Hi everybody! After months of preparation and waiting I finally got my first octopus, a bimac from octopets, last thursday (August 19th 2004). Perhaps it is siblings with Walter and Crazy Legs! How can we find out?

I did not post until now because I am always very scared about new aquatic friends.. all too often I have become really overjoyed and told a lot of people about a fish, just to have it die shortly after arrival. Luckily this does not seem to be the case with this guy!!

I expected him to do a lot of hiding, and that was the case for the first day or so.. but he is EXTREMELY active now -- specifically near dusk/evening.

I had been cycling the tank with 5 mud whelks, a domino damsel, and a 4 stripe damsel. To my SHOCK, he ate one of those mud whelks (the shell is as big as octorok's mantle) the first day!! He was in his hiding spot (which he has adopted as his den it seems) and I was watching him with this whelk nearby, not expecting him to do anything. The whelk moved a little bit away.. and octorok shot his arms out and totally went to devouring the thing!!!!!! By the 48 hour mark after his arrival, all 5 were consumed (or at least dead in his den).

I got pods and clams from octopets to feed octorok with but due to possibly overstocking the 10g feeder tank with all of this, EVERYTHING had died. I only got a few clams out of the deal alive.. which has left me rather sad. For now I have fed him some malaysian trumpet snails from my 120g freshwater, where they are breeding rapidly. The first time I offered this food I held it right up to octorok, and he ate it right out of my hands!! He is so bold -- quite a change from my plecos :) Soon I am going to restart this 10g feeder tank and probably get blue legged hermits from the local saltwater store... and then after the tank adjusts to their load I will probably get clams from octopets (depending on shipping costs).

My filtration has done a good job of keeping up with him, which I am hoping continues as he grows. He seems to really like adventuring around the tank, and has found many places to hide and bury himself. I have a lot of 'puka shells' in my tank, and at his size the larger chunks of these seem to serve as cover for him a little bit. I am going to be adding larger seashells in the future. I have also pointed a fan at the tank and managed to keep the temperature between roughly 74 and 76, which is not so bad in the middle of august. This temperature deal was what concerned me most about him, as my temp originally was around 80+ .... some added cooling and reorganization of my room yielded these lower temperatures. Not perfect for him, but it's the best that can be done!

So far his colors range wildly, he will go from almost pure black to almost pure white, and lots of shades in between. He likes to flash his eye spot when he gets excited about food, or when those damsels get a little too close!! He does one pattern I think is especially neat, it is a sort of white/brown marbled one. He likes to do this one and raise his skin to make himself look spikey. I think this is really cool! He also likes to put stripes down his body.

My digital camera is extremely poor at taking pictures of fish, but I did get some videos that show him moving around the tank. These can be found here --

These show him moving around on the rockwork --
http://lucidsoft.org/~rcl/pics/octoaug22

And these show him moving around mostly on the glass --
http://lucidsoft.org/~rcl/pics/octowalkaug22


I will definitely keep posting pictures and information as I get it. I am excited at the possibility of sharing experiences with could-be octopus sibling owners!!!

Robert

Hi Robert,

Welcome to Octorok! I liked your videos of him. Cute little guy! :) Quite a hunter and eater, too.

I think we can assume that he's a sibling. I'll be contacting Octopets soon and I can ask, but lets add him to the list of August 2004 Siblings.

Also, please add Octorok and his tank to the Octo DB - we need all our current octos in there.

Good that you reduced his temperature. That should be better for him. Have you tried offering thawed frozen shrimp yet?

Keep us posted on Octorok.

Nancy

Welcome rcl and Octorok

Has he grown much since he arrived? He's eating really well. The damsel doesn't have much longer...

Melissa

Welcome OctoRok!!!!!!!!

wat are the specs on your tank?
gal, filtration, light

You can find a lot of that information on the Octo Database - just click on OCTO DB above.

Nancy

Just to give an update, Octorok is still doing really well. I have noticed so many new colors and patterns and body shapes from him, and it has only been about 3 weeks now. He is QUITE a character!!

