Dan's sloth thread made me think of a question I've been wanting to bring up - has anyone ever seen a really good Great Pacific Octopus exhibit? The problem with these animals is that they are often in a small exhibit curled up in a corner. These animals prefer to be in a small space, as it is there territory, but I'm wondering if anyone has seen something more interesting for the guests and more engaging for the octopus?
perhaps this wasn't how you intended it to come across, but this is the same argument that herptile keepers use to justify sticking snakes in tiny containers. Octopuses do like an enclosed space for security, but not as their total living area -- in other words, they like to hide in tight spots but when they are active they are very active and need lots of room, quite apart for the amount of attention required to keeping their minds occupied (they get bored of play-things very quickly, so always need novel items to entertain themselves; much like apes really - except apes don't tend to gnaw off their own arms!). The problem for public aquariums is that most octopuses are nocturnal and so a large complex tank appears to be empty most of the time. I have never seen a good octopus tank, but I have seen some adequate ones, and a lot of very bad ones.
Seattle Aquarium: (the tank on the right is quite large) http://www.zoochat.com/608/giant-pacific-octopus-exhibit-204855/
Monterey Bay Aquarium has two large-ish Great Pacific octopus tanks that are full of enrichment items. They have octopus demonstrations during the day which seems to bring out a lot of interest in the public, and hopefully also is good for the octopus in terms of mental stimulation. Chlidonias, you make some interesting points. What would the elements of a good octopus exhibit be in your opinion, and why don't you think that anybody has built one - do we not know how to?
I had an idea - might be too costly for our new aquarium - but I imagined a separate tank (like Seattle's) but it would be the octopus's hunting grounds. So it would have tons of little nooks and crannies - several of which would be cross sectioned out for the guests to see within them - and accessible by husbandry so they can put various goodies in different holes. Very similar to providing enrichment to large carnivores. The fun would be to see the octopus hunting around, especially being able to see it reach way down within a winding hole for treats. I've brought this idea up a few times and the response has always been the cost won't equal the amount of use. But I'm not sure about that if there's food involved. Or even if it is a set time that the octopus has access to the "hunting grounds". We do an octopus feed that is very successful. This would be similar.
I tell you though I hat seeing the Mr. Potatohead or the rubics cube in an octopus tank. Personal preference...
chrisbarela has some good ideas in post #5 and also the basic reason why it doesn't happen ("the response has always been the cost won't equal the amount of use."). For a good octopus tank I'd imagine a proper rocky reef with lots of nooks where food is randomly hidden so the octopus has to actually search it out, a good comparison might be scatter-feeding for gorillas. If you've ever seen footage of them in the wild they are very active, and continually exploring their environment. In general octopuses eat hard-shelled animals (crustaceans, shellfish, etc) and ignore soft-bodied animals like starfish and sea cucumbers, so you could design it as a living reef if care was taken in choosing the inhabitants (but no fish because octopuses love fish, and some fish love octopuses ). There could be dens with openings visible to the public so they can still see it when its asleep. A more inventive idea might be a series of smaller tanks connected with transparent tubes, so the octopus has to search through several tanks (and its always fun seeing them squish themselves through small spaces like a liquid-metal Terminator!). The over-riding problem in (probably all) octopus exhibits though is the lack of room. Very often you see them in tanks that they can literally span with their arms, or even smaller. If a gibbon was kept in a cage that small it would be horrific (http://www.zoochat.com/1231/young-siamang-symphalangus-syndactylus-146973/). I honestly can't imagine any public aquarium designing a tank that would suffice for an octopus's activity levels when for most of the hours the aquarium is open the octopus is asleep (most species are nocturnal). Even for the very small species it would still be quite a large tank apparently going to waste.
Getting over the nocturnal hump is easy enough by reversing the light cycle. The biggest challenge aquariums have over zoos is space and life support - zoos, being outdoors can throw up a fence and call it a day. Glass/plexi is crazy expensive. I've thrown the idea around for a smaller tidal species that will climb in and out of tidepools. I'd love to see that.
