A. aculeatus What species do I have?

[DWhatley]

I did not mean to feed only Cyclop-eze but indeed that his all Trapper ate after her brood and lived an additional 12 weeks (not normal and the only one I have had to do that but I remember on other O. mercatoris living close to that long after brooding). The Cyclop-eze may help get it to start eating and appears to be a high quality food. When you offer pieces of food, make it about the size of the eye. We have seen the smaller and older animals reject food that is too large but accept it if broken into smaller offerings.

Since she is eating and leaving shells, I don't think she is brooding. This could be a prebrood behavior though. We have noticed that most prebrood females will accept almost anything just before denning up but I don't know that that is universal.


iAlex, Nancy also had stocked the tank with tons of pods but it also died at about 4 months. Mine are not extremely long lived but if they make it to 2 weeks they survive until senescence feeding them daily with a 1 day a week fast. Something I have never quite determined with Roy's and Joe_Ceph's postings about feeding every 2 or three days is quantity of food on the days they feed. I believe Roy feeds a couple of crabs where I feed only one so the quantity may be close to the same. My animals are HUNGRY daily (LittleBit would have eaten more than what was offered I think). I find it hard to believe that they over eat. Ours (with the exception of LittleBit) push food away once they are satisfied and start eating less when they stop the exponential growth phase. I would attribute my refusal to "starve" my octos to being female but Neal is always overfeeding the tanks (much to my maintenance chagrin).

 

[iAlex]

iAlex, ...

You're so formal... Feel free to drop the 'i' every once in awhile.

 

[DWhatley]

Alex, in most cases I use the TONMO chosen name rather than the familiar since not everyone wants their official name used(of course I have to look up the spelling for Neogonodactylus EVERY time I use it so I often resort to Roy but he is staff and publicly exposes his name )

 

[iAlex]

Oh, I forgot I don't want my name to get out on this forum...

 

[Blitz99]

I'm happy to say it was out and about today watching us make dinner.... On the rocks for most of the day and then on the glass for a good 2 hours. Most activity since the first 2 days. Could be the damsels gone so its more comfortable?

 

[DWhatley]

It takes about 2 weeks for them to comfortably acclimate and establish a daily pattern but, yes, fish can definitely make them more reclusive. At one time the thought was that they neede a quiet location that had little traffic and motion. I strongly disagree with that thinking and have found that they are much more interactive when their tanks are around regular activity. Once they decide you are not a threat they will usually allow you to see them watching your. I have had several that would change their coloration to visible (vs matching the LR) when I approached the tank. It is anyone's guess as to why (food request, play, threat, protecting its home) but the octopus clearly was allowing me to see it.

 

[Blitz99]

Well, I'm a few weeks into it now and all is well (knock on wood). She's eating hermits and as far as i can tell MAYBE a snail or two. I got the damsels out but still have a dottyback with her which hopefully never gets brave. He's uncatchable without a tank breakdown and they seem to co-exist ok until now. The Octopus has tried to catch it once or twice but to no avail. Expensive food at some point.

 

[abdopus147]

I too had an adult abdopus aculeatus, and while waiting for my tank to mature (before I had the octopus) I added two damsel fishes. When the octopus arrived I placed it into his tank, but it didn't show up. Well, later I found out it was a girl and had eggs in its cave. It still fed after, occasionally and didn't come out. Soon it passed away.

After my first failure of getting an adult abdopus I decided to order another one from LiveAquaria. When I got this one it came out every other day. Then I decided to get three more damsels. The octopus vanished, it seemed as if he wasn't even alive. One damsel came unhealthy and died, while another one might have been killed by the octopus. So, I caught all three damsels ( it helps if you catch them at night, they can't see well ) and the octopus came out after, checking out its new home.

 

[DWhatley]

Blitz99,
With your permission, I would like to move this thread to our journals and encourage you to continue recording (and photographing) your experience.

Somehow, I seem to have missed your question about journaling. There are no rules or requirements. You are free to post as much or as little as you would like about keeping the octopus. We encourage photos, recording observations (like you have done with the fish), anything you find interesting or that would be helpful for other keepers, what food it likes, and anything you would like to remember for next time.

Have you given it a name?

 

[Cuddlycuttlefsh]

She's eating hermits and as far as i can tell MAYBE a snail or two.

Hermits can in special cases become a problem when being introduced to the aquarium in general. There are many species that can quickly outgrow and destroy the entire surrounding but this scenario is still a bit unlikely but it can happen if you introduce it as food to the octopus when their appetite is disrupted through the effects of senescence or over feeding.

At post #10
Sorry for the lag to respond. The pictures in post 5, not even one of the arms exhibit curling or coiling (and in most cases males tend to coil the arm thats third from the right 24/7, or is it the left?).

 

[DWhatley]

Hermits are standard fare in an octo tank. Keep in mind this is a species tank with few corals and the hermits are used as a food source that helps clean.

Check out the sticky at the top of Physiology and Biology. to help you determine the sex of your animal.

 

[Cuddlycuttlefsh]

thanks for putting a link up, my response on gender determination was quite vague.

 

[Blitz99]

typically if and when it goes to the glass most of it's arms are curled. The photos in post 5 was when it was exploring and moving across the glass pretty quickly and checking things out. If it's just hanging out, it's curled up.

 

[Blitz99]

Octopus on glass...... not a bad thing?

I've noticed over the past few weeks that my octo will go to the glass and hang out 'whenever'. I've also noticed this behavior isn't him checking me out in the kitchen (tanks in the kitchen) nor is it him being in bad shape or stressed out. It's how he hunts for food. This octo is ONLY eating hermit crabs ($$$$) and when he has a supply of food he stays in his little den he has. Once food is scarce he goes to the glass and awaits movement. He's been hanging on the glass for several days now since he went through 20 hermits in the course of 5 days. I brought home 10 today dumped them in and he pounced. He took 7 of them with him in a way a mom with 8 arms would scoop up her flock of children and disappeared into the rocks. The obviousness of his hunger was there, it was frantic when he saw them dumped in and his excitability when scooping them up and eating was quite amusing.



So, with that.... What else can I try to feed crustacian (can't spell it) wise? I'd like to throw him a large hermit but if he doesn't eat it My coral could be in trouble.... I also don't want to feet expensive shrimp too often, though I do think he'd eat them. Ghost shrimp die in salt water, right? Anything cheaper than hermits out there?

 

[DWhatley]

Have you tried a small piece of thawed table shrimp on a feeding stick? If you can find blue crab claws at an Asian market, you can freeze them and offer a thawed piece in an opened shell. Occasional crawfish tails have also been a favorite of my animals.

Fiddler crabs are almost alway accepted. O break off the small pincher on the large claw of the males.