Do as I say ...
This AM Neal noticed Margay's tank had overflowed about 2 gallons of water. We have trouble with
this tank from time to time, especially when the octos block the overflow hunting through the "turrets" with their arms. It is an unusual tank (OK, so most of my tanks are a bit on the unusual side
) and was one of the very first all in ones but with the small built in sump designed as a biological filter system. We tore out all the internals of the self enclosed area (roughly 6" wide) and drilled the side to accomodate flow to a larger sump. I have considered a number of options for this small area but it was simply empty for several years until someone discussed external DSB's and it occurred to me that this might help my nitrate problems so it now has about 6" of miricle mud covered by argonite sand. The tank builder (it was custom made for a friend, over 15 years ago) must not have believed in drilling glass as the outer corners a cut away at an angle for part of the original plumbing. We could reuse the two openings for the returns from the new sump but had to drill for an exit bulkhead. Unfortunately, we only drilled one exit point and had to use a 90 degree bend to get it to fit in the desired location. Between having only one exit, the 90 degree elbow and the cut away corners, any flow disruption (including waves while cleaning) will cause air in the exit tube and an overflow of the main tank. MOST of the time this is not a problem and a quick hand under the sump tube releases the air (required weekly when I clean) but when the octos investigate the weir we have occasional water on the floor. Two exit points would have solved this but we were not sure, given the age of the tank and the cut sides, even one was going to work. This is the tank that makes me always suggest two exits, even in something much smaller.
Sooo, after that rather long winded background, Miss Margay apparently decided to explore sometime early this AM. The sump was down a full 2 gallons and the floor was a major puddle (fortunately I have tile floors and this one has a slight tilt to the outside and an unfinished area underneath). Neal found that one of the return tubes had separated inside the pseudo-sump area and we conjectured that Margay had pulled on it (just last night I noticed how strong she is getting when she kept the feeding stick and then my fingers, a real first for her). After supper, I realized I had not seen her all day. This is very abnormal as she is out much of the time and always around supper time. We don't feed the tanks on Saturday so we still did not put the overflow together with her missing for quite some time. When it dawned on me something was amiss I started searching her tank, then the floor, then all the other open tanks, outside the door, under the refrigerator, furniture, and anywhere else I could imagine she may have ended up. By this time I was totally depressed. I carefully shifted the rocks, looking inside each one (not an easy task), rechecked the sump at least 10 times and composed how I was going to explain losing her with tears in my eyes. After checking the garage (the doors were open) and the porch, I went back over to her tank and just blankly stared for a few minutes. THEN
the new rock pile on the opposite side from her den started to shift and I saw a brown arm! I don't think I was ever so glad to see an octopus. I made sure the rocks were not trapping her and did a water change. She still has not come out but at least I know she is in the tank and alive. I think she is way too young to worry about brooding yet so I expect her extended interaction (she also chased a net I was using to clean off the algae at the back of the tank) has put her in a temporary shy state. It appears she may have been changing dens as I did notice she had moved the large rocks in her old den further apart but was somewhere on the opposite side of the tank when she "vanished".
The title, is a reminder that most of the things I suggest (in this case wait a day or two before disrupting a tank and be very, very careful with the rock when an octopus can't be found) come from my own missteps