in about 10 min my octopus briareus (after being drip acclimated for two hours) will get to see his new home :D

I got him via ebay shipped up from florada over night. his arms are in tact and he seems stressed but healthy. His mantle is a little under two inches long.

so excited! (and a bit worried...okay really worried)

all of the parameters tested at zero (nitrate 0-5)

sorry not pics for you because i'm keeping the room as dim as passable in an attempt to make the octopus more comfortable.

sorry not pics for you because i'm keeping the room as dim as passable in an attempt to make the octopus more comfortable.

That's a good idea. Don't rush it. We can wait.

Best of luck with it!

thanks :) hes in the tank now but so is the bag. ill let him come out in his own time. i left the room for about half an hour hoping he would feel more confident to leave the bag but no such luck. he has however repositioned him self so that hes facing towards me & the computer(the most prevalent source of light in the room)

Sounds like you've got the right idea. I like letting them climb out into the tank on their own so they don't have "ESCAPE" on their mind when they enter it.

How quick was the shipment?

wile my back was turned the octo disappeared into the aquarium. i did manage to catch a glimpse of a tentacle though :)
live arrival. check
successful acclamation. check
tomorrow ill see what i can do about feeding him.

[EDIT] overnight shipping

Cool, well please keep us updated with the details!

by the light of my computer i caught my octo climbing all over the back of the tank holding onto my hydrometer. this is the first time iv gotten a good look at his arms. as it turns out he only has 5 and 1/2 of them.

Well, just stay positive. Some time and good water quality will do wonders.

he seems to have stopped associating me with a monster. i just had a 10 minute stare down with him and he seems to want to get a good look at me too :) i didn't expect to see much of him for about a week.

That's probably a good sign! :)

I had really great luck with my two Caribbean 'pusses being active from day one. Seems to be an individual personality thing.

it turns out the fine netting i put over the overflow was too fine. it clogged and was partially torn off! im very lucky the octo didn't take that opportunity to escape. i cleaned the netting off and re glued part of it. knowing that this will likely break wile i am at school and no one is home is driving be crazy. iv been searching franticly throughout the house searching for alternative netting. no such luck. their no way i can fall back asleep now. id like to stay home from school to make sure this doesn't happen and have my dad bring some netting home after work but i highly doubt my parents will be okay with that plan....im VERY VERY worried..........
he seems to be healthy active the ideal specimen and thinking that i could loose him to something like this is driving me up the wall.
i dont know what to do at this point.

The mesh I used was pretty fine, and clogs every few days also. I use a wooden skewer to punch holes through it, and a baster to squirt water through it so it drains.

the netting did become clogged and did in fact come loose but iv lucked out again and the octo didn't take advantage of this, im getting some better netting today

i tried cutting a few hole in it and if i agrivated it it will stay unclogged for a wile but not the whole time im at school, thanks for the baster tip

hes taken up residency in a large cave formed by my live rock that sits up against glass...im suprized that he hasn't added doors(i have plenty of shell in their)

so today i was staring at him resting in his cave, he woke up after a wile, and reached out and touched the glass where my face was, diffidently not a shy one :D (not anymore anyway)

Awesome. Do you have any frozen shrimp you could offer him on a feeding stick? If he'll reach out to try and feel your face, he'd probably be interested in reaching out to inspect something dangling on a stick.

in trying to find something along the lines of a feeding stick that wont contaminate the water :) as i dont have one already...i wonder what hand do if i hand offered it

hes shedding suction-cups like crazy

he ate some shrimp :D...they really are messy eaters -.- lol
he also but the tip of one of his arms off 0.o could it be because i didn't defrost the shrimp? i thought it'd be floating around a wile before he went after it but he went after it immediately.

also do they normally go into hiding after they eat?

You need to completely defrost the shrimp and bring it to room temperature before offering it.

If you find plain wooden (bamboo) skewers, like are used in cooking, you can lash two of them end to end with fishing line and make a very good feeding stick.

Nancy

Drakanorn,
The bamboo sticks Nancy mentioned are great for any number of things. This one is probably a, "Mom, when you go to the grocery store would you mind looking for" kind of item. Mine are called simply, "Bamboo Skewers", are 12" long and I think the lot of 100 at Kroger was about $2.00 (probably a buck at the dollar store if they happen to have them but they should be in most chain groceries. They are often impulse items hanging in the strangest of places so she may need to ask a clerk). If you use it as a feeding stick without the fishing line be sure to break off the pointed tip. It will also work to poke some holes in your netting, clean algae out of crevices, stir substrate (my favorite for this), push stoppers out of suringes, help secure a 4' live rock wall, ...

ill look into it but atleast for now he seems ok with grabbing the shrimp as it floats. iv known your supposed to defrost it but for whatever reason i was coninced that he would be stairing at it a long time befor going after it. wont happen again.

Hey drakanorn, could you tell me who you got your octo from on ebay? I am looking at a similar one and it might be the same seller and knowing your recent history it would help out greatly.. Thanks!

I was trying to get a Briareus from www.divertom.com but he said he hasn't seen one in over 6 weeks now.

You can buy octo's on ebay? Everytime i look around all i see is a bunch of octopus dolls and whatnot

Occasionally some people sell them on Ebay.

Bigpapa,
You may want to email Dana Cramer (his new website is: http://ccritters.com/ and there is a link to his email on the front page). He worked for Tom (of tomstropicals) for years but recently married and Tom gave him his blessing and he is now on his own (good chance he uses Tom's packing facility but I don't know that, just a hunch). He is a diver/collecter and seems to know the difference between a briarius and a mercatoris. I have bought soft corals and dwarf seahorses from him directly in years past and he is easy to work with. Be explicit about what you want and he should be able to give you an estimate on how long he expects it would be to find one. Unlike Tom, Dana is likely to actually go looking for a special order (more a matter of just starting out than personality). I don't know if he night dives (one of the easier way to spot the briarius I am told) but he has offered them on eBay several times.

It has been a long time since I have contacted him so he probably won't remember me by name but will likely know who I am if you reference me as "Ken's webmaster" (won't hurt but may not help since Ken is friendly competition)

got the octo on tomstropicals on ebay i think its the same guy from that diver toms website. shipped with no hot or cold packs and in good condition minus 3 legs

when i got home today fluffy was up against the tank and didn't appear to be breathing. i kept cheeking for the next hour and he hadn't moved. but then i turned on the tank light and he scooted back into his normal spots. as it turns out he was laying over the filter output area and as far as i could tell he was letting the filter breath for him! lol gave me a scare though.

Thanks ! I'm going to look for my octo on ebay !!