Sleipner (Odin's 8-legged horse) has been with us since Thursday morning.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/Sleipner/th_acclim12-14-06.jpg (http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/Sleipner/?action=view&current=acclim12-14-06.flv)

As you can see he was very active and curious, even from day one. When I first put the bag in the tank after dripping he did wait a little while before he came out. He jumped right to the closest rock, then climbed around it for a few minutes until he found the best place to hide out for a while. He chose a hollow spot on the underside of the rock. It wasn't quite good enough so he spent the afternoon digging it out and making a sand wall around the outside.

He ate the first evening, and every day since. On Saturday he switched to a den on a rock that's a bit further up and affords him a better view.

Yesterday and today he's made social progress with us. Yesterday he was sitting on the rock just outside his den and didn't retreat when we came up to the tank to peer at him, but rather peered right back at us.

Today he came out for about an hour or two and hunted. When I came up to the glass he seemed curious about me, but after investigation continued hunting oblivious to my chasing after him with the camera.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/Sleipner/th_wimp12-18-06.jpg (http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/Sleipner/?action=view&current=wimp12-18-06.flv)

As you can see he needs a bit more practice hunting fiddlers. He's killed no less than two so far, so maybe he's just better at ambushing them than attacking them outright.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/Sleipner/th_breathing12-18-06.jpg (http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/Sleipner/?action=view&current=breathing12-18-06.flv)

Here's a good short clip of him breathing.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/Sleipner/th_wimp212-18-06.jpg (http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i222/dbhyslop/octopus/Sleipner/?action=view&current=wimp212-18-06.flv)

Here he tries again on the other side of the tank. He slinks away back to his den in embarrasment, and I went upstairs to upload the video. When my wife came home from work she was shocked to see him out on the glass oblivious to her, too. He walked along giving us a good view of his suckers (no video, sorry) until he found a snail that recently fell off the side. He left the shell behind and started making his way towards his den, spitting out the operculum halfway!

Dan

Ahhh....Sleipners very cute. Is he another of Zyans? There's nothing like a Bimac!!:mrgreen:

:welcome: Sleipner!

Yup. I can't believe this little guy--most aquarists just don't know what they're missing.

I'm kinda disappointed by the fact that all the other Zyan bimacs come out and hunt and stuff, when mine hunts only at night, and never leaves the den during the day. If I wanted this, I coulda gotten a dwarf...

Not all Zyan's bimacs have been like this--at least one has died.

Try to keep patient for a little bit longer. In the past people talk about weeks and weeks of hiding. Try not to crowd him, either, having people walk by or be close to the glass might spook him.

This is my third octopus, the first two I've owned each died within a week of their arrival. I first entertained the idea of having an octopus over three years ago and its taken me this long to have any success (knock on wood). Its all about patience.

Good luck,

Dan

:welcome: little guy, what a cutie - almost makes me want to switch to octopus (ALMOST...) :grin: .

Cool little guy!

Great looking octopus! I also enjoyed the video footage.

I'm a little bit worried about Sleipner now, too. Despite being active and curious early on, he seems to have settled into a PVC den and, well, hasn't left. I haven't seen any hard evidence of him eating for about ten days (no empty crab or snail shells). For the past week I haven't seen any poops either (although that doesn't mean much because you have to be in the right place and the right time to see one).

He is as active and responsive as he can be from inside his den--he'll move around inside, etc, but he doesn't seem interested in food. I'll lay an overturned snail or hermit crab outside his den and he won't be interested. He doesn't seem very interested in fiddlers, either. I've dangled them in front of his den and sometimes he'll half-heartedly wrap arms around it but will let go as soon as he meets resistance.

Again, the water parameters are perfect and the temperature is 68 degrees. What temperature do our other bimac-keepers have? If their metabolism grows exponentially with temperature is it possible that he will only eat once a week at that temp?

Dan

You've only had him a couple of weeks, so it's not so unusual that he's not out and about. Sometimes they will have a period of night activity (don't know why, but this happened with my bimac, too) and even at 5 months, Sleipner could be snacking on amphipods, if available.

Are you also sure he's not sneaking out and hiding, so well disguised that you can't make him out?

