• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Getting To Know Me

ChrisMohrSr

Cuttlefish
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Joined
Jan 23, 2010
Messages
27
I am an 80 year old retired photographer. Down through the years I have had several marine aquariums. I even cared for a pregnant octopus at one time, a story which I will recount in a moment.
Keeping 55 gallon marine aquariums became quite a chore as I became blessed with arthritis, so it's been some years since I've had my hands in salt water. Lately however, I have been thinking more and more about getting the salt water back on my hands. When I set up my first marine tank over fifty years ago we had to contend with metal aquarium construction and aquarium cement that became toxic when used with salt water. The consensus was, "Keeping salt water fish alive is impossible!" And, at that time, if you even suggested that some day you could keep live coral in your living room, you would have surely been commited.
Maybe I am just before my time. I have been shooting stereo slides with the same Stereo Realist camera since 1952. Three dimensional technology was inevitable. I knew that the first time I picked up a Stereo Realist camera in 1952. Unfortunately, digital technology wasn't there to make it a viable medium at that time. So I had to wait. The irony is, that I will probably be dead before it reaches the full potential I have waited all these years to see.

I like radio controlled electric helicopters, old movies on DVD and surfing the web. I also enjoy turning some of my several thousand stereo slides into anaglyphs by copying them into my computer using my Nikon Coolpix 5700. Currently, I am trying my hand at hydroponics using The AeroGarden and learning R/C quadrocopter flying.

Several years ago I cared for a pregnant octopus my son caught. Of course we didn't know she was pregnant at the time. However, she soon retired to a cave I had made for her and started stringing her eggs from the ceiling. She then began aerating them for what seemed like forever, but must have been several weeks. I can't rememeber how long. All that time she would not accept any kind of nourishment. I never peered into her cave and saw her when she wasn't aerating those eggs. I don't think she ever slept. I tried to find out what I should do when the eggs began to hatch, but in those days there was very little about the octopus in captivity. The smallest live food available were brine shrimp and I knew the babies would not eat those, at least that was my understanding. The female dies after the eggs hatch so there was nothing to be done for her, but I was hoping for some kind of a miracle for the progeny I guess. I don't know how many hatched, but I saw a few swimming around. Then, they just seemed to disappear and were gone. I really felt pretty rotten considering all the work she had put into giving them life and, through ignorance, I just let them die.
I would like to comment on statements I keep reading that maintain it is impossible keep an octopus unless you completely seal off the tank, for they will always try and escape. That is not strictly true. I have kept three octopusses on three separate occasions, not counting the pregnant female. None of these animals made any attempt at escaping although there was more than enough room to do so. Nor did any of them do any inking. I have reached the conclusion that as long as the animal feels safe and secure and is receiving enough food, it will, in most cases, stay put. And will ink only when it experiences real fear or terror.
I am now setting up a 20 gallon long tank for a baby octopus my son can capture at one of the spots where he goes fishing off his boat. I would like to communicate with people in a similiar situation so that we may compare notes.

Have a happy and productive new year.

Christopher R. Mohr Sr.
 
Christopher, If you split yourself into two (or Neal and I combine into one but not add our ages or even add in the age of our youngest son) then you have summed up a lot of our experience and interests. Neal never did accomplish the R/C plane thing but did rekit several planes and helicopters (and sunk one boat) :wink: before giving up. We did not have the metal framed tanks when we first attempted saltwater but be did experience the, bleach everything for a month, soak it a month more and then have ugly brown dead coral in your tank era (not to mention dolamite and UG filteration).

Live Rock is amazing and I have a bio-Orb tank that has NO other filtration, only an air ring for water circulation/co2 exchange and it thrives (I DO make HEAVY water changes - 5 gallons for an 8 gallon tank - weekly). I limit what goes into the tank, of course, but even the mantis and sponges have done well in it. I set it back up (it had been in storage), removed the inept filtration system and had hoped to use it to experiment with a baby octopus envrionment. As you will learn, there are two kinds of young. It is possible (but not easy) to raise the large egg benthics but impossible (todate) to raise the small egg pelegic species. It is the later I was hoping to try in the bio-orb. Unfortunately, my female did not produce viable young so I played with the tank and now it has become a favorite regular tank so I have a counter full of other experimental possibilties when the next opportunity arises :smile:

You will likely enjoy reading through some of the octopus keepers' journals. If you will open the post marked List of Our Octopuses 2009 (and 2008) (top of the Journals and Photos forum) you will see the species and links to the individual journals of the animals. I am not sure if regular saltwater baths help or hurt the arthritus :hmm:
 
Hi Christopher,

Welcome to TONMO.com! I'm the one who referred you to this site when you posted on the Ceph Group.
We're glad to have you - you'll find many people with common interests here, and there's so much information on octopus keeping.

