Impulse Octo Buy Journal

Jack_Lucas

Blue Ring
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Jan 28, 2013
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31
Hello all!

My name is Jack!

Been an aquarist for a long time. But after my divorce, i moved from florida to ny and left my 170 gallon and many other small aquariums behind...

for the past month ive been getting a small aquarium ready, no fish only 6 hermit crabs, some live sand, some live rock...

well today all that changed, I just received a baby octo! Its acclimating in the tank now, will probably only do a 45 min acclimation. Have the lights off...

any idea on the species?

 

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According to my clock it's 8:30 right now. Hope you read this before you let octopus loose. I would definitely acclimate much longer than 45 min. The staff on this site is great and will help you out a lot. Until you hear from them, I'd look in the octopus care section and see what you can find on acclimating octos. Hope he does great!! T Kim
 
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after one hour of acclimating to the water temp. i have moved the octo to a styrofoam box i lined with plastic. drip acclimating for the next hour?

 

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Ok after around 3 hours of acclimation the octo is in the tank. He immediately swam into a hole in one of the live rocks and is there. I can see him with a flashlight. Lights are off.
 
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Ok after around 3 hours of acclimation the octo is in the tank. He immediately swam into a hole in one of the live rocks and is there. I can see him with a flashlight. Lights are off.
 
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so i had dropped a red feeder crab into the tank while I was acclimating, and I had not seen the crab since figured he hid and would not be heard from again for a while... I went out to dinner left the tank lights off... when I got home, I used my red light to look at the octo and low and behold, he had the red feeder crab in his grasp and was slowly devouring it! Now somehow when I was gone, the octo must of left his hole and stalked around for that crab... I take it this is a decent sign of acclimation?

 

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That's great!! Glad you saw him eat. Just in case you aren't aware, octopuses are fantastic escape artists, so make sure your tank is sealed tight! Also, keep a close watch on your water quality. I'm on my second octopus and am still learning a lot! One of the big questions when trying to ID one is where it came from. Did they tell you anything about that when you purchased it?
 
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:welcome: Jack

Unfortunately the photos are not too helpful so lets start the, "What Species Am I" game with as much as you can remember from the purchase and acclimation.

1. Do you know the body of water that it inhabited before capture? This helps a lot to narrow the species
2. Can you give a guestimate of the mantle:arm ratio?
3. What colors did you see it display?
4. Are the eye on a well established "Y" shaped stalk or sitting close to the body so they look more independent than on a "Y"?
5. Do you see any identifiable markings under the eyes (particularly a round circle on either side of the web) or else where?
6. Do you see any color on the siphon?
7. Do you see any color at the tips of the suckers?

IF this is a Caribbean animal, I'll take a wild guess that it is O. mercatoris, a nocturnal dwarf. My reasons for this guess are the red color, what appears to be short arms (roughly 1:2.5 mantle:arm length) and the posture shown in the third photo. The arm (or both L1 and R1) between the eyes is a typical merc pose but I have seen very young animals of other species present that defense (but only mercs as adults). You can find some of the merc journals by going to the advanced search and searching titles only for the word: mercatoris.

If it is a merc, I have found that this species particularly likes to den in giant purple barnacles placed about 1/3 of the way up the water column (by embedding in the live rock). If you will place a small cluster of these at that level where you can view the openings, you will have a better chance of seeing the animal on a regular basis. Most mercs are not very active or interactive but I enjoy keeping the species and have raised a couple from hatchling.

KEEP IN MIND THIS IS A SWAG based on not anywhere near enough information :biggrin2:. I only offer it because I know how frustrating it is when no one will even give a suggestion to research.

Jack, Doubleposting is frowned upon. Not only is volunteer staff time extended but answers and conversations become disjoint with multiple threads on the same subject so I merged the two threads on this little one. Once we assign an ID or mark it unknown and you give it a name, I hope you will journal it and we can move it to the journals forum.
 
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Thanks for the forums etiquette tip...

Dropped another red feeder crab in there, and it still lives.

The octo has found a good den that I can see it if I flash a light in. the Octo looks healthy for now! water params are perfect, and I plan on continuing my weekly 25% water change. I'm using Catalina Real Ocean Water by the way for my changes.

it was labeled as "Bali Octopus"

The likelihood is that its a juvenile vulgaris?


DWhatley;196302 said:
:welcome: Jack

Unfortunately the photos are not too helpful so lets start the, "What Species Am I" game with as much as you can remember from the purchase and acclimation.

1. Do you know the body of water that it inhabited before capture? This helps a lot to narrow the species
2. Can you give a guestimate of the mantle:arm ratio?
3. What colors did you see it display?
4. Are the eye on a well established "Y" shaped stalk or sitting close to the body so they look more independent than on a "Y"?
5. Do you see any identifiable markings under the eyes (particularly a round circle on either side of the web) or else where?
6. Do you see any color on the siphon?
7. Do you see any color at the tips of the suckers?

IF this is a Caribbean animal, I'll take a wild guess that it is O. mercatoris, a nocturnal dwarf. My reasons for this guess are the red color, what appears to be short arms (roughly 1:2.5 mantle:arm length) and the posture shown in the third photo. The arm (or both L1 and R1) between the eyes is a typical merc pose but I have seen very young animals of other species present that defense (but only mercs as adults). You can find some of the merc journals by going to the advanced search and searching titles only for the word: mercatoris.

If it is a merc, I have found that this species particularly likes to den in giant purple barnacles placed about 1/3 of the way up the water column (by embedding in the live rock). If you will place a small cluster of these at that level where you can view the openings, you will have a better chance of seeing the animal on a regular basis. Most mercs are not very active or interactive but I enjoy keeping the species and have raised a couple from hatchling.

KEEP IN MIND THIS IS A SWAG based on not anywhere near enough information :biggrin2:. I only offer it because I know how frustrating it is when no one will even give a suggestion to research.

Jack, Doubleposting is frowned upon. Not only is volunteer staff time extended but answers and conversations become disjoint with multiple threads on the same subject so I merged the two threads on this little one. Once we assign an ID or mark it unknown and you give it a name, I hope you will journal it and we can move it to the journals forum.
 
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