[Octopus]: Iris - O. Briareus

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Thanks for the kind words about the photos.
I am shooting everything with a Nikon D200 digital SLR with a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. Most of the recent shots are taken at night with the built-in flash, at various f-stop settings.
 
Quick update on the octo-nursery:
I was out of town for a few days, and just got back tonight. I wasn't sure what I'd find, since the population has been decreasing.

As of about 11:00, when the babies are usually out on the glass and active, I hadn't seen *any*. I know that when I flash the camera, they typically perk up or wake up, so I tried a few flashes. Sure enough, one little guy came out from hiding. He is significantly larger than any I saw last week, and also very active. I'm almost certain that it's the same one that I noticed was particularly large and active last week as well, but he's really big now. No sign of anyone else still alive in the tank. Either they are all victims, or they are very good at hiding to avoid victimhood.

Because the babies just seemed to be cannibalizing each other anyway, I thought it would be worth trying to ship a couple to another TONMO member who had contacted me a while ago. My plan was to catch a couple tonight and ship them out tomorrow, so it's so disappointing that there weren't any potential travelers to be found. I looked in the sump, but there is so much live-rock rubble in there that I'd never find any even if they were still alive.

BUT then I decided to check the sock filter... I had never actually put any babies in there, and the slots for the overflow have been covered with a fine mesh since before the hatch. I had put a couple of small, cavernous pieces of live rock in the sock as a "blast shield" from the firehose-like overflow water. I pulled the sock out, put it in a bucket, carefully removed the rocks, and sure enough there were three little guys crawling around, looking quite healthy. There were also several amphipods running around on the rock, so perhaps the little octos have been eating. These three aren't as big as the "top dog" octopus that's running around in the main tank, but not observably smaller than the typical baby from last week.

So now I've got two little babies in one isolation tank, and one little baby with its cavernous rock in another isolation tank. (It's possible that the rock is housing somebody else too who didn't come out). Both isolation tanks are sitting in the main tank; just a small-sized critter keeper with nylon panty-hose stretched over the top and then the normal top attached over that.

I'll bag them up tomorrow (individually), give them lots of water and oxygen, ship them overnight and hope for the best.

Edit: Sure enough, there was another little guy living in the rock. So there are two babies in each isolation tank.
 
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Late night update:
There are at least 3 or 4 still alive in the main tank, and they are all quite large and active compared to last week. (They are still tiny compared to what all of you are used to, but huge compared to what I've recently gotten used to.)
And they're interested in frozen food! (The big guys in the main tank, that is... Not sure about the smaller ones from the filter sock). This is one of them going after a tiny piece of silverside on a bamboo skewer.

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Population update:

I've got two isolation tanks with one healthy octo in each. I suspect that I have another one of similar size in the main tank, but I haven't seen it for a couple of days (though I haven't been up that late to look).

I shipped two small guys off to another TONMO member; they both arrived alive (one healthier looking than the other) but I don't have an update since then.
 
Latest (sad) update: I think the last little octo died. I haven't seen it for a couple of weeks, after having seen it at least every-other night. I'm not sure what happened; he seemed to be active and eating well. I took the mesh off the overflow for the last week, to see if he would end up in the sock filter, but no success. It looks like out of all of the babies, there is just one survivor (in another tank, not mine).
 
Don't totally give up yet. Cassy and Tatanka definitely went through spells of disappearing and then reappearing.

I am so sick about M&M I want to cry every time I look at the tank. I lost the red brittle and the thorny star as well but the urchins, hermit crabs, shore shrimp (one I put in the tank to monitor the water) and polyps are surviving. I changed out about half the water and have heavily filtered the rest. I will do several more 30 gallon changes and then try a red serpent once I am convinced whatever caused the problem has been corrected. I have read of low current killing things but am suspicious of those comments as I don't know how anything in the tank would have been grounded to receive a shock. I have to believe it was something that lubricated the fan motor. I am rather glad that I noticed the problem before putting my hand in the tank though. Most of my tanks are on a ground fault circuit but I realized that this tank is not on one of the interrupted circuits and will add an independent unit.
 
It's always a nice little adrenaline surge... I don't think that the electricity would have killed the animals, having got quite a jolt several times while sticking my hand in various aquaria, the residents don't seem that affected. Although, I guess when I got shocked, they got shocked too... this happened with my cuttlefish tank before I added a GFI - It takes me a few times to learn :roll:.
 
Amazing Photos! Question off topic about the bristle worms in your photo, are they harmful to Octopus? I only ask because when I would feed Wink there was one that would come out and get awful close to her while she was feeding. i would always try to catch it, or touch it with the skewer to shoo it off.
 
The bristle worms move pretty slowly, so I've always assumed that if they irritate the octopus, then the octo can easily avoid them. They also do a great job cleaning up any dead material, so they keep the tank very clean.
 
Back from the dead!!

I had completely given up on ever seeing the last little baby octo again, 100% convinced that he had died several weeks ago. I just happened to be walking by the tank at dinner tonight and noticed this cute little guy hanging out on the back wall.
After posing for his photo shoot, he unhurriedly crawled back through one of the overflow slots and out of sight. I had checked the sock filter a couple of times and hadn't found him, but now I think I know where he's been living. The overflow column (I forgot the technical name) has a double wall, and I think he's been living between the two walls -- since he's clearly not getting washed downstream.
Time to re-stock the tank with hermit crabs!

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I have a post for one of my merc that was entitled (one -very- small thing I miss with the new software),"Guess Who Came To Dinner" when Wiley showed up after not being seen for over a month. I had all but stopped feeding the tank and I suspect he finally came out when he saw me because he was hungry.

Funny timing on finding an O. briareus youngster in your overflow - Check out Siete's latest post. I am now officially paranoid that Shiitake will pull the same stunt.
 

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