't want to whimp out and pull back quickly though (hard to do when they surprise you, especially when cleaning the tank and you don't see them out). If you decide you want to experiment, I recommend inviting contact when you are NOT feeding. Most nips have come from accidental tasting when they are being fed. Neither of mine were in the least bit aggressive (unlike my current O. briareus, Yeti who is always more interested in capturing your hand than her food for the first 5 minutes at feeding time). The beak (the only part that is a concern) is located in the center of the arms. As long as you keep your fingers out of this area, there is no possibility of being bitten. If you don't want physical contact (and a few other keepers do not), then I recommend always using a feeding stick. I personally think you miss something in keeping them if you don't have play time with them though. One of my O. hummelinckis would play a little with a floating toy. I would push it to him and he would push it back. Legos have been a popular toy with some but others ignore toys altogether. Here is an interaction video with Puddles you might want to watch to see how gentle they are should you decide interaction is unavoidable Generally, when they are not accustomed to touching you (no so afterwards) simply touching the back of the arm will get them to release you.

I would like you to journal your touch and go experience and you desire not to interact. These journals can be very helpful to others in addition to great references for yourself over time.


Dools - Great video of you and Puddles. I will work on my interaction hesitation and post how it goes in the journal.

DWhatley - I am looking forward to how this plays out. It is probably a good thing you are starting with this species . Yeti has become quite agressive at feeding time. Watch the three videos, starting here to get an idea. This is not to scare you and the macropus is not as strong nor as agressive as an adult briareus. Yeti insists that we "play" at supper time and won't have it that she is simply fed. For a long time, she would hold her food at her beak so there was no concern about biting but now she knows the food won't go away and will drop it until she is satisfied we have given her enough attention. When I clean the tank she will wrap around my arm. I just ignore her and don't play so she goes back to her den.

 

[tonmo]

Great to meet Waldo, Dools, thanks for sharing!

 

[Dools]

Lighting Question

D,

I have a question regarding lighting. Currently the main light on Waldo's tank is on from 1 - 7 pm and the red light is on the rest of the time. Unfortunately he is not coming out of hiding until the middle of the night and staying out until I guess the main light comes on again. This leaves very little time for interaction because I am getting ready for work.

What I want to do is gradually shift the time the main light is on to the middle night which I am hoping will shift his clock to coming out late afternoon and evening when I am home and have more time for interaction.

Your thoughts?

Thanks,
Dools

 

[DWhatley]

We have tossed around this idea before but I don't know of anyone trying it, mostly because tank rooms usually have ambient light that make it impractical to shift the cycle. I can't think of any reason you can't do it if you can control the ambient light though. This is an Indonesian animal living on US time so, theoretically, you have already accomplished a day/night shift. With some octos, I have seen them out after dark with tank light off (or red lights only on) and room lights on but only after they have adjusted to a regular feeding time. This was not with either Macropus though. Both were fully nocturnal until their last week of life.

What we can't do, is turn a nocturnal into a diurnal animal (I think it may have something to do with their eyes being too sensitive to light over some non-physical restriction). With the crepuscular (early morning/early evening hunters), we often see them more and more day active as they age but long before senescence. You will notice squinting eyes but they seem to adjust if they are in a room that has human activity (not sure if this holds true for secluded rooms but divers will see vulgaris during the day so I suspect they are more an anytime I am hungry I will forage animal).

 

[Dools]

Playing with Waldo

This morning I determined that I would let Waldo physically interact with me. The 1st encounter was a slow process for both of us, but eventually his longest arms connected with the back of my submerged hand. After only a few seconds of contact he withdrew and jetted to the back of the tank. After a few minutes he came back to the front of the tank, so I put my hand in the water again and he jetted to the back after a "touching" me again. This touch and jet action repeated itself a couple more times, each time more of his arms wrapped around my fingers. The next time he completely wrapped his body around one of my fingers and thankfully, did not bite. After one more touch and jet encounter, he remained coiled up at the back of the tank, so I assumed "play time" was over. This is why I wanted an octopus, .