I have him eating out of my hand evey now and then. He likes to get curious and today had 3 arms around my finger -- I am still so shocked about how strong he can pull even though he is such a small guy!

I am positive that he has grown since I got him now, I tried to measure and got his mantle at a little over an inch (I measured from tip down to about his eyes, is this standard?) and his arms are each a little over 1.5 inches -- and much thicker than when I got him.

He hid a bit for a week there, but now he is very active once again and explores the tank every night (and during the day too I think). He jets himself around now (which is very new) and I have seen him hanging on my filters and powerheads quite a few times.

I have been feeding him mud whelks and blue legged hermits when I am feeling rich (or foolish), but have mostly switched over to feeding him malaysian trumpet snails (which I have tons of breeding in my 120g fw tank) and freshwater clams which are somewhat large (1/2 - 2 inch maybe). I am hoping to sustain him on these feeds as they are so much cheaper than saltwater critters.. but I of course will vary it up.

Have tried thawed STEAMED shrimp and not had much luck, keep meaning to try thawed raw shrimp but haven't had a chance. Hoping for better results with that. One time the damsels and octorok were fighting and I guess he was spooked, and I tried to hand feed him shrimp (to get him to pay attention to it), and he inked a bit and hid. Haven't messed with shrimp since then.

Just keeping everyone updated!

Robert :cyclops:

I don't think I've ever heard of an octo eating steamed shrimp! Try thawing out some raw shrimp, most of them like this a lot and it's convenient.

Do you have damsels in the tank? We've had some trouble with them and don't recommend keeping them in the same tank with an octopus. Sometimes they attack the octopus' eyes.

Glad Octorok is doing well and that he's become so friendly so quickly!

Nancy

good to hear that you are doing well :)

try raw shrimp as nancy said, cooking everything always removes a lot of the goodness

Nancy, I do have damsels in the tank. One leaves the octopus alone, and the other kind of 'backs into him' when the octo is in his hiding places. Lately though, the octo has been the one doing most of the aggressin. He just can't seem to catch them but sure seems to try.

Octorok seems to be growing a bit. He is always ready for more food and is now out roaming the tank the vast majority of the time. This makes me feel good that I gave him a proper home (at least so far)

I tried the RAW shrimp and had good luck with this. I need to get a bit of it to freeze so that I can always have some on hand. I had been scared of shrimp because I fed some steamed/frozen/thawed shrimp to my FW tank one day, and then the next day one of my large balas was dead with swim bladder problems. I think that was just a coincidence though, and not anything from the food..

Octorok has been a little less shy with me lately, and today he actually scared me some!! I was hand feeding him a snail and he went for my hand instead.... he investigated my hand and pulled the snail away from me, but then he just dropped it -- and then put all 8 legs around my finger!!!! This is something that is DEFINITELY new!!! He pulled me close like he thought I was food, so I just started pulling him across the tank.. his colors stayed calm so I don't think he was ready to bite me, but I guess I am a chicken and did not want to find out today :) So I gave him a little shake to get him off, and he jetted away with a little puff of ink.

This is the second time he has inked, either I am scary to an octopus, of he is on edge because of the damsels that he always chases, or Octorok should have just been named Inktorok!! I've read people's journals on here doing things like hand feeding their octos and never having them ink, so twice seems a bit interesting.

Also, I got a chocolate chip starfish for the tank at the LFS. The star doesn't really move, but it is definitely alive and moves its arms.. it just hasn't moved its location in 2 days. Can anyone experienced with this creature tell me if I should worry about it?

Thanks and goodbye from Octorok and rcl!! :cyclops:

About that inking - I don't think he would have inked if you hadn't shaken him off your hand. And maybe he was intending you give you a little exploratory bite - well, better while he's tiny! He's just trying to understand what you are. That he would try these things is a very good sign. I think you'll be able to have lots of interaction.

