This thread is for my new octopus (O. Aculeatus?). How I got him is here:

http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6748

I didn't see him all day today. Then, when I was surfing the internet tonight I looked up and there he was, on the side of tank staring at me. I watched him for a bit before he seemed to get startled and swim away. He didn't just swim, though---he made his arms go stiff and wrinkled so they looked like algae; he held this pose and floated around for a bit, then went smooth and hid under a rock. Perhaps more evidence that he is indeed an Aculeatus?

Will post some pics once he's more comfortable with light.

:welcome: Little Sucker from me too! I love the name! Best of luck with him!

Carol

Give a fond hello to Little Sucker! Great octopus name!

Neat name, sounds like a really fun octopus too ! Now, if you could get him to type...

greg

Welcome to Little Sucker! :welcome:

Sound like he'll be an interesting octo!

Nancy

Great name! Now you just need something in there named P.T. Barnum....

:welcome: Little Sucker!

Little Sucker has become much more active in just a few days. He's not that active during the day, but has been coming out twice in the evening: once while his light is on for ~ 1 hour, then back into his den, and finally he peeks out for a bit in the dark. He loves to crawl on the tank walls and doesn't jet around much. He's made his den near the inlet for the filter and likes to swim around it and poke it.

I have posted a couple of pictures below. He is missing an arm (a septapus!) and one of the existing seven is a bit shorter than the others, so maybe it was lost at some point too. The missing arm is probably more evidence that he is an Aculeatus, but I'd be happy to hear other opinions.

I have seen some crab legs near his den so he's definitely eating some hermit crab. I'm going to go down to the wharf tomorrow and get some other things for variety...also I want to help along the bonding by being the provider of food.

http://www.ucolick.org/~strader/sucker1.jpg

http://www.ucolick.org/~strader/sucker2.jpg

He's so pretty! I'm glad he's not too shy.:octopus:

He's really cute and deffinately has that long arm look. I think possably a female cause any octopus I have had that was missing limbs/injuries turned out to be a female.

Carol

Cool pics! :boat:

Nice looking octopus there, My first aculeatus was also a septopus, although the arms will grow back in time.

:)

He (she?) spends a lot of his time out near the glass so I will try to have a go at sexing by looking for the hectocotylus soon. While he does seem to have some interest in looking at me, especially when it is dark in the room, he really seems to love looking at his reflection in the walls or the water surface (occasionally poking it!). He spent some time tonight shooting himself backward with his siphon, even crashing into the aquarium walls a few times, with no apparent ill effects. The frequency and magnitude of the color changes are also increasing, from a white with blue markings to a rather dark brown.

He seemed a bit too skittish still to take food straight from me, so I left a crab in the tank for him to eat at his leisure. Since I live so close to the ocean I'm going to at least have a go at feeding him all live food.

His mantle is about 3 cm long, from tip to the middle of his eyes.

I have a question about feeding. Little Sucker has eaten, as far as I can tell, most or all of the hermit crabs that were in the tank when I got him. But I bought a couple of fiddler crabs and tried to feed them to him (on two separate days) and he didn't eat them; he just killed them and left the bodies in the tank (I removed them after a day).

I can continue doing hermits, but I wonder whether anyone else has had a similar experience with crabs being killed but not eaten.

How is your water quality? He could just be full of hermits. I would continue to offer, but make sure your water is good. Sometimes they go off feed and it's due to water issues.

Carol

Hi all--

Thought I would update since I haven't written in a while. Little sucker is doing well---he still seems to only want hermit crabs, though! They are quite easy to get from tide pools so this is not a problem, I guess I just expected him to want some variety.

Have any of the other aculeatus owners had success in making friends with their octopods? Mine likes to hang out watching me on the side of the tank, but doesn't seem to have much interest in directly interacting. I've tried a variety of baby toys, and even a plastic slinky, but they mostly scare him away, or he just ignores them. Not sure what to try next...maybe he's just still adjusting.

