I meant to add my own after the intro but go distracted with the Bermuda Tentacles (made for TV) silliness. It was not even a cephalopod and had terrible (and inconsistent) effects.
Somewhere around the age of 13 during snorkeling our annual vacation trip to the Keys, my mom insisted we take home a "rock" she spotted in about 10' of water. Dad had to really struggle to get the thing into the boat. After being out on the water all day everyone was pretty whipped and I was mindlessly staring at the rock as we motored back to land when I noticed a white arm exploring the new yard ornament. In normal kid fashion I started delightedly screaming, OCTOPUS! OCTOPUS! and dashed to the rock looking for something to put it in to keep it wet. All I could find was my mask. Dad stopped the boat so I could fill it with water, I captured the little guy and covered it with my shirt. At best, I wanted to take it home (keep in mind this was before Instant Ocean or successful marine tanks), in reality, I was at least hoping to show it to the cute guy staying in the boatel (cabins/duplexes that used to be common). I still remember the pattern of the shirt I placed over the mask to keep it from being harmed by the sun. We were still half an hour or so from shore and after the excitement died down, I took my eyes off the covered mask for just a few seconds. When I next peeked under the shirt, devastation! The octopus was GONE! I searched the boat with tears in my eyes but found no trace of my prize.
The brain coral is still in my parents' front yard and I have a private hope that it was already dead before we removed it.
Almost 50 years later we know a lot more about the ocean, about not removing "rocks" and about keeping saltwater animals. I experimented with saltwater tanks off and on as the hobby and knowledge grew. While looking for live food for my seahorses, I stumbled across TONMO and discovered it was possible to keep an octopus in an aquarium. I marked the site, visited from time to time, inquired about availability from my primary supplier and ultimately set up a tank for Trapper. The rest is recorded in my journals as posts
Oh, and that first octopus? O. briareus