Artemis came home with me on 1-16-09 from my favorite haunt, the Pet Connection. I posted some of these pics on the ID thread, "id my new friend," and after some conversation among members Artemis has been narrowed down as belonging to the macropus complex. Upon reviewing "Norman's... World Guide," I see that there is still a wide range possibilities within just that complex...
I'm pretty sure I have a boy, this morning (like 4 am morning) I noticed that 3rd arm curled up while he was wall walking. While "Artemis" may have been the goddESS of the hunt, as a SUPER nocturnal animal with moon- like colors, my girls settled on that name. This time, I'm not disappointed to have a male- I need time off from small eggs!
Artemis is living in my 55 gal. tank by himself and the standard "clean- up crew." He has not shown interest in the snails or hermit crabs, but took a piece of raw shrimp from a stick today. He is so dainty compared to the aculeatus I've had. I don't even feel him pull the food off of the stick. I am keeping the temp at 77- 78F, same H2O parameters as the aculeatus, unless someone knows better...
It took a week to decide how to set up the lighting on this tank. Since he is under a rock all day long, I like to keep the regular tank lights on during the day. In talking with the LFS boys, they remembered they had a RED compact fluorescent bulb (400 lumens, 9 w). I got a "Coralife mini aqualight" balast for it, so it fits perfectly behind the regular strip lights, and they are on timers. I haven't seen anyone else using this type of red lighting, I'll let you know how I like it. The shape of the tank (corner bow front) really limited the size of extra lights I could add, which is why I went this direction.
Right now, Artemis' mantle is just under 2 inches. There seems to be quite a variation in size within the macropus complex. I am excited to think I've finally lucked into a young octo who I can watch grow for a while. I'm worried it might grow too big for the tank. Is there any "rule of thumb" for octo size:tank size ratio? If it turns out that he needs a bigger tank, I will be willing to donate him to a better place, I'll worry about that if the time comes.
I'd really like to hear from the few others of you who have experience with this type of octo. There is NOT much info on these guys!
I'm pretty sure I have a boy, this morning (like 4 am morning) I noticed that 3rd arm curled up while he was wall walking. While "Artemis" may have been the goddESS of the hunt, as a SUPER nocturnal animal with moon- like colors, my girls settled on that name. This time, I'm not disappointed to have a male- I need time off from small eggs!
Artemis is living in my 55 gal. tank by himself and the standard "clean- up crew." He has not shown interest in the snails or hermit crabs, but took a piece of raw shrimp from a stick today. He is so dainty compared to the aculeatus I've had. I don't even feel him pull the food off of the stick. I am keeping the temp at 77- 78F, same H2O parameters as the aculeatus, unless someone knows better...
It took a week to decide how to set up the lighting on this tank. Since he is under a rock all day long, I like to keep the regular tank lights on during the day. In talking with the LFS boys, they remembered they had a RED compact fluorescent bulb (400 lumens, 9 w). I got a "Coralife mini aqualight" balast for it, so it fits perfectly behind the regular strip lights, and they are on timers. I haven't seen anyone else using this type of red lighting, I'll let you know how I like it. The shape of the tank (corner bow front) really limited the size of extra lights I could add, which is why I went this direction.
Right now, Artemis' mantle is just under 2 inches. There seems to be quite a variation in size within the macropus complex. I am excited to think I've finally lucked into a young octo who I can watch grow for a while. I'm worried it might grow too big for the tank. Is there any "rule of thumb" for octo size:tank size ratio? If it turns out that he needs a bigger tank, I will be willing to donate him to a better place, I'll worry about that if the time comes.
I'd really like to hear from the few others of you who have experience with this type of octo. There is NOT much info on these guys!