"Tidepool Geek" wrote in message
ups.com...
Howdy,

Octopuses are often very accomplished escape artists and crawling
across a few feet of dry surface is within the capabilities of a large
one; I'm sure that the distance capability would be related as much to
size as to species. That said, I'm also sure that when an octo climbs
out of the water its number one priority becomes finding some other
water to climb into, available food would be a side issue.

What is fairly common is for an octo to 'visit' other tanks via shared
plumbing. Unscreened drain lines especially are plenty big enough for
even a good sized GPO to fit. I'm not aware of any video but there are
numerous stories from public aquariums in the Pacific Northwest of
GPO's sneaking into an adjoining tank for a crab dinner and then
returning to its own tank and den.

I very much doubt that an octopus would be bothered by finding itself
in a tank with large crab or lobster, both of which are prey items for
octos. They might be too big for a given octo to capture and eat but
it's pretty unlikely that they'd present any threat either.

BTW: Here's a link to a Google video (39 seconds) of an octopus
escaping through a one inch hole:
http://video.google.com:80/videoplay...16107763801953

Regarding the "food in a jar" trick: As I understand it, the original
experiment was carried out in the wild and went something like this:

1. A researcher using SCUBA located and developed a rapport with one
particular Octopus (I vaguely recall that it was in the Mediterranean)
by feeding it shrimp.

2. One day the researcher showed the octo the shrimp, put the shrimp
in a jar, closed the jar with a cork, and gave the jar to the octo.
The octo took several minutes to figure out how to open the jar and
then ate the shrimp.

3. The experiment was repeated several days later and the octo opened
the jar almost immediately; possibly demonstrating memory or the
ability to learn an artificial task.

4. On a subsequent repetition of the experiment the researcher showed
the shrimp to the octo whereupon the octo swam into the jar and waited
for his meal!

At the Feiro Marine Life Center, where I volunteer, we would give our
smaller GPO (tip to tip arm-span ~ 4 or 5 feet) a squid in an old
peanut butter jar (clean of course) with a plastic screw top lid. On
the first try it took her about five minutes to get to her meal;
subsequently she would remove the lid in under a minute.
Unfortunately, one of our staff decided to give her a crab as a treat
and thereafter she completely lost interest in squid - in or out of
the jar. We also tried the jar on our larger GPO (5 or 6 feet tip to
tip) and she also managed to figure it out but there was no repetition
after we learned how difficult it was to retrieve the empty jar from
her den. [Her tank is almost five feet deep.]






"
As to escape proofing an octopus tank - Ya gotta do it! Nine times out
of ten escaping means a death sentence for the animal since they're
most likely to try when there isn't anyone around to put them back.
"

Couldn't agree more!!!
Great post by the way.





I
don't know if this is just Murphy's Law or a case of the octopus
waiting for everyone to leave. Having said that, the likelihood of an
escape attempt seems related to species and individual personality. O.
rubescens has a reputation as being an absolute demon escape artist,
probably because they've evolved to sometimes live in the intertidal
region - they don't find being out of water to be nearly as traumatic
as do some other species. OTOH: The popular O. bimaculoides (the Two-
Spot octo) seems to be far less likely to escape. The Enteroctopus
dofleini (GPO's) that we keep each year all seem to react differently
to captivity; some absolutely hate it and are constantly trying to
escape while others seem to think that free food and no predators is a
pretty sweet deal. [We return the unhappy ones to the wild as soon as
their dissatisfaction becomes apparent.]

About the two male octopuses "fondling" each other: I'd be very
surprised if, in reality, they weren't trying to work out who was
going to 'have' dinner and who was going to 'be' dinner.


Cannibalistically yours,

Alex