Great pet only if you enjoy matching wits on a daily basis with a marine Houdini. Octopodes are second to none when it comes to brilliant escapes. Did you notice that the tank in this video is lined on the top and the outside with Astroturf? It prevents the suction cups from getting a good seal. The fold-back lid you saw is also certainly weighted down, when closed, with a cement brick. These guys are incredibly intelligent, dexterous, and can slip through tiny holes (the only hard part in their whole body is the beak -- everything else can squish down to barely more than two dimensions). Unfortunately they aren't intelligent enough to realize that, once out of their tank, the surrounding air-based environment is deadly for them. So it's the aquarist's ongoing job to outsmart them.
Aquarium husbandry staff always have octopus stories. My favorite was the one in which an aquarium suffered repeated blowouts of an expensive light grid, costing wads of money to replace. After several such replacements, a staffer was assigned to keep watch during the night shift. All became clear when the staffer witnessed the aquarium's octopus wait until after closing hours, then happily squirt water through its siphon straight onto the light fixture over its open tank. ZZzzzt! Shorted out the fixture and everything else on that circuit.
In the husbandry field we call this "animal enrichment." If you don't keep an intelligent animal mentally stimulated, it will either a) develop repetitive neurotic behavior (think tigers pacing back and forth in a cage) or b) figure out a way to amuse itself.
Generally, you don't want octopodes to figure out ways to amuse themselves.
Great pet. Your own personal hickey machine!
ReplyDeleteGreat pet only if you enjoy matching wits on a daily basis with a marine Houdini. Octopodes are second to none when it comes to brilliant escapes. Did you notice that the tank in this video is lined on the top and the outside with Astroturf? It prevents the suction cups from getting a good seal. The fold-back lid you saw is also certainly weighted down, when closed, with a cement brick. These guys are incredibly intelligent, dexterous, and can slip through tiny holes (the only hard part in their whole body is the beak -- everything else can squish down to barely more than two dimensions). Unfortunately they aren't intelligent enough to realize that, once out of their tank, the surrounding air-based environment is deadly for them. So it's the aquarist's ongoing job to outsmart them.
ReplyDeleteAquarium husbandry staff always have octopus stories. My favorite was the one in which an aquarium suffered repeated blowouts of an expensive light grid, costing wads of money to replace. After several such replacements, a staffer was assigned to keep watch during the night shift. All became clear when the staffer witnessed the aquarium's octopus wait until after closing hours, then happily squirt water through its siphon straight onto the light fixture over its open tank. ZZzzzt! Shorted out the fixture and everything else on that circuit.
In the husbandry field we call this "animal enrichment." If you don't keep an intelligent animal mentally stimulated, it will either a) develop repetitive neurotic behavior (think tigers pacing back and forth in a cage) or b) figure out a way to amuse itself.
Generally, you don't want octopodes to figure out ways to amuse themselves.
Guess what YOU'RE getting for your next birthday (besides the cake
ReplyDeletehttp://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2009/12/quite-lovely-cake-really.html).
The Cats