hi does anyone know why my octo ate 2 of his arms off? he is eatind crabs.

Jimmy,

Did he just nibble off the tips or has he taken off the whole thing?

J

no not the whole arms about half of the two fronts.

Many times octopuses in senescence will become autophagous. That means that they will eat their arms. It is usually a sign that your octopus is very close to the end of it's life. Sometimes octopuses will develop this disease before senescence, and in that case it is a serious problem. However, I doubt that your octopus has the disease; he is most likely near the end of his life.

It doesn't sound like the disease, if he had that he would have bitten the arms off at the base, right where they join the body. This sounds like old age....unless you have something else in the tank which may be harassing your octopus?

J

o nothing else in the tank. and he is a very little brierius. about the size of a dime curled up and he stoped eating.

What kind of crabs were you feeding him? Can you be sure that the crabs didn't remove its arms?

A dime sized briareus surely wouldn't be senescent. Are you absolutely 100% positive it's a briareus?

tes for sure hes a brierius and the fiddlers have no big claws. he ate all the time up untill yeserday when i noticed his missing arms

How long have you had it?

Really sorry about this. Hope it recovers.

This could be the result of stress.
What are your water parameters?

Nancy

i have hade him about 2 months he was eating fine untill today. he does not look sick. but he is ingnoring the crabs.

oh yes the water is perfect nitrate is 10 ph is about 8-8.2

Hmmm...

In 2 months my "Dime sized" briareus had grown like crazy.

From this:http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg231/thehippydaledo/IMG_0257.jpg

To this: http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg231/thehippydaledo/IMG_0647.jpg

If it is a briareus I'd say its growth is severely stunted and that would probably be a good indication of having something else seriously wrong with it.