Tomorrow morning I will see if he wants to play again, but only after I offer him food first, . I will also try to record our next play date, but under the red light the quality of the video may not be that great.

Also, as he is doing very well under the current lighting conditions and timing, I will not make any changes. Thanks for the information D.

Dools

 

[DWhatley]

This is why I wanted an octopus

What happened to

I am not sure I want him grabbing hold of me (color me a wuss).

I call the first stages of investigation, touch and go and it is the common way we get introduced (willing or not). Waldo may or may not play again for 3 or 4 days. I have found this an odd common occurrence after the first long play period and have conjectured that researchers are missing something about their long term memory. If my observations hold, he will again play but never as long as the first extended time but relatively frequently once he "remembers" that playing was safe. How often seems to depend on the individual octopus. LittleBit (vulgaris) and Yeti (briareus) have been my most active with contact and want touch time daily. However, they are/were my most aggressive octos. LittleBit was so strong that I never quite trusted her. Yeti is working her way to being trusted and is a bit gentler with her interaction this last week (I have made a concentrated effort to interact when not feeding and I think this helps). Neither bit but the opportunities have been intentionally minimized by keeping fingers clear of the beak area.

 

[Dools]

Well I am not ready to have Waldo "grapple" with me like Yeti does with you, but actually watching him interact with me is why octos fascinate me. I will see if he is ready to play again tomorrow or if it won't be for a few days. I'll keep you posted.

 

[DWhatley]

Yeti and LittleBit are/were the exceptions, most are much gentler and Yeti appears to be becoming less aggressive in her play. Both my macropuses and all my hummelincki were/are gentle and not at all aggressive. To be honest, aggressive may be a poor choice of words as I don't know what would happen if I just let them have my hand. Neither has bitten when grabbing my arm when I clean the tank but fingers are easier to nip and look more like food. It is always best to keep in mind that these are not domestic animals. They are intelligent for inverts but I would not compare them to a dog or cat. Sometimes that is hard to remember though, as they often learn to come to the front of the tank for attention when you walk by and you wish you could at least let them know they are cared about.

 

[Dools]

D,

Your comments from previous experience are spot on so far. Today Waldo stayed at the bottom of the tank and made no effort to come to the front of the glass. I was able to feed him using a feeding stick. I gave him a piece of shrimp I purchased at our local market. The shell separated from the flesh while thawing; but he took it anyway and apparently devoured the whole piece, which was almost half the size of his mantle. I guess he was hungry, . I guess I'll see how long it will be before he is ready to play again. If and when he does, I will keep in mind that he may not "remember" our previous interaction.

 

[DWhatley]

They seem to remember in that he will likely be less timid when he comes to play again but not play as long. It seems to take somewhere from 3 days to a week for them to "remember". The memory part is conjecture but absence of interaction after the first long "play" seems to be fairly consistent.

If he is taking shell off, then just remove the shells before feeding to keep hard to retrieve waste out of the tank. I only recommend using shell on in the beginning as sometimes it makes a difference on initial acceptance. For years I swore O. mercatoris would not take table shrimp (making them more expensive to feed than larger animals). One day Neal tried shell on with Sleazy because we were out of fiddlers and were amazed that she took it. Since then we have had several others that would refused (Yeti is one of them) shell off frozen until they became accustomed to being hand fed (then almost anything goes ) I would second guess that nocturnals would be less picky but O. mercatoris is also nocturnal. Age and prior hunting experience may play in the difference.

 

[haggs]

Tomorrow morning I will see if he wants to play again, but only after I offer him food first, .

I know when I "play" with an Octopus it is under different conditions, but I only feed them after I had made contact. Not so much as a reward but to make sure that I don't have the "taste" of food on my fingers and hopefully it reduces the risk of being bitten.