I think hes a bocki.:cyclops: Havent been able to get pictures because my mom put him in while i was at school. Temperature is 71 degrees on the dot. It always stays there for some reason. Hes currently hiding but i turned off the lights in case hes nocturnal so i might be able to see him. Hes got little "hairs" all over his head. ( i moved the rock to peek at him)

Welome to your new octopus!

Ant, where did you order your octopus from and why do you think it's an O. bocki?

Nancy

From fishsupply.com. My reasons- He fits roughly in the description of a bocki and the guy said he was just from bali. I am probably wrong. Hes not comming out any:sad: but ive heard of others who took a week or so for theirs to come out a lot so i wont push it. Hes moving his arms but i tapped him when i moved the rock and he didnt move or anything. My mom said he appeared to be breathing hard. She called our lsf (whos had some octos) and the guy there said they had a couple like that and they were fine. Any more advice would be much apprechiated :smile:

Hey Ant!!! Congrats! Best Advise is leave him alone! No more moving the rocks. Sometimes they can be traumatized just from the trip to your house. He could be a little shocky still. I had one that took 24 hours to come off the plastic of the bag he arrived in.

Keep us updated, but please don't spook him anymore by trying to check up on him. Keeping fingers crossed!!!

Carol

Yeah ill leave him alone. Mom said she had to cut away the plastic too but it only took an hour for the whole thing. I wish it would have taken longer. The lights for the timer just clicked so they wont come back on till 6am tomorrow. Ill get pictures as soon as he comes out on his own. Thanks again.

O. bocki is a very small nocturnal octopus that lives in rubble. I've only heard a few reports of anyone ever seeing one out in the open, and basically- there are two ways to collect them- 1) by bringing live rock to the surface and letting them crawl out, then collecting them at the bottom of the bucket (possible if the supplier is also collecting/selling live rock) or 2) by flushing them from their rock using cyanide/other chemical. As you've heard, shipping is a shock to most octos, so it's stress isn't necessarily from cyanide poisoning. If it dies in a few days and this isn't because it was fully mature, then it could have been from cyanide poisoning. Take it back to your LFS and ask what their DOA and DAA stats are from this supplier. If they're pretty high then cyanide is probably involved and ask for your money back.

BUT I think none of this is really relevant. O. bocki has very little in the way of skin texture. Check out Roy's pic of this species on my webpage to confirm. The little "hairs" (called papillae) just don't occur in this species. You could have an aculeatus (often imported from Bali) that hasn't yet gotten over its jet lag.

http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~chuffard/index_files/Cast.htm

UPDATE: He is moving his arms around a lot and my worst fear that he would just die because of my tank is over. I think by next week he be very active. And from what you said, i dont think hes a bocki because hes not too small. A little more than 1" mantle from what i saw but i didnt look closely. Pictures soon:smile:

Aw, that is so cute! I can't wait to see the pictures.

I got home today and he was moving his arms a lot more. I raised the temperature to 75 f like nancy said i might have to do. I dipped my finger in and it felt really cold so i put the heater on. I think hes comming along very nicly. Note: The papillae are down now (papillae?) I noticed he moved a few rocks for his den. What would he do if say a rock fell on one of his arms? Update- He is getting to be very active.

Uhh.. Hes comming out more and more each day but he wont eat any shrimp i offer him. He just feels a arm around it and lets it go.

Ant, is he eating anything? Amphipods, hermit crabs, thawed frozen shrimp?

Nancy

Just lost my octopus. Due to Nitrates? 20 Parts per. That very high? I am getting new filter media and possibly building a new protein skimmer because the one i got is kinda small.

Ant,
So sorry about your little guy. It may not have been your fault. He/she never ate and may not have recovered from the shock of shipping. There is always the possibility of cyanide poisoning or that the LFS water did the little guy in. Don't be too hard on yourself, they are very delicate creatures.

Ditto

Ok thanks a lot guys. I still feel kinda bad about it. I also have another problem. I just realized that my sand bed is about half-inch thick so ill be moving that up an inch. Im getting some carbon and going to replace my old media. I am changing my water habits to 20% a week. That should keep the parameters right eh? (or is to too much)

I read about your tank on the tank owner DB. How often do you test for pH, sg (salinity), nitrites, nitates, ammonia - and what were your last test results?

Unless you're having a problem, you could change 10% of the water weekly or 20% biweekly.

You really don't need that much of a sand bed.

Sometimes these things happen - your octo dies and you never know the reason - but it's good to check out all possibillities in preparation for the next one. I know you've been working on your octo tank for a long time now, ant, and have shown real dedication. I hope the next octopus lasts a bit longer.

Nancy

RIP Little octopus!!! Don't give up Ant! Ditto on sometimes there are no reasons.

Carol

All the posts lately have motivated me a lot. I just added another bag of sand as you could see parts of the light from the underside of the tank. I also added a few more pounds of live rock. Water is still cloudy but i will rearrange them later. I added carbon to both of my chemical filters. Two of these put together . http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=RB5131
I last tested sunday before i went to church. Nitrites were zero and nitrates were 20. Ammonia was very close to 0 and ph was indecipherable between 8.1 and 8.2 and sg was a little low- 1.023. I you guys spot me doing anything wrong..please tell me. I am going to order a Bimac from our lsf so i will be a little less tense this time. I will post when he/she comes. I am not going to ever order a octopus unless I know the species!

Ant

Ant,

It sounds like you're taking good corrective measures! Good idea getting a bimac for the next round: knowing what you're getting is half the battle! Don't be afraid to order direct from fishsupply if you know you or someone in your family can be home that morning to acclimate it. Remember, if it makes a stop at your fish store, that means it has to be acclimated twice!

You might also give it a few weeks before you order one though. May I ask what kind/brands of filters you're using? I couldn't get the marinedepot link to work. I see in the database you're using a biowheel powerfilter--do you know the brand name and the model number? Same with the skimmer? I'm just trying to get a feel for how much filtration you have available for when your bimac grows big.

Your parameters seem alright: I'd add that ammonia should be zero and not just close to it :). Remember to acclimate very slowly when you add your critter. I've read that pH is much more difficult for animals to adapt to than temperature/salinity. I'm a fan of "drip acclimation" where you open the bag, set it inside a tall tupperware and drip water into it from the main tank through air-line hose for an hour.

Good luck,

Dan

ant do you have a protine skimmer?

Yup. Ammonia was zero. I was just emphsizing it :wink:

I think its the 170$ one here but i dont remember it costing me that much.
I want to get him from the lfs because then i can take my good old time aclimating him and so my mom doesnt have to hassle with him before work. I am aiming for a hour and a half + aclimation time using the drip method slowly.


http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_protein_skimmers_aquac_urchin_p ro.asp?CartId=