"Don Geddis" wrote in message
...
"Nehmo" wrote on 13 Apr 2007 03:1:
I'm beginning to conclude the traveling-oct story has no truth to it.
Since plenty of people keep them as aquarium subjects, behavior as
bizarre as this would have been better documented by now.


Yea I agree,
sure they might grab things in a close by tank
but they aint very good at crosscountry
and they suck at climbing tanks and getting BACK INTO THEM.
usually ya get an ink spot on ya floor where they die
:-(


Have you read any advice about keeping octopuses as in home tanks? They
*all* say that it's an absolute requirements to have a secured, locked lid
on
top of the tank. Octopusus are well known for being able to escape out of
supposedly-secure tanks, through any opening no bigger than their beaks.
They can definitely unscrew jar lids, unlatch locks, and walk across dry
land.

'walk accross dry land'
I think not.
They can drag themselves from rockpool to rockpool
but walk they cannot.


There's really no question that this is possible, even common. Get
yourself
an octopus, put it in an open tank, put on a night-vision camera, and I'm
sure you can make the video you wish within days or perhaps even hours.


Actually I often have to remove lids from octopus tanks in summer as it gets
hot here.
It is a rare thing for an octopus to leave a tank if it's happy in there and
got lots of live food.
Why is my experience so different? I don't know but I can say that if an
ocky wants to escape they are good at it....
just don't seem to want to very often.



In public aquaria (which have huge tanks, huge octopuses, and are
difficult to
fully secure in 3D), the keep-them-in-their-cage trick seems to be
astroturf.
For reasons that aren't fully understood, octopuses don't seem to like to
walk
across astroturf. So the big open tanks that have octopuses in them tend
to
have a foot or two of astroturf border nailed around the top rim.

astroturf will rot in time
I have found the plastic canvas strips to works well
altho I did glue velcro straps onto the tank to attach it with.....
heh
that said they don't usually try escape
and when they do they are hard to stop



But they are strange and probably smarter than we give them credit for.

There are lots of experiments involving puzzle-solving with octopuses.
Opening sealed jars with food inside, escaping from tanks, etc. They're
pretty well known to be among the most intelligent animals in the world
(like dolphins, whales, dogs, monkeys, etc.).

Also (vaguely related), for fun, don't miss the "Octopus vs. Shark" video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4dV6upaCvo



anyway www.tonmo.com is a good spot for ceph info
great pets they are
great pets



__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis
http://reef.geddis.org/
The only use of Tae Kwon Leep is self defense. Do you know who said that?
Ki Lo Nee, the great teacher. -- "Boot to the Head", The Frantics