Our bimac arrived happy and healthy Friday courtesy of Zyan and Federal Express. His mantle length is about an inch and his name is coming soon. He hatched the week of August 5th making him about four months old.

After drip acclimating I put the bag in the water and he climbed out within 30 seconds and started looking for a den. Here's a 2 mb video of how he found his first candidate location

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/th_octopus12-01-06.jpg (http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/?action=view&current=octopus12-01-06.flv)

After about a half hour he had enough of that spot and climbed under the arch and made a new home on the back of the same piece where he's been ever since. We were a little worried because he didn't eat Friday or Saturday, but Saturday night I found the remains of a crab not an hour after the lights went out.

This morning I put in another and it was dead as soon as it walked by the den. Unfortunately I didn't see either event first hand. I haven't actually seen him since he moved behind the rock, but I have seen little plumes of dust when he moves and the occasional little red cephalo-poop leaving the vicinity.

Videos and pictures should be forthcoming as he becomes less shy.

Dan

Dan,

Congrats on your new friend. I plan on getting one from him too, glad to see that yours arrived safe and happy.

Dan -- good deal. Congrats!

Awesome!

Awesome and great news on your new baby! I also plan to get one hopefully by the end of this week! :) Nothing like a Bimac!!!!!:grin:

Congratulations and welcome to the little bimac! As soon as we have a name, I'll add him to the List of Our Octopuses.

Bimacs have such good personalities - looking forward to pics!

Nancy

:welcome: to the new octo! And from your pics recently, I'm sure he has luxury accomodations!

:welcome: to the new bimac! I hope he feels at home soon, because I'm looking forward to the pics!:grin:

This morning he pounced on a crab for me! About 3 mb.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/th_eating12-04-06.jpg (http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/?action=view&current=eating12-04-06.flv)

What a wonderful little octopus. I believe Zyan still has some left, if anyone is interested.

Nancy

As soon as I have trapped and relocated my fish in the 75 gallon to other tanks I am ordering one from Zyan.

I already ordered mine, and it'll be here Wednesday!

:D

And mine will be here Friday! Do we know who has Zyans babies? I remember there was a whole group of us a few years ago who all got babies from a supplier in Ca. Some of those babies, Ink I think was one of them, lasted over a year in our tanks! It was awesome comparing and keeping up with all the different experiences and personalities of the related babies!

An exciting time to be an octopus owner!

I'm a little worried. This morning I confirmed that both overnight crabs are still alive, which means he hasn't eaten now in three days. I hope this is just due to the lower temperature (~65).

Do you have lots of amphipods in your tank? It's possible that your octo is feeding on them. That's what little Ollie die, and she was about the size of the bimcs you have now.

Nancy

I hope that's the case, I do have plenty of amphipods.

Ivar isn't doing so well. This morning we found him on top of a rock. While he's moved around a little he has curled the tips of his arms and is neither breathing very discernably nor reacting much to stimulus. I tried to offer him some thawed krill on a skewer but he doesn't react to it. I also tried dangling a small female fiddler over him, similarly no reaction. I'm not sure why he stopped eating a few days after he arrived: he has plenty of food and shelter and we've left him pretty much alone to do his own thing.

:fingerscrossed: for Ivar. Knowing you, I'm sure that you have checked all the water params and and done water changes and anything else you could think of, so I won't toss out suggestions from the peanut gallery...

Yeah, the water's pristine. I've been keeping the Oregon crabs in the tank with him because they like to disarticulate their smaller fiddling cousins in my feeder bin--but I doubt having a half dozen crabs wandering around the tank would be stressful for him. I wouldn't complain if I had a bunch of little donuts walking around my apartment.

Otherwise I can't think of anything. We got him and he waited a couple days before eating (makes sense, stress of shipping), then a few days later stopped eating again.

Yeah, the water's pristine. I've been keeping the Oregon crabs in the tank with him because they like to disarticulate their smaller fiddling cousins in my feeder bin--but I doubt having a half dozen crabs wandering around the tank would be stressful for him. I wouldn't complain if I had a bunch of little donuts walking around my apartment.

Otherwise I can't think of anything. We got him and he waited a couple days before eating (makes sense, stress of shipping), then a few days later stopped eating again.

have you tried any non-crustacean food items? Perhaps he fancies escargot or clams? I know octopets shipped clams with their young bimacs... It does sound like his behavior is showing something more wrong than just dietary distaste, though...

Keeping fingers crossed for him.... I went out and bought some of those tiny hermits from the LFS and this morn I see the remains of one, hopefully from Spike....Please keep us posted....

He's got plenty of snails in the tank (of no less than four genera, even) but no clams. A few small hermits, too.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Blinky hadn't eaten in nearly a week, but I did find an empty snail shell about 6 inches from her den. She's only been out once, and that was right when I put her into the tank...

You probably just got a shyer one. Some of mine come out and some hide a lot. I'm sure everything will work out.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/rotj.jpg

Poor little guy didn't make it.

This has us a little bit frustrated because we believe we did everything right, took it slow and did our very best to give the animal a good home. We can't write this off as a sickly animal since he did eat a few times after his arrival. This suggests there's something wrong with our system, but if so we have no way to determine what! Given that we're hesitant to order another, but see limited options:

1) order another, cross our fingers
2) stick with cuttlefish (and ungodly mysid shrimp bills)
3) get some clownfish

What do you guys think? I guess we'd like some external input.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/rotj.jpg

Poor little guy didn't make it.

