Barney

deep8

Pygmy Octopus
Registered
Joined
Aug 23, 2008
Messages
8
Well,

I have been a long time marine hobbiest and a avid diver. I love the ocean and marine biology. I am a web developer as a real job.

I have several marine and fresh tanks and I house a shark and a cortez stingray along with many other fish and reef tanks with many corals ( I frag corals). I have a medium knowledge base of corals.

With my experience over the years, I have decided to raise an octopus and I love it immensely so far.

barney.JPG


My octo's name is Barney and he is 11 inches from tip to tip. I do not know his age unfortunately. I have a wonderful source for octos so when this one has reached his life span, I will be able to get them very quickly.

I have a 39 gallon tank with a refugium attached on the outside to increase filtration and easy access to double carbon with a very large protein skimmer. I build all of my own stuff and I do all of my own calculations of what is needed for water flow and waste management.

I introduced Barney to the tank (which has been used for raising other fish to adults and moved to larger tanks) Last Friday. He ate the first day on fiddler crabs, then next day he ate the same and even a piece of silverside handed to him.

Barney has not inked 1 time and infact I have found the following.

Barney was put into the tank and the lights were kept off for 3 hours, then a gradual lighting increase as the day went on. He was not all that active due to the stress of being shipped from California to Tennessee, however, he was very easy to aclimate. 4 hours until he came out to explore and immediately began to eat fiddlers.

Barney does like the lights which are a T5 type of lighting, moderate levels. Infact, he has come out whenever I turn the lights on and explores and he dances all over the tank and looks for food. I do have red lights for in between hours, the red lights stay on the most due to keeping the water temp consistent. The top of the tank was desinged by me with acrylic and cutting the acrylic to allow for external filtration as the secondary filtration. To give you any idea how fast the tank clears if it is cleaned, it just takes 2 hours. A chiller will follow once he is moved to a larger tank as he grows. Water temp is constant 74.

Now is the time for me to go buy him some toys, now that he is used to the tank. Any suggestion on this will be very helpful.

I have also decided to try and breed them and I will update and document all that I do in this venture.

I am new to the site so be easy on me. :smile: However, I am not new to reading the forums, I have been reading the forums for 3 years and have waited until the right time to signup and post. I also have been studying cephs for many years to gain the proper knowledge to keep once successfully.

I am very happy that there is a site that is dedicated to ceph owners.

I totally love this hobby!!!
 
:welcome: to you and Barney!

It sounds like you're both doing fine.

Since you seem to have a good handle on the system, this is more informational than critical, but we generally recommend a 55gal with a sump for an octopus that size, because they put out a tremendous amount of waste and are very sensitive to water quality. It sounds like your filtration system is pretty impressive, so this may not be an issue, but you'll really want to keep a close eye on the water parameters and be prepared for frequent and possibly emergency water changes.

I'm sure everyone would be interested in finding out about your source for octos (perhaps in the "octopus availability" thread) and your DIY tank systems (over in "tank talk").

I can't tell the species from the picture, and a number of species do the "skunk stripe" look like that, but if you're interested in knowing his exact species, the "ID requests" thread is a good place to post pics and any information you have about where he came from.
 
:welcome:Hello and good luck to you and Barney. And now the inevitable question... What is your "wonderful source?" I have recently lost my octo, Al, and am itching to at least get some good sources to fill my sad, empty tank! Thanks for sharing (only if you are willing:smile:)
 
Welcome to you and Barney! I will add him to the List of Our Octopuses.

Let's get an ID on Barney (post about him and include pics in the ID forum here on Ceph Care)- you may not need a chiller for him. Do you know what part of the world he comes from?

Nancy
 
Thanks everyone!

I will post new pics in the Id section to get him ID'ed. He does love doing the skunk stripe, especially cool when that stripe is purple because he is trying to match the purple rock. He can go completely white with purple accents when hes in the rocks. Last night he picked up a big shell to remove a fiddler from under it, while doing it at the same time, that was a very neat thing to watch.

He uses 3 dens, one of them he made himself by digging out sand beside a rock and made a sand pile that a rock overhangs.

I will try to get some video of him as well.

As far as sources for octos, go to The Aquatic Critter Call them and ask for Chris, the owner or Wes which does the ordering, Wes does the ordering and they will get them quick for you. Tell them that Jim sent you, they know me soooo well. The octos come from the west coast. I have called Chris to let him know that members of this forum may call to order and he will know who you are if you mention this site.
 
:welcome: to you and Barney! Sounds like you know what you're doing. And I would really like to see the results of the breeding, when you try it. :smile:
 
Just an update,

I believe I identified Barney as a ATLANTIC LONGARM OCTOPUS (OCTOPUS DEFILIPPI), if I am incorrect on this, please let me know. I tried to study as many of the species as I can that would be close to what Barney would resembles.

It seems his arms are about 5-7 times the length of his body. His eyes are high up and a bump above each one. His first missing 2 arms are just about grown back to normal length with suckers completely. With the length of him from tip to tip (about almost 20 inches) he should be around half to 2/3's of his life span. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this.

Here is the best part...

I have converted him from live fiddlers to eating silver sides and krill, he eats with vigor on both and seems to rather enjoy both. He actually takes the food out of my hand, he rubs my fingers at first, then swipes the food from them.

I do find that he is out mostly in the daytime and some during the evening. Since his tank is right next to my wrok desk and computer, he watches me work most of the day. I even play some octopus vidoes and he does recognize that something is going on, whether or not he knows what is on the monitor is a mystery. I am still playing with this idea to see if I get different reactions from different stuff.

I can honestly tell you that the best thing I did was to setup a seperate refugium with a huge protein skimmer and a large bag of charcoal with additional bio balls. The water quality is absolutley perfect and Barney seems happy with his 2 dens he has created. 1 of them I created with a empty shell that used to belong to a huge crab i had for a few years. That is Barney's favorite den.

Another thing I noticed, he has not tried to get out, at least I have seen so far. He has no way out because "gorrila duct tape" is your best friend if you are housing an octo.

He is a male, has a right 3rd arm that is very apparent and curled up most of the time.

Most faciniating thing I have done in my life is to learn about octos and Barney just thrills me everyday I see him.

Steve O'Shea, If you read this, I feel totally dumb. I have been following you on the discovery channel with all of the shows you have been in and have not put 2 and 2 together to know it was you all this time. My apologies. I commend your work and I am quite jealous of what you do. I have always wanted to do something like you do at least 1 time in my life for a day! Keep up the good work!
 

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