bought an octopus, but what kind?

[corpusse]

A dog, I only keep aquatics :P I get your point. I just worry about death. He has eaten and besides the missing arms didn't seem to have any damage, plus had a very strong grip. I still haven't seen him in 2 days.

I can't setup my red flashlight. It's just a keychain light that you have to press down to shine. That's actually why I switched to the regular flashlight.

If they can see red, why not just use an actinic bulb?

Finally fidder crabs are a lot harder to find locally then I thought. I ordered 40 from Paul, came out to $108.35 with shipping ouch.. I knew shipping was a lot. I could have ordered more to lower the cost per crab, but I want to be assured my octopus is healthy before I commit to several months food supply. Plus I'm not really looking forward to setting up crab city. However since I have no idea where he is I'll have to keep feeding live food at least until I locate where he's hanging out.

 

[DWhatley]

They can detect the red light but they don't reach strongly, where white light will send them to their dens immediately. It is thought that they don't see red light but which frequency is not clear. However, they seem to accept a variety of reds but not white. Some people have experimented with green and blue favorably but the wave length of blue (I have not read and don't know anything about green) is likely to make the light brighter than the red.

I did not mean to set up your flashlight, I meant to find a way to place a red light on the tank. There are several options and I have used at least three. If you are handy with wiring, you can find red dome lights inexpensively. You will need a converter (LED's are DC by design) to plug it in and most places that sell them have what you need. There was a stick type aquarium night light that could be set to red (I am not sure if it is still made) that we have used. The problem we found with it is that it would revert to white when the power went out. After a summer of a lot of thunderstorms and quick outages, we discontinued use because it annoyed the octopus. Perhaps the easiest solution is to cover a light lens with a red vellum. If you try this method, be sure to get vellum that is rated for high heat (often available in an automotive store for temporary tail light fixes). Lastly, there is a red screw in fluorescent that we recently found at our local Home Depot (someone else found it at an ACE Hardware) and is likely available up your way. I have one in a shop light suspended over Cassy's tank. Not a pretty solution but it works well.

 

[corpusse]

I'll look into the red light. Although I don't really like the idea of leaving it on all night.

In the mean time I setup this tank for the fiddlers. I know it should be bigger, but it's the biggest empty tank I have laying around. Washed out a bucket of sand I've had dry for years. Just ran the hose in the bucket until the water came clear and took some live rock from other tanks.

I'll put the same type of netting above the tank as I have above the octopus tank to ensure none crawl out.

 

[DWhatley]

That will be one of the best fiddler tanks in town

 

[corpusse]

I made some more changes last night since I had nothing better to do. I washed out another bucket of sugar sized sand at the same time as the sand in the fiddler tank. Since I have no real use for it I put most of it in as well.

Shipment arrived fine. 47 crabs all arrived alive. Although one did molt and was possibly eaten on route.

For now I have offered them Nori, flakes and brine shrimp (frozen) they seem to be eating the flakes and brine but have ignored the nori. They tried to climb on top of each other to get out but i've taped netting around the land part so they can't get out.

Tonight I will add a few to the octopus tank. For now the 15g is planet of the crabs

It's very hard to get a decent shot, but the tank looks alright..

some are burying themselves in the sand

Others in the water

Marco shot.

Yeah they're kinda neat but don't worry I'm not getting attached to them

 

[DWhatley]

I keep my mental distance from the fiddlers but I get squimish over several other types of crabs and crayfish (even though I eat lobster ).

 

[corpusse]

I put 3 fiddlers in the tank tonight. No reaction. 2 quickly scurried away and the other one appears injured. I placed this one on the rock where I last saw my octopus.

It's now been 2 days since I've seen him. I had trouble at first, but then was eventually able to spot him. Has he just found a better spot where I cannot possibly see him because rock is blocking my view or should I be worried he's dead? I even busted out the brighter white flashlight thinking that I would at least be able to spot him with that but no luck. Escape is very unlikely since the mesh is weighed down but I did check around the room just in case.

 

[DWhatley]

"Should I worry that my octopus is dead?" is probably the most commonly asked rhetorical question posed in the octo journals during the first week of tank acclimation. I invite you to take a quick look at the O.briareus posts in the List of Our Octopuses 2010 found at the top of this forum. I am serious with this suggestion, it will help more than an answer we can't give and you will get a better feel for what to expect and timing on when you can start to breath. I usually hold my breath for the first two weeks and then keep an oxygen mask near by for the next two.

 

[corpusse]

Going through them. I won't ask again. The main reason I worry is I spotted him several times relatively easy now no matter what I can't find him.

Keeping track of the crabs is very hard since they are almost as good at hiding themselves. I'll just be patient drop a few crabs in when I don't see any moving around and keep that up until I see something.

 

[DWhatley]

Unfortunately, it is part of the territory and no one is immune.

 

[corpusse]

Another day, no sighting again.

I am more convinced he is alive. I can only locate one of the 3 fiddlers I put in last one. One was basically dead. It moved maybe an inch in the couple hours I checked on it last night. Today it's gone. I found one moving around but the 3rd one can't be found either.

 

[corpusse]

Yesterday I was up real late and checked the tank several times throughout the night with a red flashlight. So sighting. Today I really scanned the tank and was able to locate 2 of the 3 fiddlers I put in 2 days ago.

Starting to worry he is dead but even if he is you'd think the corpse would turn up after all this checking. I dunno what the hell I'm going to do with all these fiddlers if they don't start disappearing..

 

[corpusse]

I'm sad to say I'm 99.9% sure he is dead.

I was doing a water change and just went a little nuts and before I knew it I was tearing apart the aquascape. I checked each and every rock undid all the ones that were stuck together and nothing.

I don't see how he possibly can be hiding this well considering how I found him during the first few days. He did eat a couple of crabs so I dunno what happened. The tank is a huge mess which I guess I'll just leave for now and then reaquascape to be left empty for now.

What the heck am I going to do with 40 something fiddlers???

 

[CaptFish]

That's too bad, I'm sorry to hear it. I have/had a mercatoris that I never see but also never saw a dead octopus.

do you have a cat/dog?

 

[corpusse]

No cat, no dog. I am going to move the couch and all other furniture around the tank to check if he did escape. I had mesh over the tank and pieces of wood on top. The only part where there may have been a slight chance of escape is where the wires from powerheads came.

He didn't make it into my reef which is right beside the octopus tank all those fish are still alive

I dunno I guess if he died around the time I stopped seeing him by now he would be 100% decomposed. Since the octopus was so small and the water volume over 100g with a bk skimmer there is no point testing for anomina as such a small death would not effect the water enough.