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How long will it hide?

Big DJ

Pygmy Octopus
Registered
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
9
Hi,

I bought my wife a Spotted Octopus for her birthday. The tank has loads of rocks in so plenty of hiding places but we have seen no sign of it since it was put in a week ago tonight.

Is this normal? How long can they hide and go without food?

P.S. Have turned all the lights off and just sat with the blue leds on the tank but no sign!

Appologies if this is in the wrong place.

Thanks in advance

Adam
 
"Spotted octopus" is not a common name and does not help with species identification (it is not unusuall for a vendor to not know a species and a number of names are simply made up). It does make me a little concerned about the species and the first thing we need to do is to ascertain that this is not a blue ring octopus that has a lethal bite. If you took photos before putting it into the tank, please post them. If you do not have photos, please describe the spots if you saw them. In any event, don't put your hand in the tank unless you know this is not a poisonous animal (a bite from a blue ring requires artificial resporation immediately after the bite and for many hours afterward).

The first couple of weeks are the most frustrating and the most dangerous. It should be eating at least every couple of days but we see longer periods during acclimation (full acclimation, not water differences). Describing your tank environment will be helpful and it may be eating small things in your tank but it is important to get it eating regularly. Placing a piece of thawed shrimp (try a piece about an inch and a half long and include the tail section) on a stick and s-l-o-w-l-y moving it near crevices might let you find its hiding place. If you see arms, hold the stick near where the arms appeared and let the animal take the shrimp while you hold the stick. Just leaving the stick and/or dead shrimp in the water does not seem to work nearly as well.

Death is always a fear during the first two weeks and checking for ammonia and nitrite daily should give you an indication if this has happened. Escape is always a concern as well and searching areas around the tank is a good idea, especially if you do not have a secured top completely covering the tank. Generally, there will be a strong smell if the animal escaped and died but also check your sump.
Often females are captured just before brooding but we usually see them securing a den before brooding starts (you would likely see small shells redistributed and closing an opening in the LR).

Blue lights are not the best for night viewing an octopus and are believed to be brighter to the octopus than to humans. Red light, on the other hand works well and is recommended for nocturnals (in spite of much of the literature, many octopuses are not nocturnal and are active during different parts of the day and night).
 
Thanks for the reply.

How typical that it appeared last night. Didn't get pictures when I put it in as I did it in darkness so it didnt freak.

Got a video last night but not sure this will be any good?

 
Really prominent eyes! Generally speaking that would suggest nocturnal (activity during the first couple of weeks is not always natural). Have a look at Puddles journal to see it it looks anything like this guy. I have one other journal with this same Macropus unknown for Beldar but the better pictures are in Puddles journal and three or four others we have jounaled have even fewer photos because this one is quite nocturnal. Both Bel and Puddles tended not to come out until at around 3:00 AM. If you are an early morning person, you might see it before sun up (I am a late night side of morning kind of person). Both of mine were very social, just had very inconvenient hours.
 
DWhatley;186477 said:
Really prominent eyes! Generally speaking that would suggest nocturnal (activity during the first couple of weeks is not always natural). Have a look at Puddles journal to see it it looks anything like this guy. I have one other journal with this same Macropus unknown for Beldar but the better pictures are in Puddles journal and three or four others we have jounaled have even fewer photos because this one is quite nocturnal. Both Bel and Puddles tended not to come out until at around 3:00 AM. If you are an early morning person, you might see it before sun up (I am a late night side of morning kind of person). Both of mine were very social, just had very inconvenient hours.

Thanks for you're help. Much appreciated.

I shall have a read of them!
 
This one can be very red with bright white spots when it is upset. However, I only saw Bel with really fantastic colors once or twice and not at all with Puddles. They both settled to tank life very quickly and I used a red light only at night so it would have muted any bright colors that they would have shown (the white spots would like have been visible but the red could have been missed).
 
Phoned the supplier and they said they believe it was a white spotted but basically couldn't be sure.

Just re-read your posts and noticed that I didn't describe the tank enviroment. It is largly covered in rocks to give many hiding places with a sandy bottom and some corals spread about.

Had a look at the journals but it's hard to say as I have only seen it under the red lights. Hopefully we should see it further over the next few days and possibly get some pictures.

Thanks again for your help.:smile:
 
LOL

Brown, common and bali we see often but "white spotted" is new to me so I "googled" it. According to wikipedia and it turns out to be a common name for none other than some form of not specifically identified macropus (like Puddles and Beldar).
 
Managed to get a few pictures. Still not brilliant but can see a little more.

photo18.jpg

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Unfortuantely, the photos don't help much. Have you tried feeding it? If not, you can try offering a FULLY (room temp all the way through) thawed shrimp on a bamboo skewer (or a fiberglass feeding stick you you have one but I prefer the skewers). The octopus will likely take almost as much interest in the stick as in the shrimp but hold the stick until it removes the shrimp (or runs off with the stick :biggrin2:), don't just place it in the tank.
 

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