Ink - O. Briareus

No idea what your furry white things are. When I read you note I was thinking some kind of hydroid (there are a ton of species, big and small) but this is different from anything I have seen in pics or my tanks.

Ink looks fine in the pcs. There is a form of arm curling that is a bad sign. The normal spotting is with the octo staying at the top of the tank with the arms drooping down and spiraling in what we call a cork screw. End of arms curled in a doughnut is nothing to worry about. If you are hoping for a sex id from this what you want to look for is the third arm to the right (clockwise with your eyes positioned with the octopuses) to be curled at the tip most of the time and often carried curled up when the other arms are not. This would indicate a male. From size (without reference) I would expect you should be able to detect this in the next month but I have made the female call only to discover a month or more later that the octo has only then come into sexual maturity and the arm is well pronounced.
 
Yea I can't seem to figure it out either, it's taking over my aquarium ha. Any good ways to get the octo's to come out more during daytime? I'm also thinking of throwing a blown glass piece in the tank, it looks like a huge conch shell, that should be ok right?


Thanks for all the help and info!

Jake
 

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Pretty piece. The only issues with glass are sharp edges that can cut the skin (and cleaning it when algae starts to build :frown:). Like anything that goes into the aquarium, a good cleaning with a safe substance (NOT soap) is wise. Hot water is always safe but be careful with the glass not to change temp too quickly. I will sometimes use a mild chlorine solution but you need to be absolutely sure there is no residual chlorine lurking in crevices.

Time and interaction at slightly earlier times on a regular schedule are all I can suggest to encourage earlier interaction.
 
iAlex;193016 said:
Those look sort of like pineapple sponges, but I can't tell for sure. Nothing to worry about, just filter feeders.

Yup your exactly right, I googled imaged " pineapple sponges" and that's exactly what it is. Thanks!

Jake
 
DWhatley;193014 said:
Time and interaction at slightly earlier times on a regular schedule are all I can suggest to encourage earlier interaction.

I'm trying earlier feeding times but I don't think it works... Would having the tank lights off 24/7 and trying to feed at an earlier time help for a week or so. Or would turning the lights off early say 5-6 then try feeding?
Also its getting very dirty on the sand bed with small bits of empty crab shells and legs, etc. I can't get to most of them, when would it be ok to do some seriouse cleaning as far as moving some of the rock around? I would put it back the same I had it (her den) but I don't wanna stress Ink out in the process.

Jake
 
Time and interaction at SLIGHTLY earlier times on a regular schedule
By slightly I mean 5-10 minutes :biggrin2: I am not sure about changing when the sun comes up. Logically this should work and has been suggested but I don't think we have ever documented the results.

Try not to move her den rocks. If you use a siphon, try getting the siphon into the areas you can't clean (blowing the area HARD with a turkey baster helps too). Once she starts "defending" her den, a little rock shifting for cleaning starts to become acceptable to them but you don't want he leaving her chosen spot because you disrupt it. Her defense won't be overly aggressive but she will "pop out" and wave her arms around once she has "claimed" her living quarters (this is when I feel they are truly acclimated).

Do you have a skimmer on the tank? If so, the inking is not a serious problem (but still do a water change). Most octos, especially while they are young will "freak" as something and ink. We have even seen O. hummelincki ink for no apparent reason and have wondered if their ink sacs get full and need to release pressure. However, inking is not common and usually occurs only a few times over their tank lives.

All that being said, water quality, water quality, water quality. If you can't remove the offending debris, then extra water changes.
 
Turkey baster is a great idea! might have to grab one today. There is a skimmer on the tank, I'm doing small water changes 3 times a week as well.

Ink seems to be doing good, eating better then I am :wink: haha. stills comes out around 11:30 but I think it's getting used to me, I can get close to the tank without her going back into the rock.. How well can o. Briareus see under red light in the dark?