We don't have enough reports of bimacs kept at different temperatues to say anything about frequency of eating. This could be different with individual bimacs, too.

Nancy

I hope he's just feeling a little reclusive, and will be happy again soon.

Just wondering, is there any name relationship to this Sleipnir (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/cgi-bin/gg101.cgi?date=20050912)

His den is a 1" PVC pipe facing the front of the tank, so if he wasn't inside we'd know. He has a panoramic view of the entire room and we have a good view of him.

I spend some time each day sitting in front of the tank peering at him, and he doesn't seem to mind--he'll react by darkening the stripe on either side of his eye for just a moment. If he wants to be left alone he'll crawl to the back of the tube, but that's not common.

I hope he is coming out at night and getting his fill of amphipods. Now that I think of it I haven't seen as many in the tank as I have in previous weeks, but of course that might not mean anything.

Worried might be too strong a word, but I'll probably be a little on edge until I start seeing snail shells and crab carapaces again. Ivar died after not eating for 7 days, but Sleipy seems pretty healthy in there.

Monty - I don't think they're related. Sitting in his den my Sleipner is more funny than yours is in a comic strip :)

Sitting in front of the tank and watching Sleipner helps him get used to you, so you're actually building trust.

You might try tempting him with a piece of thawed frozen shrimp.

People think an octo that large won't eat amphipods, but I caught Ollie hunting them when she was older than Sleipner. In fact, she ate every amphipod in the tank! They must be very tasty!

Nancy

I've tried krill a couple times. He'll explore it a bit with his suckers but will eventually try to blow it away. That's a clear sign he's not interested so I withdraw then--hopefully that builds trust, too.

Now that I stop and think about this I'm amazed at the interaction I'm having with him, even if he is a recluse! My clownfish don't tell me when they're not hungry--on the other hand they always are hungry!

Dan,
I am also worried about Trapper not eating. He moves his cave about every 4-5 days and I hold my breath until I find him again (the good thing is this behavior does lean toward Briareus). I have tried thawed shrimp on a feeding stick which brings the live, grass shrimp and blue legs right to his door but I have seen no remains (possibly because of the clean up crew in the tank - I hope). The two mithrax and fiddler I put in there are still roaming around (one guppy may have disappeared) and I am not sure how many amphipods the tank has produced naturally (I have not added any but my live rock was very ocean fresh). We don't have the neat vision set up you do so I don't know how often he leaves his cubby.

You mentioned not seeing ingested food ... uhh what should I look for?

Thanks,

My tank is at 68 and Spike is eating daily, 1" to 2" locally caught crabs. Here's a thought...I have always kept my light on 24/7. Maybe he is roaming when it's dark. Sounds like all his behaviors are normal along with the coloration compared to Spike....and if you have a ton of little food in there, he may very well be out terrorizing the tank, eating his fill, when the lights go out.

And ingested food, or octopus waste looks like long stringy, mucously stuff....

Keeping fingers crossed for both of you.

I found what I believe to be some poops today--I'm used to the red ones, but these were little flesh colored blobs with little stringy bits attached, about the same size. I think he ate a big snail last night, but I'm not sure (sometimes he'll integrate a live snail into his den wall!)

Dan

Blinky's poop is reddish orange. She's eating 2 1-2" fiddlers A DAY!!! I'm astounded. They're aren't too expensive from Sach's though, so i'm not worried. My tank temp is around 70*F.

Brock,

You might try to limit Blinky's feedings to one a day. Although they can't overeat per se, too much food can shorten their lifespan. That's likely to be one reason Cuttlegirl's cuttles outlived mine by two months.

As for the frequency of eating at colder temps... I can say Einy's appetite was stunted when I moved him into his own tank. The tank he was in at first stayed between 72-75 and he ate as often as I would give him food. The tank he is in now stays around 65. He doesn't eat nearly as much as he did before, and I haven't seen him out of his shell since I moved him. I added 3 fiddlers at the same time a few nights ago, and as soon as one stepped in front of his shell, he pulled it inside. A few hours later I checked, and another one had been ripped apart several inches away from his den, so obviously he is coming out, just not when I'm around. The third fiddler is still running around in his tank.

You might try introducing some thawed frozen shrimp, not as a substitute for fiddlers, but as an alternative for some meals.