Once they have crabs, octos don't seem to want much variety in their food :smile: The reason a lot of us have to use frozen shrimp is availability - if you can't catch your own crabs, they're expensive, and you have to fill in some of the meals with (relatively) cheaper food.

Give Little Sucker some more time. Seems like he's on the right track. He may be one of those octos who will want to play with you more than with toys.

Nancy

Little Sucker is continuing to increase his sociability; he's now out and about during most of the day, and likes to flash colors at me when he sees me.

One concern has arisen, however, which is that he's lost another arm. I really don't know of anything that might scare him in the tank, so I am worried about autophagy. My water parameters are fine and I am doing regular water changes. I really can't think of anything that might have stressed him out....if indeed stress is the proximate cause (from the posts here, it seems like there is still disagreement about the cause of autophagy). Any thoughts?

Little Sucker is continuing to increase his sociability; he's now out and about during most of the day, and likes to flash colors at me when he sees me.

One concern has arisen, however, which is that he's lost another arm. I really don't know of anything that might scare him in the tank, so I am worried about autophagy. My water parameters are fine and I am doing regular water changes. I really can't think of anything that might have stressed him out....if indeed stress is the proximate cause (from the posts here, it seems like there is still disagreement about the cause of autophagy). Any thoughts?

It seems like powerhead accidents are more common as autophagy in pet octo arm loss, particularly if it's a single arm... is your equipment octo-proofed against such possibilities? I'm not sure how to rule out autophagy, of course.

Please tell us more about the loss of the arm - did you find the arm?
Is it a clean break or part of an arm left?

Nancy

The break is clean, and is near the base of the arm. My equipment is meshed off and even is he got into it, I doubt it would be so clean (unless it started to get hurt, and he detatched the arm). Which, by the way, I haven't found.

How close to the buccal membrane is the arm cut off? We've had autophagy in the past at the aquarium and in these cases the arm was cleanly bitten off very close to the buccal membrane. It is worrying that you can't find the arm. I would have thought that if it was due to injury or natural autotomy some part of the arm would be found (I could be wrong tho'........there is so much we don't understand!). Keep a close eye on him. If any more arms disappear soon, you may have to consider euthanasia, this condition has a very rapid progression. If it IS auto phagy you will need to clean your equipment VERY thoroughly as in some instance this condition is highly contagious. Our cleaning techniques are as follows (lifted from Autophagy in Octopods thread).

"Word of advice if this is autophagy it is incredibly contagious. Anything that can be thrown away, must be, other stuff has to be sterilised in Sodium hypochlorite for at least a week, then neutralised for a week, then soaked in freshwater for a week, then left dry for a week.........then you can use it again. This is the only way we were able to prevent a reoccurrance....miss out a step and the next octi gets it too."

My feeling is that there is more to autophagy than just stress and there has been some discussion here and elsewhere, that it could be a prion (like mad cow disease). Certainly stress can play a part it may be the trigger that sets off the disease................this really need much more investigation.

Anyway good luck and I hope it is natural autotomy.

Cheers

jean

Sad news all---Little Sucker is dead.

I found him lying outside his den this morning. Other than the loss of the arm recently, I didn't see any other indications of sickness. He had been eating fine and being social. No issues with water that I could tell. His body did have one oddity, which is that there was an area at the tip of the mantle that seemed to have lost its chromatophores.

He lived for a bit under two months with me. Since I don't know how old he was when I got him, I don't know whether he was middle-aged or getting old. But, even though his life was short, I'm glad I could give him a home for a while.

I am so very sorry. RIP Little Sucker.:angelpus:

:sad: :angelpus:

RIP Little Sucker. :angelpus:

I'm glad you gave him a good home for his last two months.

Nancy

RIP L'il Sucker.

If its any consolation I'd say he died of old age.

The white patch would have been an area where he rubbed skin off. When it heals it never seems to get new chromatophores. Essentially its scar tissue.

Jean