[Octopus]: Arthur - Aculeatus, my first octopus

Hi Reggie,

I just want to say I have been following your thread and hoping for a good outcome. I wish I had some advice other than to keep up with water changes if there is any doubt about the water quality. I am also new at this and recently got a rocky start myself with my first octopus and fought off an ammonia spike with a frantic series of water changes. But it was really interesting to see the biology at work when after a few days the ammonia concentration suddenly shifted to zero.

Of course if Arthur is old then there is nothing to do but be happy he lived a full life in the ocean before coming to you, and maybe you'll have the chance to adopt one of his children.
 
Losing arms is not a sign of senescence. This species complex (and quite possibly others) have special points along the arms where they can drop a section if they feel threatened. We have seen this on happen with a number of newly acclimated individuals. Some have done well after fully acclimating, others not. It is not clear if water (or other forms of) stress will cause this but getting an arm stuck in hardware definitely will. The successful animals have not dropped as many arms as Arthur and I think you need to examine the tank for stressors and hardware that could be causing the amputations.

On the other hand color and rapid breathing are often a signs of poor water quality or senescence and it is the coloration that concern me the most for survival.
 
Thanks for the replies and tips ka-ka and DWhatley! The only possible place where he could get an arm stuck is In the filter, but I really can't see any way to stop this as covering those holes would stop the filter. I found this picture although its not mine. Mine is similar, but with two more sections of chutes. Any ideas? image.jpg
 
He seems to be a bit more active than he was a week ago, the color is sometimes the same and sometimes more brownish. BUT he still barely eats, if anything at all. Any ideas? He was hanging on the front glass today so I could see in between his arms and I couldn't see any beak. Could it be possible that he is hurt there or is it just that he is so small that I can't see it? Either way, how can I make him eat? I've been giving him pieces of scampi which is what he got at the LFS before I bought him
 
The beak will not be visible unless he is using or about to use it. Sometimes you can just see the pointed tip when they are pressed against the glass. In addition to live food (fiddler crabs are the most accepted and I recommend trying them first) you can try offering a clam on the half shell, a small piece of fresh fish (try to avoid any that has color added), a fresh blue crab claw (we get ours from the Asian markets when they have live blue crab) or even a scallop. Hermit crabs are sometimes accepted as food but I have not had success using them.
 
Phosphate and Nitrate are not the major concerns (VERY high nitrate can be but 25 is actually low for a ceph tank). Ammonia and nitrite are the two chemicals that need monitoring and should ALWAYS show 0. Even small amounts of either (ammonia turns to nitrite then to nitrate in a cycle) can severly stress or kill an octopus.

You also need to monitor your salinity. Low salt can cause serious health problems.
 
I tried giving him live mangroove crabs today. I took off it's claws and put it right next to Arthur and still Arthur won't eat. It's been three or four days now without him eating. This really doesn't look good. Should I use reverse osmosis water?
Also there is actually a hermit crab in there that's been there from day one, but Arthur just ignore him.
One more thing: he let out these long, very thin white threads. What could it be?
 
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The white threads are elimination. I have seen three types, one is roughly the thickness of a brissle worm, another is a white cloud and the third the white strings you are seeing. I don't know what foods or processes produce the different types.

Yes, you should always have been using RO/DI water. You DO need to check nitrite and ammonia over anything else and keep a watch on your salt content. These DO change and are the most important parameters we check.
 

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