Colin's new octopus

Colin

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Thanks to TONMO's Andy Lister who works at TMC in the UK I have got the first octopus I have had for about 5 years.

Just arrived today and seems to have settled in well. I still have the lights off so maybe some pics of the animal tomorrow but I did take a half decent one during aclimatisation.

I think its a Horridus species, very like aculeatus but about twice the size of the two i had before. Mantle length about 6cm, tip to tip arms about 55-60cm stretch. Looks much chunkier than others I have had before. Came from Indonesian shipment.

anyway, here's a pic... more to follow...
 

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Cheers Monty

Seems to be acclimatising okay, just squirting a wee bit ink in my face! LOL
 
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Looks like a good one! Congratulations and welcome to your new octopus.
Have added it to the List of Our Octopuses, but am waiting for a name.

Nancy
 
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Meh, worse case scenario i am afraid to say

Once it had been in the tank for a couple more hours or so I could see the arms twitching out from around the sides of the live rock. The tips were going round in circles and I thought it looked like the behaviour seen when they are shedding sucker caps, but the colour was erratic on its skin. I could see that the octo was very white looking.

This morning, the octopus is now sitting out in plain view very much doing what senescence octopuses do.

Now i can see it properly I'd say it is definitely a large horridus like aculeatus and as I said, much larger than any I had seen before therefore old. This is one of the reasons why I had gone off octopuses in the UK!

So, its either dying from shipping stress or old age (probably made worse by shipping)
 
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:cry:Hey Colin,

At first I was so excited for you as you take awesome pics and I love reading your accounts of the different creatures, (daughter included:smile:) but then I got to the part you think he's at the end of his life.....and my excitement went right out the window. I would love for you to get another, but younger as I'm sure your reports would be awesome for everyone to follow!
 
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Collin,

One of my mercs did the arm tip spinny move from a very young age so keep watching and don't give up hope yet. I will say that I am starting to see it more frequently on the other 3 males now at 9 months (strangely enough Sisty doesn't do it much any more). Playing the guessing game, I initially thought it might have to do with plankton feeding but now I wonder if it has something to do with maturing males rather than anything else (Sisty matured very soon where the others we much slower but all were born within a week). I have not seen either of my two (mother and daughter) females show this behavior and I only saw my wild caught mom shed suckers, none of my captive raised seem to have shed (soft life maybe).

Hoping for the best.
 
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