octopus climbing out of tanks

There are mentions on the web of an octopus climbing out of a tank,
traveling across a dry surface, going into another tank, grabbing a
fish for a meal, and then returning to their home tank. Some web-
comments say there is a video that was on TV. But I haven't found
anything like it on the web. Is this behavior possible? Is this story
true?

--
(||) Nehmo (||)

On Apr 13, 1:44 am, "Nehmo" wrote:
There are mentions on the web of an octopus climbing out of a tank,
traveling across a dry surface, going into another tank, grabbing a
fish for a meal, and then returning to their home tank. Some web-
comments say there is a video that was on TV. But I haven't found
anything like it on the web. Is this behavior possible? Is this story
true?
(||) Nehmo (||)


I'd heard that story somewhere, but the closest I can find on the web
is the following, which is very unlikely to be on video...

P

http://www.faculty.uaf.edu/ffrsb/out...elligence.html
"In 1873, a stock of young lump-fish in the Brighton Aquarium began
to slowly diminish for no apparent reason. Almost daily, there was one
less fish in the tank and no clues as to what had happened. One early
morning the mystery was solved when an aquarium official found an
octopus in the lump fishes' tank. The octopus somehow had discovered
that the fish were in an adjoining tank, and had thereafter raided it
nightly. To avoid detection, every night after its meal, the octopus
would return to its tank looking innocent of any wrong doing. But this
was not the end. After its capture, the octopus seemed to know that it
was being watched, so it remained in its tank for a week. Then one
night, two octopuses climbed out of the tank, the previous offender
and another, moved in opposite directions, both avoiding the adjacent
tanks and entered those beyond. Unfortunately for both octopuses, one
found itself in a tank with several over-sized crabs and the other
with a giant lobster."

That story seems to say the crabs would win against the octopus. I
suppose it depends on how big they were. But, yes, you're right,
there's no video. Certainly, videos back then were rare.

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.

But they are strange and probably smarter than we give them credit
for. I knew a girl who used to take walks on Portuguese fishing boats.
She said there were piles of freshly-caught still-alive octopuses on
the deck. When you walked past, the octopuses would follow you with
their eyes. She said you could see the expression of resignation an
pleading in their eyes.

--
(||) Nehmo (||)
-----------------------------------

On Apr 13, 3:59 am, "Pushmi-Pullyu" wrote:
I'd heard that story somewhere, but the closest I can find on the web
is the following, which is very unlikely to be on video...
http://www.faculty.uaf.edu/ffrsb/out...elligence.html
"In 1873, a stock of young lump-fish in the Brighton Aquarium began
to slowly diminish for no apparent reason. Almost daily, there was one
less fish in the tank and no clues as to what had happened. One early
morning the mystery was solved when an aquarium official found an
octopus in the lump fishes' tank. The octopus somehow had discovered
that the fish were in an adjoining tank, and had thereafter raided it
nightly. To avoid detection, every night after its meal, the octopus
would return to its tank looking innocent of any wrong doing. But this
was not the end. After its capture, the octopus seemed to know that it
was being watched, so it remained in its tank for a week. Then one
night, two octopuses climbed out of the tank, the previous offender
and another, moved in opposite directions, both avoiding the adjacent
tanks and entered those beyond. Unfortunately for both octopuses, one
found itself in a tank with several over-sized crabs and the other
with a giant lobster."

There is a thread on the forum I use he
http://www.marinefish-uk.co.uk/forum...659&hl=octopus
about the same sort of thing, but they also mention ells as well! No link to
any footage though unfortunately.

Mark

Pushmi-Pullyu filted:

http://www.faculty.uaf.edu/ffrsb/out...elligence.html
"In 1873, a stock of young lump-fish in the Brighton Aquarium began
to slowly diminish for no apparent reason. Almost daily, there was one
less fish in the tank and no clues as to what had happened. One early
morning the mystery was solved when an aquarium official found an
octopus in the lump fishes' tank. The octopus somehow had discovered
that the fish were in an adjoining tank, and had thereafter raided it
nightly. To avoid detection, every night after its meal, the octopus
would return to its tank looking innocent of any wrong doing. But this
was not the end. After its capture, the octopus seemed to know that it
was being watched, so it remained in its tank for a week. Then one
night, two octopuses climbed out of the tank, the previous offender
and another, moved in opposite directions, both avoiding the adjacent
tanks and entered those beyond. Unfortunately for both octopuses, one
found itself in a tank with several over-sized crabs and the other
with a giant lobster."