Yes, bimacs like to be swished around the tank. I did that with Ollie while she was hanging onto the feeding stick.

You could buy a small bag of frozen raw shimp - unbreaded and all that. Just take out a shimp at a time. I then sliced the sliced the shrimp into appropriate pieces, put all but one back into a small plastic bag in the freezer, and thawed out the small piece. Fresh shrimp are good, but unless you get them in a very high quality fish market, they are likely to have some sort of preservatives on them, I've been told.

So keep on playing with Octorok and be sure to tell us what he's doing!

Nancy

I wouldnt worry about the star, they can be quite loyal to resting places and will probably be stuffed from all the wast an octo produces :)

I do keep a Chocolate Starfish with my Bimac. His name is 'Chip', no big suprise there. He will have times where he will stay in and area for a day or two then the next day, I will find him litterally doing laps around the tank, with a very suprising speed. So dont worry.

only problems stars are the huge green brittle stars (serpent stars) they tend to overpower baby octopuses and steal their food!

Yeah my chocolate chip star did not move for the first couple of days and I figured he was a goner, but he didn't look 'dead'.. but then all of a sudden he started moving like crazy! Definitely gave me a scare for a while there!! As far as him eating, I hope he will make due.. because there's no way I see to really feed the guy short of putting him on top of food. I'm assuming this isn't neccessary

Funny story about my chocolate chip's name -- we have a friend called 'chip' who we sometimes call 'chocolate' as a nickname... and his real name is RICHARD VINCENT; so we named the star Vincent. :) Seemed natural..

I have been playing with octorok using my turkey baster quite a bit and he really seems to like tugging at it. My girlfriend brought over a very small rubber ducky today as a toy for Octorok, and we took turns putting it in the tank with him. She had been nervous about me getting an octopus from the start, so it was neat to see Octorok finally 'shake hands' with her. After being around a baby octopus for a few weeks it is amazing how someone's perception of them can change!!!

I also got brave again, as I had been spooked from the last encounter.. so I held out the rubber duck for the octopus for a while (He liked to tug of war at it with me), and then finally he ignored that and went onto my hand. I figured he was going to bite me, but I just figured I'd get it over with while he's young.. but surprisingly he did not attack me at all. He had his beak up against my hand all over, but instead he just explored for a while. I think he liked me because he tried to drag me back into his den!!

Some feeding news, I feed my fish a mix of some of the following: cyclop-eeze, mysid shrimp, krill, 'prime reef (tons of seafood stuff)', and brine shrimp.. I always feed by turkey baster, and since Octorok was attacking the baster I decided to give him a big squirt of the stuff -- and he ate it right up!!! All of his little arms were going after different pieces and pulling it into his mouth. Totally cool!

That's all for this episode..

Robert :cyclops:

glad to now that everyone is coming round to the octopus :)... dont think I'll ever get my other half to clean out the tarantula tank though LOL

My girlfriend brought over a very small rubber ducky today as a toy for Octorok, and we took turns putting it in the tank with him. She had been nervous about me getting an octopus from the start, so it was neat to see Octorok finally 'shake hands' with her. After being around a baby octopus for a few weeks it is amazing how someone's perception of them can change!!!

Glad to hear everyone has gotten more comfortable together. I have to ask, what made your girlfriend nervous? Was she worried she wouldn't like the new pet? Worried about caring for a demanding animal? Or that you'd want to spend all your time at home with the octo? That the cat or other pets would drown trying to get the octo?

Maybe I'm blinkered, having lived with other people's tarantulas and monitors and such. The only thing I don't really want in the house are rodents.

Melissa

Octorok Update September 30th

I have been getting my 8 legged friend to play with me lately by moving sand and especially larger pieces of shell (i have this in my tank) around with my fingers, almost 'stirring up' the sand. This almost always draws his attention and he reaches out some of his arms onto my finger right away! He'll then pull me and anchor himself with his other arms. Whenever I am in the tank he is calm and always climbing on me!

