1 week Octo update

[CalvinC4S]

Well it has been a week now since bringing home my first Octopus
(O. Bimaculoides). I have to say that this is by far the greatest pet I have ever had. It was a bit rough the first day or two. I did a 4 hour drip acclimation and it still seamed to go through a shock period of 1 day. After about three days it started to establish its lair and get familiarized with the tank. I started it out with a fiddler crab per day and now have it eatting fresh store bought shrimp from my hand. For this week I plan to teach it to eat out of a "live food container". I bought an all plastic critter box at petco. It has a simple lid and I hope to have it eating out of it. The reason is, I have about 100pds live rock and Im afraid of live food dieing out of my reach.

It has been fun watching its mood swings. I'm having a hard time translating them though...

1) real dark color change, almost black

2) shape change, spikes on the mantel.

3) Dark to light pulses around the eyes in .5 second intervals

I have read about somthing called "jester/clowning" What is this?

Thank you for all the Octo info; it wouldn't have lived through the first day if it wasn't for the posts on this board. LFS guy was worse than a used car salesman!

P.S. pictures comming soon!

 

[CalvinC4S]

Um, I bet in a month or two it will be teaching me how to spell eating.

 

[cephalopoder]

The joker effect is when one side if its body turns white and the other side black. New bimacs some times do this when they are unsure of who is watching them. Often the side faceing you is white, the bimacs scared color and the other side is black, the bimacs angry color. It is very cool to see. Relaxed colors are grey/brown. Your bimac will settle in about a week or two and be the coolist animal you have ever owned. The new bimac that I recently got has a mantle the size of a small grape. It pounced on a crayfil twice its size the other day and took out out no problem.
chris

 

[NHreefer]

My bimac, goes to all black when he lunges at his food. He actually comes out whenever I walk by the tank. He is still in his 10, about the same size as chris' . I took some more movies of him with a light on the camcorder, he almost looks orange!. I will sift through them and upload a couple more to my site if I have space left. It blows my mind how intelligent he is. I can feed him by hand now.
Chris

 

[OctoMonkey]

At least you guys can get your bloody cephs to eat!

Hmmm, still no luck wit that small octo I got! It is still roaming the tank tho and looks fine, thats the funny bit! Just wont eat anything I have tried and Ive tried all regular octo foods now.

I had a cuttle scare yesterday, thought he was maybe at the end of the line but today he looks back to normal. Dunno what happened there?????? still no matter, that's what makes cephs so much fun, they keep me on my toes
C