There are two parts of this story that bother me more than the idea that an
octopus might travel from one tank to another...to wit:

a) "somehow had discovered" - I'd love to know how that happened...did one just
get out of its tank on a lark and happen to stumble across the tank full of
yummy edible fish?...

b) "looking innocent of any wrong doing" - intelligent I'll give you, but how
well does the body language of guilt and shame transfer across a species-gap
like that?...

Elsethread someone mentions "cephalopod porn"...I've seen video shot in the
aftermath of a deep-sea vent opening and raising the local temperature, in which
many species multiplied and grew prolifically...one brief sequence shows a pair
of octopuses [1] fondling each other...the narrator points out that not only are
they of two completely different species, but they're both male....

R H "does octopus hentai involve tentacles too?" Draney

[1] http://members.cox.net/bagelhenge/octo.jpg


--
"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!"
"You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!"

Nehmo wrote:

That story seems to say the crabs would win against the octopus. I
suppose it depends on how big they were. But, yes, you're right,
there's no video. Certainly, videos back then were rare.

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.

But they are strange and probably smarter than we give them credit
for. I knew a girl who used to take walks on Portuguese fishing boats.
She said there were piles of freshly-caught still-alive octopuses on
the deck. When you walked past, the octopuses would follow you with
their eyes. She said you could see the expression of resignation an
pleading in their eyes.


Don't anthropomorphize the octupii, they hate that.

But, all seriousnes aside, I clearly remember seeing a film a
long time ago where an octupus would crawl out of its tank and
unscrew a mason jar with a food-critter in it. I suspect that
they are very intelligent. But not intelligent enough to avoid
getting caught.

Bill

"Bill Turlock" "Bill Turlock wrote:

Don't anthropomorphize the octupii, they hate that.

But, all seriousnes aside, I clearly remember seeing a film a
long time ago where an octupus would crawl out of its tank and
unscrew a mason jar with a food-critter in it. I suspect that
they are very intelligent. But not intelligent enough to avoid
getting caught.

An effective bait for catching octopuses (Fowler discourages the use of
"octopi") is said to be a colorful bit of rag at the end of a fishing line
(cf. John Fowles, "The Magus"), which seems to set an upper bound on this
cephalopod's intelligence.

Alan "Just as a bit of rag in Filene's Basement does ours" Brooks

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 09:00:45 -0700, Bill Turlock "Bill Turlock
wrote:


But, all seriousnes aside, I clearly remember seeing a film a
long time ago where an octupus would crawl out of its tank and
unscrew a mason jar with a food-critter in it.

I saw that on one of the Histcovery channels a few years back.
They did an hour about octopuses.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On Fri, 13 Apr 2007 04:44:53 -0400, Nehmo wrote
(in article . com):

There are mentions on the web of an octopus climbing out of a tank,
traveling across a dry surface, going into another tank, grabbing a
fish for a meal, and then returning to their home tank. Some web-
comments say there is a video that was on TV. But I haven't found
anything like it on the web. Is this behavior possible? Is this story
true?

I recall seeing that on some TV nature show.

That or some similar show had video of octopuses in the wild camouflaging
themselves. It was amazing, how what had every appearance of being part of a
multicolored coral tree would suddenly take the shape of an octopus and swim
away. It was pointed out that this cell-by-cell color and shape changing
requires a lot of data processing, which leads to the suspicion that
cephalopods may be a lot smarter than one would think.

--
John Varela
Trade NEW lamps for OLD for email.

On Apr 13, 1:44 am, "Nehmo" wrote:
There are mentions on the web of an octopus climbing out of a tank,
traveling across a dry surface, going into another tank, grabbing a
fish for a meal, and then returning to their home tank. Some web-
comments say there is a video that was on TV. But I haven't found
anything like it on the web. Is this behavior possible? Is this story
true?


I heard this directly from a curator at the Monterey Bay Aquarium: a
particular mollusk kept being reduced to shells in one tank and no one
couldn't figure out what had happened, although initially the octopus
in the next tank over was suspected. The octopus' tank had a lid and
the lid remained undisturbed, however, so that couldn't be it. A video
finally captured the octopus sliding open the lid of its tank,
escaping to the mollusk tank and having a meal, returning to its tank
*and sliding the lid closed*.


V.
--
Veronique Chez Sheep