Tonight I think he tried to bite me but I am unsure. He had his head over my finger and then all of a sudden I felt a very sharp 'pinching' sensation on my hand. It happened several times, but no skin was broken.. I think either he was nibbling on my finger but couldn't/didn't break skin, or he was pulling extra hard with one of his strongest suckers (near his mouth). Any input would be appreciated.

I am kind of concerned about octorok's eating habits. He will eat frozen foods that I put in the tank for the other fish.. but he doesn' seem to get excited about any food I put in with him. This includes hermit crabs (small ones) and even clams. He will eat them but never seems very interested at first, and barely changes colors it seems... I think this happens when he is already full though maybe, as now for instance he looks to be hunting around the tank and is changing colors a lot.

He has grown some I can tell, but no measureable amount. He seems to be getting stronger and stronger though. I play with him every day still!!

As comfortable as he is with me, when I bring food into the tank it scares him a lot. The other day I was putting a clam near him and he actually jetted away squiriting ink THREE times. This is about the millionth time he has inked.. at first I thought that I was what scares him, but if I come into the tank "alone" he is completely fine and has never inked or anything, it's always when I bring food into the tank. I think maybe he thinks I am on the CLAMS' SIDE!!! At any rate I am pretty much done hand feeding him since I don't want to see him get upset and ink, but I might start it up in another month or so.

Over and out from octorok :cyclops:

The only thing I don't really want in the house are rodents.

Melissa

What's wrong with rodents???? I used to have a pet rat! She was naturally very clean, affectionate and playful!

(I've also had a pet hedgehog!)

J

What temperature is 'Rok sitting at? Sometimes the warmer water an make them a bit more skittish...

My girlfriend brought over a very small rubber ducky today as a toy for Octorok, and we took turns putting it in the tank with him. She had been nervous about me getting an octopus from the start, so it was neat to see Octorok finally 'shake hands' with her. After being around a baby octopus for a few weeks it is amazing how someone's perception of them can change!!!

Glad to hear everyone has gotten more comfortable together. I have to ask, what made your girlfriend nervous? Was she worried she wouldn't like the new pet? Worried about caring for a demanding animal? Or that you'd want to spend all your time at home with the octo? That the cat or other pets would drown trying to get the octo?


Sorry I missed this post Melissa, for some reason forums don't always email me when I get replies to topics.. :arr:

She, and my mom who I live with, were both worried because they really didn't know anything about octopuses or how they would look or act. I was nervous at first too! I was very interested in them, but had never really seen one and definitely never seen how one acted.. so I had no way to be sure this was something I would really enjoy. Luckily I went out on a limb, and I'm very glad I did!!

Everybody has warmed up to the octopus really well. Just the other day my girlfriend, who teaches preschool, nabbed a couple of the large plastic blocks from her school for octorok! She was excited to give him toys because he is our friend :arr: I just put one of the blocks in last night, and he was happily pulling and pushing it around. Maybe he will build a crab statue out of legos for me!

Robert :cyclops:

I wouldn't worry about hand feeding. That's usually done to encourage interaction, but you seem to have plenty of that already. When you felt something like a pinch, that might have been Octorok rubbing his beak against your skin. He's just curious and won't do this all his life! Sometimes they can scratch a little, too. I think he could have broken the skin if he'd wanted to.

Maybe your hand looks different to him when you have food in it, too.

I think you'll work out a way to have him stop inking. But he's friendly and getting along OK, so that's what's important. As for the growth, if a tiny bimac grows 10%, you won't notice it much. The bigger he gets, the more you notice his additional growth.

Thanks for the update! Looking forward to the next one!

Nancy

Happy new year from rcl and OCTOROK! :rainbow:

A lot has gone on since then, but the major points of interest are --

The domino damsel got huge (probably 2.5" at least, and FAT) and harassed the 4 stripe damsel and OCTOROK quite a bit. I was about to sell the domino damsel when I saw that OCTOROK had 'taken a bite out of crime' so to speak! The fish was Quite Dead with a giant piece missing. OCTOROK was not very hungry afterwards. No visible marks on him, so I assume he escaped unscathed.