Nancy
 
:welcome:
I do hope you get back into saltwater again. I too was out of the hobby for almost 20 years only to dive back in. There have been so many changes in keeping these tanks, it is like a miracle. Now we can actually keep fish, corals and inverts alive and healthy for years as opposed to weeks or months. Having arthritis is a curse and I feel for you, my mother can barley use her hands as hers progresses. :sad:
I hope you have help as the chores of reefkeeping can be strenuous.
 
I want to thank everyone who welcomed me aboard.
I have set up my 20 gallon long aquarium and will try to start cycling my tank with some hermit crabs when I get my next Social Security check on February 3rd.
I will welcome any advice on how to hurry up the process so that I may get my baby octopus as soon as possible.
I also have to build at least one cave for the little one. I have been surfing the net to try and find something on building simple artificial rocks and caves, but I haven't been satisfied with any of the material I have found. I am thinking of building small rocks around a PVC elbow, capped at one end. That might work out well. We will see.
Thanks again for your support.
 
You may want to leave the PVC uncapped. Only my mercs have chosen dens with only one entrance. In a 20 gallon tank, however, you can only comfortably accomodate a mercatoris pair (possibly three). Any other octopus will out grow the tank very quickly. Mercs seem to be particularly partial to the large purple barnacles found in the Pacific (as well as on eBay and most novelty stores along any coast but not in their native environment :roll:).

I am assuming you live in the US (many of our members do not) but are you on the East or West coast?
 
Hi dwhatley,

I live on the West coast in Homeland, CA. Homeland is in Riverside county between Perris and Hemet. I wonder why they didn't add my location to my postings.

My son has access to the O. Bimaculoides. That is what I have kept in the past. I will post photos of my bimac and two of a hatchling from that female that I mentioned. That is, once I figure out how to insert images. I don't have an URL for my images, I don't think. But us old folk aren't too swift anymore. Splain it to me Lucy!

Yes, I can see how those fellows might want more than one entrance to their cave. I know a 20 gallon tank is rather small for my intended octopus, but I bought that size because I intended to establish a reef tank . Until I started adding up the cost and involvement in such a project. So, I must make that tank do because I can't afford to buy another larger one. I like those rubbery guys better than corals anyway.

Oh, and I want to thank Nancy for turning me on to this website. Thank you Nancy.

Any advice from any body about my new project will be greatly appreciated, as they say.
 
Adding pictures to your posts

To add photos to a post click the Go Advanced button located on the lower right corner of the Quick Reply entry area. You will be redirected to a new window (if you have already typed in text, you will not lose it) with more options.

Locate the Additional Options box below the text entry area. Click the Manage Attachments button.

An additional window will appear. At the top of this window, under the caption, "Upload Files from your Computer" are four buttons that say browse. Click one of them and find the picture you would like to add on your own computer and click open (this may be slightly different for different browsers but in Internet Explorer, the button will say Open). You may post up to 4 pictures per post (if you have more, add a second post for the next set).

After you have all the photos selected (you will see your directory locations in the text boxes next to the browse buttons) click on the upload button.

After the pictures are uploaded you will see them listed below the words Current Attachments. If you change your mind or duplicated a selection, you may remove it with the remove button across from each picture.

When you are satisfied with your selections look in the upper right hand corner for the close this window button and click.

You will be returned to your posting for further editing (if desired) and your photos will be attached.

Click the Submit Reply button as you normally would to finish posting.

Lucy
 
Displaying your location

For privacy purposes, you must add the optional information to be displayed on your own profile. To add display information, click on the My Profile option on the menu at the top right of any the screen.

On your profile page you will be presented with an enty area and four tabs. Click the second About Me tab. The first grouping is your Basic Information and lists four items (Biography, Location, Interests, Occupation). Next to each is a pencil. Click the pencil and you can edit or add information to be displayed.

Only the Location information will be displayed next to your avitar but anything else you enter will be viewable to anyone who clicks on your name and visits your personal page.
 
The way i caught my bimacs is to make sure you go at a negative tide in a rocky spot. Then just keep flipping rocks until you cant flip rocks any more(make sure you flip them back over so you dont kill any thing on the top of it growing). Also make sure you check the bottom of the rock because they will suck them selfs to the bottom of them.
 

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