It's good to have some variety in food, but also, if your fiddler shipment is late, you'll have another type of food your octo will accept.

Nancy

Well, I've had an interesting afternoon with Sleipy.

First, I decided to become aggressive with a fiddler. Not only did I dangle it in front of his den, but I pretty much forced it inside with my finger and wouldn't let it leave. Sleipner didn't seem to care. At one point the fiddler even wedged himself between the octopus and the side of the pipe. I've noticed Sleipner has a couple white spots on him similar to the ones that would appear on my cuttles from time to time. Perhaps they're damaged iridiphores from a crab pinch? Its consistent with why he doesn't like to go after crabs, and why he's a little sheepish even when he has.

I was worried that this might stress him out a little bit, but after the ordeal ended Sleipner came back to the front of the den to peer out again. I let him relax about a half hour or so while I thawed some krill.

I worked the krill against his medial suckers using the feeding stick, and decided to stick with it (har har) even after he tried to blow it away. Sometimes he gives an ambiguous response: he will move his body so the piece of shrimp is pressed against him near his mouth: you could argue he's trying to push it out of his den or trying to engulf it but is thrown off by the stick. Sometimes while doing this he will leave his den almost completely.

I tried using my fingers instead of the stick and had a little bit better luck. He took a piece of krill, reoriented it a few times and nibbled on it for a couple minutes before spitting it out. You could see that the face and eyes had been sliced up by his beak. If he had been chewing on the more tasty end of the shrimp perhaps he would have kept it? I'll try again tomorrow. This entire action didn't seem to phase him at all either--he did nothing to slink far back into his den, blow water, turn white or ink. It was almost like playing.

After he rejected the shrimp I tried giving him a snail by hand, but that was the point he pulled an empty shell in the front of the den to say "enough." I think he does trust me to some extent because the shell isn't very big and doesn't really offer any cover; whereas he could easily grab a couple big shells and block most of it off.

Have you tried removing the claws of the fiddler and then offering it? It does sometimes take some convincing to get a cephalopod to try dead food, but it sounds like you may be making progress. Good luck!

I've been trying with the females, but I suppose their little claws can hurt just as bad as the big fiddle.

I'm also bringing the temperature up to 70 for a day or two to see how he responds to that.

You don't really need to remove the claws, just clip off the tips so that the crab can't pinch.

Nancy

Tonight I have a hypothesis for why Sleipner hasn't been eating like he should. Its a bit radical so I won't share until tomorrow when I can examine some of his poops under a lens--that will make or break my idea.

In the meantime, a question for the other octo owners: is it common for your octos to sit with some or many arms in their mantle cavity when resting in the den?

Dan

Dan,

Unfair tease, if your theory does not pan out are you going to at least explain your thought?

I haven't really seen all of Trapper (vulgaris/breareus?) since I installed him/her in the tank but what I can see is almost always the underside with arms curled upwards. Unfortunately, I cannot see where the tip of the arm is being placed.

Spike sits with his legs curled around him but not in his mantle. So when do we get enlightened as to your theory? :smile:

I'll tip my hand tonight, even if I haven't gotten hold of any poo by then.

You don't think he's eating his arms do you?

Now I'm getting worried....what do you think is going on?

Nancy

I don't think its autophagy because I usually have a good view of him and I haven't noticed any stumps.

He stopped making the ceph-typical red poops about two weeks ago, after he stopped eating. His poops since then have been small (3-4 mm), translucent/flesh colored and a little bit stringy at the end(s). He'll spit up to a few a day into the water column directly out of his mantle cavity.

My hypothesis is these aren't poops at all: Sleipner is a she-ipner and for some reason has holed up in a den, stopped eating and started producing infertile, somewhat malformed eggs a few months ahead of schedule. From what I can tell she's not depositing them in festoons in her den, but just spitting them out into the water.

I don't have any evidence to back up this idea--its simply a hypothesis that happens to fit the facts. Nor do I have any reason why it might be happening. The only thing I can try to shed some light on the subject is try to catch some of this mystery poo. I put some chaeto downstream of the den to try to trap some.

Thoughts?

Dan

Maybe there are fertile ones, but she is picking the bad ones out and throwing them out? Just a thought...