The chocolate chip starfish is still good. OCTOROK puts his arms around him sometimes but they are friends

I had a rock with loads of mushrooms on it in my reef tank, which were getting improper lighting and were DYING so I threw them in with OCTOROK, despite warnings. They are now flourishing in the dimmer flourescent light, and OCTOROK is nice to them. Everyone said they will be covered up by the octopus, but nothing could cover them up more than my jawfish was!!!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE --- after putting the mushroom rock in OCTOROK's tank I noticed an aiptaisia pest anenome on it, rather small. I was VERY worried that OCTOROK was going to be hurt by this, but before I could even do anything he was all over the rock -- and all over the anenome!! Since, he has touched it many times, and has never indicated that it hurts him. I know little to nothing about the stinging effects of these anenomes, and I am not one to gamble with my octopus's safety, so I am getting some 'joe's juice' from a coworker to kill this pest before something serious does happen.. but I just found this interesting because it was contradictory of things I had heard before


Today I have fed OCTOROK a gigantic electric blue hermit crab (placed it in his tank). He has 'attacked' it a few times, but has not killed it. I have a feeling that when the lights go out, it may be the end for the crab -- ONLY TIME WILL TELL.

As I have been saying in another thread, a FUTURE PLAN for OCTOROK is to introduce the saltwater shrimp from shrimpstuff.com.. I am thinking this will awake his natural instincts a bit more and give him a bit more natural life. Another future plan is to add some more mushrooms! These really brighten up the tank, and the 12 hour'ish photo-period I give them does not bother my 8 legged friend at all. He is out a lot of the time with it on or off!


Bye for now from rcl and OCTOROK :cyclops:

Thanks for the update :)

let us know how you get on with the aiptasia

im glad your octopus is active, ive had mine for 2 1.2 weeks now and it does nothing

Marinerules, you're not comparing apples to apples.

You have a baby bimac, still in the "baby hiding stage".

Octorok arrived in mid August, so he's a good 4 1/2 months older than your bimac, more confident and out and about more.

Be patient and take good care of the little guy.

Nancy

i know im complaining alot , I STILL LOVE TEH GUY , i just want to be able to go in there and SEE amazing stuff lol
sorry for being negative.

how big is his octo , i cant find it anywhere, if its 4.5 months, must be pretty big

So glad to hear Octorok is doing so well! Sounds like quite the charactor! You mentioned a jawfish.What type? I've always favored the dusky jaws! Any new pics?

Carol

I have a yellow headed jawfish (obviously NOT in the same tank with OCTOROK) and he/she is very cool. I have a very good picture of it --

http://lucidsoft.org/~rcl/pics/fishjul242004/jaw1.jpg

As for pictures of OCTOROK I still have no good ones really. I need to fix this soon!!!


Lately he has been scared a lot I think. It is either because of the aiptasia, or this large crab I added to his tank, or its possible he is becoming a little too large for his den. Its also possible he is just maturing and changing.. ever since he ate the live fish he has been very reluctant to take pieces of silversides... he will still take mysis/brine shrimp no problem though luckily.

I'm thinking that maybe after experiencing his 'hunting' instincts he is going to be more picky... perhaps this is why he is hanging out in new places (like near the powerhead frequently) I am going to do a couple water changes in the near future to make sure it isn't water quality related. I really do think this may be a new behavior pattern emerging, though.

Any common experiences would be helpful :cyclops:

Hey with the anenome I have had experances killing them using a hypodermic neddle. Just lance the little guy with it and pull out most of his insides using the syringe. If that dosent work I think you can inject them with vinager. Not positive on this one though. Some one else might have experance with this.

