first the pics :D

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/3595/04ck8.jpg
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/418/01um3.jpg
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3782/02ex9.jpg

now a little story
last night i woke up at early to the sound of my filter malfunctioning. after realizing fluffy wasnt in the main tank turning off the filter and cheaking the floors i noticed his wiglling arounf past the blue netting on my overflow :bugout: were the heater filter and acces to the outside is. as soon as i lifted the blue netting he pulled himself into the main tank but what a scare! he seems fine now and all limbs are in tact.

Well keep us updated on his condition. I hope this turns out alright.

We've seen a lot of reports of octos trying to get out of the tank when they notice something is off with the water quality... I'm assuming you've taken care of the filter problem, but it's probably wise to check the water parameters and do a water change as well if you haven't already.

Good save.

Awesome Octo!

i checked the params and everything seems fine. ill have my LFS do a double check for me next time i get a chance. im doing a water change for safety
and i rinsed out his prefilter.
its possible that he just covered up the netting with his body any the water pressure broke the netting seal sending fluffy into the filter area
the filter problem itself was cause because fluffy was blocking the water flow up.

[EDIT] i cheaked my nitrates again and they are indeed hight at 40ppm. off to do more water changes!

Has your mother become enchanted yet?

great octo pics! and good save for sure!

Mark,

Nice pics :) keep us up to date

will do last night i brought my trates down to 30 and im hopeing to bring it back down to <15 by tomarrow like it useually is. i made the mistake of leaving a thawed silver sider in tha tank a little to long to make sure my new serpent star had food and was eating(wont make that mistake again). Fluffy doesnt like silver sides anymore btw. Hes still going this morning and im thinking(hopeing) he will be fine so long as i get the parameters back on track.

Yes, outstanding photos!

So what does Fluffy like in the way of food by now?

Nancy

im glad you all like the pics :)
i used to alternate between silver sides and squid with the occasional shrimp but he only eats the squid or shrimp now. speaking of octo food i got a free 20 gallon tank that ill use to house some fiddles for fluffy and play around with with breeding and rearing little fiddlers.

One member had some serendipitous luck with breeding fiddlers but I don't know if they survived long enough to feed. She seemed to think keeping them in the dark was part of the unintended success (they were moving and the box was left covered and not located immediately). I would love to be able to breed some of these for the babies if you discover anything.

trates are below 10 now and fluffy seems back to normal :cool: but now my pH is low :/

i have no personal exeriance with fiddlers but from what iv read breeding is the easy part. if you keep them in brackish water with access they should breed on their own. rearing is hard because the larval stage grow in full saltwater eating zooplankton from the water column then go back to brackish. ill see if i can move and little fiddlers to a little too gallon tank and feed the Marine Snow or something like that.

i forget who but someone on here also said that fiddlers would breed in a kiddie pool with sand and water so they might not need different water salinities *shrugs* ill see what happens

[edit] found the thread you were talking. not sure what happened there

You are keeping a good eye on nitrates but you could also do with testing for ammonia, especially if there are little incidents like leaving the silverside in the tank.

pH will drop with time, happens quite quickly in some tanks, I use a pH and KH buffer and it keeps the tank between 8.1 and 8.3

Cheers
Colin

Colin,
What is KH buffer?

Has your mother become enchanted yet?

My fairy god mother has helped me out again!

Two nites ago my filter malfunctioned again waking me up. After unplugging the filters I turn to see if fluffy was blocking the filter. He was actually on the outside of the tank and sliding to the floor. The filter was failing because I had left the prefilter in too long. (i changed it of corse)

That filter started acting up at the perfect time to wake me up.

when I put fluffy back he showed no signs of stress and started playing with his ball. I on the other hand was freaking out:bugout: and after cheacking the water params I found that water was fine.

trates-15(only slightly higher than normal)
trites-0
amonia-0

id did a couple of water changes since then anyway.

Two days befor that I got a broken pot decoration hand painted in china so I guesse its possable that it was painted with lead paint.(iv removed the pot)

Anyway he still dosnt apear stressed at all and is eating/interacting normaly.

wow! Lucky fluffy! (Unless, I suppose, he goes for a stroll every night and this is just the only time you've caught him at it) Anyway, I'm glad to hear he's still doing well!

wow! Lucky fluffy! (Unless, I suppose, he goes for a stroll every night and this is just the only time you've caught him at it) Anyway, I'm glad to hear he's still doing well!

Just what I was thinkin. I had a hamster a while back that had found an oppening in the cage and we only put the holes we kept on finding in the cereal boxes and the hamster getting out of the cage together when I woke up extra early to go on a trip and found him on top of a cereal box. Then we found out about the hole :roll:

We kept a pygmy mouse in our 55 gallon aquarium (one of its many uses over the years) for over two years (we thought it was a baby when Dad caught it and gave it to my son but it never got larger, just fatter). We decided to take it to the woods when we found out it would leave and return to the tank each night. We had cats at the time and decided keeping Rocket any longer might not be wise.