Sweet Octo Picture

Dr. Idso

New member
I took a nice shot of my octo snatching a crawdad from a glass bottle. Note the awesome stretch of its tentacle into the bottle.
 
I started doing the bottle "trick" to add some variety to the delivery of crawdads at feeding time. When I just threw a crawdad into the tank at feeding time, it typically lasted about three seconds before the octopus snatched it. The first time I tried the bottle trick, it took the octopus about 20 minutes of exploration on the bottle before it finally reached in and pulled the crawdad out. Now that I've done the bottle "trick" four or five times, the octopus goes right to the bottle and has the crawdad out in about six to seven seconds. So it is indeed time to raise the delivery method up a notch. I will put a cork plug into the bottle top and see if the octopus removes it to get at the octopus. I'll try it tomorrow.

Here's a picture I snapped of the "spike effect", which I just love to see on the mantle.

Regards,

Dr. Idso
 
How big does your octo get?? Do they require any different care than a fish...feeding and such??
 
Hello,

Right now this bimac has a mantle that is about the size of 2 to 3 golf balls stacked together. It might reach a mantle size of about 5 golf balls, which is the largest one I've had for a pet.

As for the spike effect, I'm not quite sure what causes the horns. Obviously, octopuses have awesome control of their coloration, due to their ability to quickly change their pigmentation. And I think they also possess the ability to change their cellular texture and cause stacked skin invaginations to produce the horns. I've noticed that they appear when they octopus is excited at feeding time. As soon as it sees me coming up to the tank with a crawdad, for example, its "horns" pop out above its eyes and in different locations on its mantle.

Regards,

Dr. Idso
 
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