Pacific Blue

I am told that 'Joe's Juice' is really effective in killing them -- a guy at my work happens to have a bottle of the stuff, he is going to bring it in soon. I am really thinking that the anenome is not doing any harm though (..yet)

Robert & OCTOROK :cyclops:

I noticed that my bimac would jerk her arm away when she accidently touched a rock anemone, so I got rid of the few I had. I used Colin's method of a syringe and boiling water, which was quite effective.

However, I discovered I now have one in my overflow (none in the tank) and I'll never be able to poke it with a syringe. Any ideas?

Joe's Juice is being heavily promoted here, too. But I doubt if it's better than boiling water.

Nancy

I recently put a collar butterfly into one of my dads taks and it seems to be munching the aiptasia quite well :) but i hear that copperbands are even better still...

How I wish you could rent fish! :smile:

Nancy

What is Joe's Juice????? Cute Jawfish!!! I favor the giant Duskies!!!

Right, what's joe's juice? Wow nice jawfish

Maybe you could Nancy, in a way....

Might be possible to ask a LFS if he'll take one back after a few weeks?

RIP OCTOROK :(



Last night I received fiddler crabs for him to eat and I put one in the tank.. I don't see it, but I assume that octorok did not hunt and eat it. Instead I think he starved to death maybe :( I had eliminated the aiptasia and done some water changes... the next step was going to be adding the heater, since the temperature was a fairly gradual change and he isn't a tropical species, I figured that his lowered activity level might be less pleasing for me to watch but ok for him. Its always confusing to 'debug' a fish death

My theory is going to stand that OCTOROK never developed proper hunting instincts and after killing that live damsel he wanted to change what he ate, but didn't have the hunting ability to do so.

While my upcoming idea may be a little costly, I think it will be worthwhile; and I think the thought of breaking down a tank I have spent around $500 on seems really unappealing at this point......

My plan is to start filling my tank up with a reasonable amount of live food and to introduce an octopus and allow him to hunt off these foods and nothing else for his lifespan. This way he will surely get the nutrition he needs, if I select the right foods, and they will be much more 'natural'.

So far I am planning on putting these 10 fiddlers in, and probably getting a bunch of the shrimp off the site nancy suggested (I'd try shrimpstuff.com but I have no place for 200 shrimp, and don't find it to be a big price break from the alternative provided by nancy)

I'm also hoping to add a bit more of a clean up crew such as some hard shelled snails.. I have a large electric blue (??) hermit crab I am going to keep.. my 4 stripe damsel is going to go to an LFS... my chocolate chip starfish will stay.. I have a rock full of mushrooms which I am going to carefully scour for aiptasia, and I plan to add another rock or two like this.

Possibly I am also going to add a heater set to 70 degrees so that the temperature never fluctuates far. I think it was a mistake to let it drop seasonally.

Any suggestions for this new tank are greatly appreciated, I'd like it to stay in this thread so that I can have a complete 'case history' on OCTOROK along with some 'lessons learned'. I am happy that I provided a good home for him for a long while, and although he has died I think that the information learned from him can let him LIVE ON :cyclops:

Robert (this time, without OCTOROK :()

:sad: RIP Octorok....I'm sorry to hear....Sometimes there are no answers....

Carol

RIP Octorok :angelpus: So sorry to hear of your loss, Robert.

Yes, it's hard to determine the cause of a death like that. I doubt if the water temperature has too much to do with it, since bimacs live near the shore and are used to temperature fluctuations.

The real question is why Octorok wouldn't eat - the little bimacs from Octopets are supposed to be given some non-live food before they leave home. Octorok didn't seem interested in any food. Maybe he was sick in some way.

A few octos won't ever accept non-live food, but the vast majority will. I would assume that your next octo will accept non-live food.
It's good to have plenty of amphipods in the tank for the arrival of your next octo and maybe some small hermit crabs - it will be a while before it can move up to something larger.

All the best,

Nancy

sorry to read the bad news!

So sorry, :angelpus: at least he had a nice home and a great owner for the time being.

so sorry to hear of your loss :sad: :cry: