Little Sucker

Hi all--

Thought I would update since I haven't written in a while. Little sucker is doing well---he still seems to only want hermit crabs, though! They are quite easy to get from tide pools so this is not a problem, I guess I just expected him to want some variety.

Have any of the other aculeatus owners had success in making friends with their octopods? Mine likes to hang out watching me on the side of the tank, but doesn't seem to have much interest in directly interacting. I've tried a variety of baby toys, and even a plastic slinky, but they mostly scare him away, or he just ignores them. Not sure what to try next...maybe he's just still adjusting.
 
Once they have crabs, octos don't seem to want much variety in their food :smile: The reason a lot of us have to use frozen shrimp is availability - if you can't catch your own crabs, they're expensive, and you have to fill in some of the meals with (relatively) cheaper food.

Give Little Sucker some more time. Seems like he's on the right track. He may be one of those octos who will want to play with you more than with toys.

Nancy
 
Little Sucker is continuing to increase his sociability; he's now out and about during most of the day, and likes to flash colors at me when he sees me.

One concern has arisen, however, which is that he's lost another arm. I really don't know of anything that might scare him in the tank, so I am worried about autophagy. My water parameters are fine and I am doing regular water changes. I really can't think of anything that might have stressed him out....if indeed stress is the proximate cause (from the posts here, it seems like there is still disagreement about the cause of autophagy). Any thoughts?
 
stradjm;78184 said:
Little Sucker is continuing to increase his sociability; he's now out and about during most of the day, and likes to flash colors at me when he sees me.

One concern has arisen, however, which is that he's lost another arm. I really don't know of anything that might scare him in the tank, so I am worried about autophagy. My water parameters are fine and I am doing regular water changes. I really can't think of anything that might have stressed him out....if indeed stress is the proximate cause (from the posts here, it seems like there is still disagreement about the cause of autophagy). Any thoughts?

It seems like powerhead accidents are more common as autophagy in pet octo arm loss, particularly if it's a single arm... is your equipment octo-proofed against such possibilities? I'm not sure how to rule out autophagy, of course.
 
The break is clean, and is near the base of the arm. My equipment is meshed off and even is he got into it, I doubt it would be so clean (unless it started to get hurt, and he detatched the arm). Which, by the way, I haven't found.
 
How close to the buccal membrane is the arm cut off? We've had autophagy in the past at the aquarium and in these cases the arm was cleanly bitten off very close to the buccal membrane. It is worrying that you can't find the arm. I would have thought that if it was due to injury or natural autotomy some part of the arm would be found (I could be wrong tho'........there is so much we don't understand!). Keep a close eye on him. If any more arms disappear soon, you may have to consider euthanasia, this condition has a very rapid progression. If it IS auto phagy you will need to clean your equipment VERY thoroughly as in some instance this condition is highly contagious. Our cleaning techniques are as follows (lifted from Autophagy in Octopods thread).

"Word of advice if this is autophagy it is incredibly contagious. Anything that can be thrown away, must be, other stuff has to be sterilised in Sodium hypochlorite for at least a week, then neutralised for a week, then soaked in freshwater for a week, then left dry for a week.........then you can use it again. This is the only way we were able to prevent a reoccurrance....miss out a step and the next octi gets it too."

My feeling is that there is more to autophagy than just stress and there has been some discussion here and elsewhere, that it could be a prion (like mad cow disease). Certainly stress can play a part it may be the trigger that sets off the disease................this really need much more investigation.

Anyway good luck and I hope it is natural autotomy.

Cheers

jean
 
Sad news all---Little Sucker is dead.

I found him lying outside his den this morning. Other than the loss of the arm recently, I didn't see any other indications of sickness. He had been eating fine and being social. No issues with water that I could tell. His body did have one oddity, which is that there was an area at the tip of the mantle that seemed to have lost its chromatophores.

He lived for a bit under two months with me. Since I don't know how old he was when I got him, I don't know whether he was middle-aged or getting old. But, even though his life was short, I'm glad I could give him a home for a while.
 
RIP L'il Sucker.

If its any consolation I'd say he died of old age.

The white patch would have been an area where he rubbed skin off. When it heals it never seems to get new chromatophores. Essentially its scar tissue.

Jean
 

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