Thanks!
Jake
 
How well can o. Briareus see under red light in the dark?
I think they see as well or better in red light than in white (notice the pupil size under each lighting, they squint in normal lighting to the point of almost closing their eyes). With O. briareus my question is more how well can they see. We see a major difference in this species compared to any of the others we have kept and are guessing that they are very far sighted (can't see the nose on their faces as it were - if they HAD noses of course) but can detect motion at at least 15 feet (motion of son coming to the top of the steps). I have a couple of shrimp hunting videos where you can tell the animal see motion but has a hard time catching the shrimp and they will startle easily if they did not realize you were close to the tank. I leave my red lights on 24/7 but make sure there is plenty of totally dark denning area (not difficult if you only red light one side of the tank). Almost always the younger animals (diurnal and nocturnal) will choose to den under the red light but move to sleep on the "dark side" :sagrin: as they become adults.

I have not tried frozen mussels (I suggest avoiding live because of the mess - fresh clams are a good choice though). It she will take the frozen, be sure to post as they should be less messy than live and a good item to add to our food selection menu. Once she starts eating frozen comfortably, off a thawed scallop. Only buy three :sagrin: on the first go round and report what happens. You can cheat and look but I want a blind test so I won't tell you what I think will happen (nothing terrible) until you are ready to try it.

The one frozen we avoid is frozen crab meat because it is cooked. Most any other invert is fair game if it is raw and it just occured to me to suggest that you check your mussels as they may be cooked. I don't feed fish but even small portions of fresh fish are an acceptable treat (not a daily food though). I have not been able to find out why the food must be raw but somewhere in the cooking it is suspected of losing nutritional value. What I can't find is anything that compares cooked to raw to be able to know if this is the case so I stay on the safe side and only feed raw.

Neal was able to get a large cash of blue crab claws last week so keep an eye out for live crabs and harvest the claws and arms (or eat the rest and save them :biggrin2:). This has been a great source of food for our Caribbeans and quickly accepted. We freeze the claws (you can't freeze them whole safely) and thaw to feed.
 
Hey guys just wanted to give you a update on INK. He/she is starting to come out more often and earlier. Instead of her usual 11:30-midnight appearances it is starting to come out around 10:30. When INk comes out she/he does a dance in front of the tank to get my attention to feed it, I have a video I will post tomorrow.

The mussel never got dropped into the tank either, I left it sitting out overnight and completely forgot to feed it to INK, so she/he is still on live crabs. She has taken a crab from my feeding tongs though, grabed my whole hand and tried to take that to haha.

Jake
 
I don't know that it matters but logically it makes sense and I recommend that when you get live bivalves, leave them overnight in a bucket of saltwater from your tank. This should give it a chance to purge most of the nasty water it has been in since being captured. Additionally, if you forget it over night, you can feed another day :wink:
 
Thanks "D" I wasn't for sure on the mussels so I didn't want to risk it. I don't know why the video is so blurry on YouTube, it's a lot clearer on the original version.

I think ink is making progress, she came out today at 1pm (instead of 1am :wink: ) and ate a fiddler crab that I tossed In a plastic container with her 10 mins previously. She snatched it quick then retreated to her den. I've been placing the crabs in a container in the tank recently when I'm not going to be at my house during the night, I think she is getting used to it!

Jake
 
"INK" ink'd

As the title says INK, Ink'd tonight. About a half hour ago I was feeding she/he a crab from the tongs and all of a sudden she went for the crab then inked and darted down towards it's den, while sweeping up the fallen crab at the same time.
I did a quick 20% water change. I'm assuming I'm in no immediate danger because I have a skimmer, but I will be doing another 20% water change tomorrow.

I'm wondering why it got scared, she grabbed a crab from my feeding tongs a few hours earlier (as well as my hand again) without any problem or color change. When she went for the crab this time she changed a darker brown, I'm assuming it got uneasy? Then thinking back to what "D" said about octo inking, makes me think.

Jake
 

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