gary-ramey
Contributor
I guess the other thought is if you entice them out with food...what happens to the poor guy who ends his dive at the den of this giant octo with no food?
Befriending an Octo.
- Thread starter Skookumchuck
- Start date
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OP
Skookumchuck
Contributor
Thanks for all the input. I'm going to use your idea Jack and bring some calamari since store bought squid rarely fights back. Years ago my buddy and I encountered a big octo out and about on a night dive. When we moved in closer it started to retreat into some rocks. On the spur of the moment I took off my glove and put my bare hand on one of its tentacles. It immediatly stopped its retreat and spent a few minutes checking out my hand. I imagine it had never encountered anything warm before. Now I use dry gloves but maybe I can convince Vinnie to be the guinea pig.
Have fun.
As an aside. There is a "diver's myth" that handling them (with care...) with neoprene gloves on will hurt them and it's not true. That's from the biologist at the Seattle Aquarium, btw.
And don't scratch them between the eyes! Here's a fun tale from my blog: Don’t Scratch the Octopus Between the Eyes!
Jack
As an aside. There is a "diver's myth" that handling them (with care...) with neoprene gloves on will hurt them and it's not true. That's from the biologist at the Seattle Aquarium, btw.
And don't scratch them between the eyes! Here's a fun tale from my blog: Don’t Scratch the Octopus Between the Eyes!
Jack
Matt S.
Contributor
Is carrying crab problematic because of distance, or because crabs are crabby? Because you could just bag him.
IMHO there is no ethical issue WRT the crab's life. It's like feeding a worm to a bird. The crab is essentially a bug, it's not rare in any way, and it's the octo's natural prey.
Arguments about it being bad for the octo are more compelling. In the case of a short-lived non-aggressive animal like an octopus I think the harm is minimal. It's not like feeding a bear in your back yard.
I always found it interesting that octos didn't get torn up by crab pincers.
They must be much, much tougher than they look.
deepdiverbc
Contributor
Is it true that they change color when they are upset? I have heard that they will turn white/pale when angry. I think red is when they are aroused. Possibly not good either. I have only seen one go pale once and I kept my distance.
Poogweese
Contributor
Aside from seals and sea lions, PGO's are my favorite undersea critter-they each seem to have their own "personalities" and are fun to interact with
Last summer we had a 15 lb. PGO follow BD and I around for our dive-it was freaky but cool! When they're out of the den I let them come to me, and they usually do (curiosity, maybe I'm something to eat, they want that shiny thing?) who knows? If we come across them in the den, I'll put a hand nearby if they want to check me out, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Regarding the colors, I always thought white was scared, red was angry, and brown/reddish was...I'm just fine.
Poog
Flickr: Photos from poogweese2002
See the Alaska forum for the Christmas Dive Challenge!
Last summer we had a 15 lb. PGO follow BD and I around for our dive-it was freaky but cool! When they're out of the den I let them come to me, and they usually do (curiosity, maybe I'm something to eat, they want that shiny thing?) who knows? If we come across them in the den, I'll put a hand nearby if they want to check me out, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Regarding the colors, I always thought white was scared, red was angry, and brown/reddish was...I'm just fine. Poog
Flickr: Photos from poogweese2002
See the Alaska forum for the Christmas Dive Challenge!
sschlesi
Contributor
So, any luck with that Big Octo?
r2t
Contributor
He was not home that day....did find another wolf eel....
OP
Skookumchuck
Contributor
Like Ron said the octo wasn't there. I couldn't find squid in the two grocery stores I tried although one did have pre-breaded calamari but I didn't think any self respecting octopus would show interest in that. Instead I brought a zip-lock bag of salmon roe. When we discovered that the octo wasn't home we continued on to the wolf-eel den where I relearned that doing anything other than swimming forward at 70' is a challange. I eventually managed to disperse the roe in the general direction of the den only to have the wolf-eel stare at me with the same expression he used when I offered him a banana on the last dive here. Maybe cookies will work.
Les
Contributor
LOL funny story
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