Mystique A. aculeatus

Joined
Oct 2, 2009
Messages
1,462
So, I had told myself I wasnt going to order another octopus for a while. I was gonna give cuttlefish a try. Well, that didnt last very long. I went and placed an order with Live Aquaria on Friday morning and got my octopus first thing this morning (9 am).

I was planing on transfering my cuttlefish to the smaller tank but the delivery guy got here before I could. Turns out I am glad I didnt. This little guy is TINY so I put him in my 40 gallon corner tank. Hes larger than Sedona (but then again all other octopuses are lol) but he is sooooo small compared to HP. HP fully grown fit the 55 perfectly, this little guy is swollowed up in my 40. I would say his mantle is as big as a large pecan shell and thats over estimating a bit. In the picture you can see the quarter I put under the container for size purposes.

Tiny001.jpg


Maybe hes younger and will there for live longer this time?? One can hope. He seems very healthy and has all of his arms. With all the bumping and moving and transfering I was really surprised by how calm he was. He never inked and while he got a little feisty at first he settled in very well and went straight into the rock once I put him in the tank.
 
With your recent habit of acquiring the odd little guy, this may be A. abaculus, a related dwarf species that is about half the size of the aculeatus (3cm - ~1.25" -mantle and 18cm - ~7" - arms). We have seen Live Aquaria ship a couple of these little guys but not many in the last two years or so.

I am hoping it is a youngster in either case but the little ones are so shy that I tend to be pessimistic about capturing very young octos unless they are found in live rock as hitch hikers.
 
You gave up on the Cuttlefish? :frown: Your Octopus looks good :smile:.. im not sure when im going to get to Octopus, but i will eventually. I am going to keep Cuttles for now, since i have my reef. I can have more variety with Cuttles as far as reef organisms go. Did all of your cuttles die?
 
I knew you come back to the dark side but this was quick :biggrin2:
Welcome back S!
Congratulations and :welcome: to you new little addition!
I am keeping my :fingerscrossed: that all goes well. You never said anything, would have shared in your anticipation and excitement. I usually have a hard time sleeping the night before a new one arrives. Is that acclimation container or critter keeper? Want to hear more and I don't think I need to say but will more photos.
I just got on, am going to check your cuttle thread, I hope you still have some babies.

Don't forget to post a review in our new source thread for all your online purchases. Your experience will e helpful to others.
 
iAlex;170632 said:
Nice! Congrats! I was looking on Live Aquaria last night and saw they didn't have any listed, so I figured someone bought it. :roll:

Yeah that was me. I watched them be avalible for a few days and decided that if they still had one when I got my money for the week that I would buy it. lol

dwhatley;170633 said:
With your recent habit of acquiring the odd little guy, this may be A. abaculus, a related dwarf species that is about half the size of the aculeatus (3cm - ~1.25" -mantle and 18cm - ~7" - arms). We have seen Live Aquaria ship a couple of these little guys but not many in the last two years or so.

I am hoping it is a youngster in either case but the little ones are so shy that I tend to be pessimistic about capturing very young octos unless they are found in live rock as hitch hikers.

Those messurements sound about right actually. Long arms a very small body. I know nothing about A. abaculus so I guess I should be reading up. Do you know if they are as social as A. aculeatus egg size ect? He does look exactly like HP did though so that gives me pause. He even had the little antena lol I always love that look on them.

Cephdoc;170634 said:
You gave up on the Cuttlefish? :frown: Your Octopus looks good :smile:.. im not sure when im going to get to Octopus, but i will eventually. I am going to keep Cuttles for now, since i have my reef. I can have more variety with Cuttles as far as reef organisms go. Did all of your cuttles die?

I havent given up but my hope is fading. I cant afford the food losses and they dont seem to be living longer than a week for me. The tank they are in will be taken down after a while because I am concerned something is wrong with it. I will be doing a large water change in the hopes that this will change things but like I said I have little faith right now.

Lmecher;170649 said:
I knew you come back to the dark side but this was quick :biggrin2:
Welcome back S!
Congratulations and :welcome: to you new little addition!
I am keeping my :fingerscrossed: that all goes well. You never said anything, would have shared in your anticipation and excitement. I usually have a hard time sleeping the night before a new one arrives. Is that acclimation container or critter keeper? Want to hear more and I don't think I need to say but will more photos.
I just got on, am going to check your cuttle thread, I hope you still have some babies.

Don't forget to post a review in our new source thread for all your online purchases. Your experience will e helpful to others.

I didnt want to say anything as I was really nervous about getting him. I was afraid that he would be DOA or something (had dreams to that effect) and didnt want to jinx it somehow lol. I was also concerned that it wouldnt be A. aculeatus and that I would end up with a wonderpus or something (that would have been bad) so I just waited until I got him and knew he was ok :wink:. And like D said... being with out an octopus is worse than them dying on you. I love them and they will always have my heart.
 
The tank they are in will be taken down after a while because I am concerned something is wrong with it. I will be doing a large water change in the hopes that this will change things but like I said I have little faith right now.




I was feeling the same way about my 120. Especially after I lost 2 in a row from Tom. My husband kept telling me the tank was poison. I never considered taking it down. I know about getting discouraged, it can be difficult at times but we have to remember, we are similar to the early explorers in unknown territory. There is so much yet unknown about these delicate creatures we keep. I have spent many hours kicking myself trying to figure out what I am missing?/what did I do wrong?
 
Lmecher;170655 said:
I was feeling the same way about my 120. Especially after I lost 2 in a row from Tom. My husband kept telling me the tank was poison. I never considered taking it down. I know about getting discouraged, it can be difficult at times but we have to remember, we are similar to the early explorers in unknown territory. There is so much yet unknown about these delicate creatures we keep. I have spent many hours kicking myself trying to figure out what I am missing?/what did I do wrong?

Yep thats pretty much it... I feel like its toxic or something. I just cant wait till I have the 75 set up exactly how I want it. I am buying everything brand new except my chiller so it shouldnt be a problem.
 
Lmecher;170703 said:
That's a relief :smile:
I hold my breath while acclimating. Sit on pins and needles for 2 weeks.
Good job!

Me too... It takes a while for me to feel comfortable also. I am always waiting to make sure but you know what I mean.


I have started to make sure the very last thing I do is open the bag. I took off all the outer bags to make sure its still alive but leaving the bag closed helps me to know that if something was to go wrong like the water isnt right (like this time) I have time to fix it. I was very very glad to have left the bag closed... I got the octopus at 930 or around there and I didnt finish acclimating him until 3 or just about (I had high nitrates and needed to do a water change but all of my water was about 68 degrees lol. I had to pull out my clean (never been used) canning jars so that I could heat the water in the microwave :lol: of all places. This took quite a while to heat the 7 gallons to a comfortable 74-75 degrees.

I just went into the kitchen now and saw him out on the rock. We sat there watching each other for a while. After that he went back to hide. I am just glad to know the little guy is doing ok. I have a few shrimp in the tank left over from when I put them in there for Sedona. I will be placing an order on Monday for some VERY small fiddlers. If Paul cant do the extra small ones then I am going to have to try something else, because while this little guy looks JUST like HP the mantle and arm span are exactly like D mentioned.
 

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