This has us a little bit frustrated because we believe we did everything right, took it slow and did our very best to give the animal a good home. We can't write this off as a sickly animal since he did eat a few times after his arrival. This suggests there's something wrong with our system, but if so we have no way to determine what! Given that we're hesitant to order another, but see limited options:

1) order another, cross our fingers
2) stick with cuttlefish (and ungodly mysid shrimp bills)
3) get some clownfish

What do you guys think? I guess we'd like some external input.

:angelpus: Sorry to hear about the little guy. Try to remember that in the wild, only a couple of the young would make it, sometimes after the initial die-off, there is another die-off of animals that have something else wrong with them - it may have had nothing to do with your system. It may have been a genetically defective octopus that was kept alive longer by the extra care that Zyan provided and in the wild it would not have survived. The shock of shipping and re-acclimating may have been too much for it.

I vote for cuttlefish :grin: - only because I have a few extra :bonk: . But at least they would be Chubb's and Checker's nieces and nephews...

:angelpus: sorry to hear it.

I'm inclined to say "try again," since there are bimacs available now, and that's not all that common lately. Maybe he was just sick, or had a birth defect, or something. Since you're extremely good with the technical aspects, I am less inclined to tell you than some people that they've overlooked some water quality issue or other technical problem. But just in case, re-check everything, then re-order, is my :twocents:

Man that's a bummer. Sorry Dan.

I'd say take a good look at the other members posts who recieved one over the next few days and if they have better luck, order another one. Surely your setup is up to par.

I'm really sorry. As careful as you are I can't believe it was anything you did (or didn't) do. Since there are still some bimacs available I'd say go for it.

To be honest we are pretty sure we're getting another one, but just wanted to hear some encouragement (and thank you all for obliging).

Happy to oblige. :grin:

Good luck with the next one, although I still think you could use another cuttle... :grin: .

I've been keeping track of new octos for many years now. It just seems to happen from time to time that one doesn't make it, even though others from the same source do just fine. If your water quallity is fine, which I imagine it is, and you have invertebrates such as amphipods and shrimp doing OK in the tank, I'd say it was a problem with the octopus and shipping, maybe stress.

Yes, you should try another.

Nancy

I'm sorry to hear....Sometimes an animal just does not make it. I had a baby from Octopets. Lil Pumpkin...she never grew. Came in the size of a dime and only grew to the size of a quarter. Genetic/Birth Defect. Now in the wild she would have died probably immediately. I would deffinately try again.

I agree on the re-ordering. Mine didn't eat for nearly a week, but last night she ate a dime sized hermit, and this afternoon an Oregon crab.

What a wonderful little octopus. I believe Zyan still has some left, if anyone is interested.

Nancy
Hello yesterday afternoon I bought an octopus from a very wll known aquarium inmy area that has been open for 50 yrs + put him in a established tank with live rock the tank was set up about 7mos ago and I tested the water before I bought this kool Guy! this am befor work he was moving around until I turned the light on at 7am I arrived home 7pm tonight only to find him DEAD!!!! what a heartbreaker for me and my family its not like im a beginner i have had these about 7 yrs ago and the shortest lived one I had was 8mos and the longest one was a bit over 2 yrs im lost I cant think of what happened to him???? I know he stressed a bit during capture from the petshop and being bagged I acclimated him for like 3 hrs very slowly!!! my little 5yr old is obsessed with these creatures so I decided to get one for use now this lil kid of mine is heartbroken and its the holiday season and I dont know were to get another by the way ive been watching him eat in the store 2-3 times before I purchased him!!! so he looked fine to me!!!! what do you all think and can someone please help me get another my e-mail is adorstaffs@yahoo.com thanx so much Chris!!!

ok,

1) please clear up your post it took me a while to decipher it all :)

2) Make a new thread for this becaue everybody is mourning dans bimac right now and giving sugestions

3) talk to Zyan! Have you not read the posts???

Beastmaster--

Be wary of any cephs available locally. Even the best known aquarium sources (even national mail-order houses like That Pet Place) know next to nothing about octopuses. Even worse, the only ones on their distributor lists are usually wild-caught and imported from who knows where. If know one knows where your octopus came form, no one can accurately tell you what temperature your tank should be, etc.

At TONMO the only people offering cephs (Zyan, Marinebioguy, Cuttlegirl, Danthemarineman) know exactly what species they're dealing with and what the correct tank parameters are.

Good luck!

Dan

The big Z has offered me two for the price of one.

Not sure how I feel about this. Let me itemize my thoughts:

1) This doubles my chances if one is naturally sickly.

2) Common experience is that one will eventually conquer the other.

3) That in and of itself isn't that big of a problem--what I'm more worried about is having two would prevent them from being as comfortable in the tank and thus as social.

4) There's only one size shipping box, so I spend the same amount whether I get one or two! Since this is my second shipment, I've already invested quite a handful. FedEx pricing is volumetric--in a perfect world I could get a single octopus for half the price because the box would be smaller; in that case there would be no reason to buy two.

Thoughts?

Dan

#3 seems to swing me towards just one...

Yeah, #3 is in an epic deathstruggle with #1 and #4

Get both and send me one... hahaha just kidding.

That's a tough one.

Time to set up another tank!

Do you have another tank? I'd be inclined to go for both.....Does he ship them both in the same bag? Interesting...You could even set up a critter pen within your main tank till you figure out different housing.

There would be a separate bag; but I have no hope of separate housing once it arrived. They'd be in the tank together.

I'm strongly considering just one. I get a hefty FedEx discount if Z bills it to my account (corporate partner rate), so while the cost per animal is still high, its not egregiously so.

I probably have a few more hours to decide, so if anyone else has anything to add please do :)

I think I'd go with one. The odds are that this one will do well, and having two might bring on more problems.

Nancy