ID please, caught in harbour - O. warringa

Arwu

Hatchling
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Nov 16, 2009
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I'm from Dunedin, a city located south-east of the South Island of New Zealand, caught this while bottom fishing last night.

Stayed up and found this very resourceful forum, now just wondering if you guys can help me identify my octopus.

Would like to know what it is, is it suitable as a pet and any diet requirements beside shrimp, clam and smaller crabs.

It has pink/purle to white suckers, arm length ~13cm (5 inches), mantle ~6cm (>2 inches), not aggressive but adventurous (escaped twice from bucket)
Thanks in advance:wink:
 

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Very cool! :welcome: to tonmo

I'm not good at IDing them but I'm sure someone will be by shortly who can. I will take a shot in the dark and say it's male, it seems like he is keeping the third arm curled.

What was the depth where you caught it? Do you know what the bottom is there(ie grassy, sandy, rocky)?

Do you have a tank already set up to keep him?
 
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Thanks for the welcome :biggrin2:

I'm not exactly sure about the depth, but I'm guessing it's about 6m deep, would say the bottom is grassy as almost every cast will bring back some seaweed.

A small temporary tank should arrive tomorrow so I plan on keeping him in the bucket and change the water daily from where I caught him until I get a proper size tank, set-up and learn enough about how to keep an octopus pet.

Time to think of a name~
 
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:welcome: and what a beautiful little beasty. If you have no tank cycled and ready, I think your best bet is to release the animal back into the water, in all honesty. Even small octopus require large tanks, as you may have gathered from our octopus care threads. Mainly in theory you might get away with daily changes of fresh sea water for a while, but water parameters are hard to maintain and the octopus will absolutely overload your system with ammonia in no time. Choose your battles carefully, you'll likely end up killing this animal....
 
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PS: An octopus in a bucket with no cover is a surefire way of finding it parched halfway to freedom on your lawn or driveway at a very early stage :sad:
 
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Hey guys thanks for the feedback, I have decided to release him later tonight, treated him with a shrimp for all the pain and suffering I've caused. :frown:

I kept a weighted shoe box on top of the bucket while away but he did take a short trip on the carpet when I gone to a dairy just across the road, they sure do take any opportunity you present them.

While watching him moving around the bucket was fun but I am going to make the right decision to release him, not going to take any risk now.

Was hoping the 3 month thing can be waived if I change the water daily, but I guess preparing a tank after getting the octopus is really too late. But I am still interested in any information about this little guy so I can be more prepared for the next one.

-----------------

The only experience I had was gold fish and I understand the importance of pH, temp, O2 CO2 saturation levels and filtering etc. Is there any thing I should look out for when keeping a salt water aquarium or I can find all the information I need to become an adequate owner in this forum?

By cycle does it mean prepare a tank with a proper set up and let it run for 3 months without any creatures in there, then the tank will reach an equilibrium so we can do some fine adjustments to alter the condition to fit the requirement?

I'm eager to learn!!
 
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You know, Arwu, the really, really good thing to come out of this is your appreciation of the animal. With regards to water parameters and all, the octopus care forum has all the info you'll require.

As a further note: Cycling includes getting live rock/sand into equilibrium, containing bacteria that will allow for proper digestion of excess organic pollution caused by the tank's inhabitant(s). A further BIG issue, is that your tank should never ever contain even minute traces of copper, as it easily kills invertebrates. A tank previously used to house fish that were treated with a copper based medication, for instance, is an absolute no go area.

WRT octopus as escape artists, any hole larger than an octopus' beak is large enough for it to fit through, so chicken fence type wire mesh is already insufficient, for instance...

Welcome to your new hobby :wink:
 
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I think we have a great new hobbiest among us. :smile:

I am glad you are starting to read on the needs as you are likely hooked now on these creatures. Do take some time to read the Journals and Photos section for some idea of the adventure your are likely to begin.:tongue:
 
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Hi Arwu and welcome to another Dunedinite!

I work out at the aquarium in Portobello and we deal with octopus all the time, that was a mature male midget, probably Octopus warringa he'd feed on small, live shore crabs and they are wee (#*&^@&#^*$! at escaping! you would need a properly cycled tank, there is no way to short cut this and it would need to be very secure, the other species we get is Pinnoctopus cordiformis, you DO NOT want one of these in a home aquarium, they grow way too big (up to 2-3m arm spread and in excess of 15kg in weight!) and eat large live crabs (& and crays if they can get them!) .

Cheers

Jean
 
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