Octopus from Reefscavengers.com

simple

Vampyroteuthis
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Oct 10, 2007
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Hi, well after a hiatus from octopus keeping, i'm finally getting back into it. Tomorrow i will be receiving my octopus from reefscavengers.com. They claim that it is a bimac but my guess is hummelincki, just because they don't seem to get much pacific livestock in. Its tank is already set up and cycled, complete with some hermit crabs. I plan on attempting to collect food locally since i am a couple of minutes from the beach. I haven't decided on a name but i'll change the thread title when i do. For now i am thinking Emma, but i'll probably change my mind once i see it. I'll post pics of it tomorrow.
Hopefully everything goes well, and the octo arrives healthy and young.
 
well i got the octopus, it looks to be hummelincki but i haven't seen any eyespots. Trying not to bother it since it is acclimating right now. Luckily it doesnt seem to be too old. Mantle is slightly larger than a golfball. Ill update pictures once it calms down more. Although i had a good experience with reefscavengers theyre shipping didnt seem to be the best. It came in a big bad that was just tied off in a knot. No rubberbands or anything just one big knot. The good thing was that they shipped in a big bag with a lot of water and air, and luckily nothing leaked but it was not double bagged so a leak would have probably been fatal.
 
ok here are some pics.
It is now in the tank sitting on a rock with a black coloration. I decided to leave it alone for a bit so it can find a place to hide if it wants to.
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The cup with the santa on it is a small cup about 2.5-3 inches tall
 
Nice octo!

I agree with you, they should've double bagged it, but I sometimes tie the top of the bag instead of using rubber bands when I ship stuff. Works just the same if the knot is tight enough.

I would bet that it's an Octopus hummelincki as well. Lots of them turning up lately.

Brock
 
It has eaten two hermit crabs already, and i saw the eyespots, so im pretty certain that it is hummelincki, and from the looks of it a pretty young one (i asked reefscavengers to send me the smallest one they had). Last time i checked they had 3 more in stock in case anyone is interested in one. This weekend ill collect some macroalgae as well as some pods. I'm also planning on maybe putting a few soft corals in the tank with it.
 
Well my octopus is a little weird. it seems to enjoy collecting hermits and then just "tucking" them away under its mantle. Ive seen him catch four hermits and a pretty big shrimp. I think he ate the shrimp; but not sure about the hermits cuz ive seen two emerge alive after being under the octo for over 30 minutes. It doesnt seem like hes trying to eat them, he just has them in his arms, tucked away; which of course impedes him from moving much.
Anyways as a sidenote I'm still trying to decide on a name so heres what i have come up with so far:
-Emma (cuz i just like the name)
-Lil' Wayne (just to be funny)
-Cephora (just a bad witty change on Sephora..)
What do you guys think?
 
Not sure if anyone is even following this but ill keep it updated for myself, if anything..The octopus can now successfully catch live shrimp, witch it had been trying to do for a pretty long time, but he has now perfected his technique; although, there was some teamwork involved since i would use tongs to scare the shrimp towards the octo. Hummelincki is, so far, my favorite octo out of the ones i have kept (a. aculeatus, o. briareus, o. luteus?). This octo has yet to hide for more than 10 minutes since i put him in the tank. It even sleeps out in the open on a big pieace of a conch shell; im guessing because it likes the smooth texture. Today it put my finger in the tank and it grabbed it. I got a little scared because it grabbed it with about 5 arms and pulled pretty hard so i pulled it away, perhaps a little too harshly, but he didnt seem to mad.
I'll post pics in a bit..
 
We are reading even if no one is posting back, I feel like that a lot. It's a great idea to keep the journal even if it is just for you, though. I like "Cephora." I've had octos do with that hermits, too. I had one (I think both Al and the Once-ler) who seemed to like to carry hermits around for days before actually eating them, like they were playing with their food!

Great pix, keep up the journal- I've been happy on several occasions that I could go back and check my notes!
 
If you ever wonder if you are posting only for yourself (well worth it for your own FAQ answers - especially about timing) click on the forums header link then on Journals and photos and find your journal, to the right there is a count of the numer of times someone has viewed it - at this point your viewing audience is 232 so I would say you journal is not without fans :biggrin2:).

None of my hummelincki (2 and maybe 3) would EAT hermits or even many snails but they would use their shells even if the critters were still inside. There is a photo sequence of OhToo "eating" a snail ending with the snail crawling on the glass an hour later. The hummelincki's did not catch their own shore shrimp much but live on a regular diet of the frozen. I brought back some live regular shrimp (the eating kind) from a trip and Octane would eventually eat them but I was never sure if they died first or if he just got extra hungry one day (they would stay in the tank live for a couple of weeks but don't do extremely well in an aquarium environment).
 
I'm glad I read this. I though my little Goo was just weird about the hermits. Sometimes he'll just pull them over and turn them upside down just to watch them right themselves again. He'll do this repeatedly sometimes to the same two or three.
In fact, he has formed a strange bond with the blue spot goby in the tank with him over these hermits. The goby likes the shells - I don't know why, but he seems to like to carry them around like a dog with a chew toy. So, he brings various ones to Goo and as they crawl off he goes and gets more (we've got a bunch) from other areas of the tank. They look like two little kids playing in a sand box. :lol:
 
I imagine it's pretty hard to manage to get to the hermits in their shells. I've seen tiny octopuses eat hermits, but they have tiny arms to reach into the tiny openings of the tiny shells... don't imagine bigger, stubbier arms and a larger beak make hermit eating all that easy.

Just a thought.
 
I decided to name him Aaden. I'll put more pics up soon. So far Aaden is pretty cool, he barely ever hides and is always moving around the tank. The only thing is that if someone walks into the room too quickly he is easily scared and inks a little. Also, every time i try to play with him he grabs my hand and pulls pretty hard, so i usually only let him touch my fingertips and then i pull away. I dont know if he has intentions of biting or not but dont really want to test and find out..
 

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