[Octopus]: Meet Speck-O. Briareus

Susan Grosskopf

GPO
Registered
Joined
Feb 8, 2014
Messages
130
Location
charlotte nc
Speck arrived this past weekend. I was very lucky and Bill in Marathon, Florida had another animal so I was able to get another Octo right away. DWhatley, I posted the video on Facebook if you can once again bring it over. Thank you. As you will see in the video he had a spot on his mantle and I remember you all talking about the species found in the Gulf of Mexico. He took shrimp every night but I can't find him since Monday which always makes me anxious. There are a lot of crabs in there since Bubba but there are also a lot of crooks and crannies.
 
Speck is not O. hummelincki (wrong colors, arms too long) and I am 90% sure he/she is a juvenile O. briareus (coloration, arm:mantle ratio, green around the eyes). I am not sure where you are seeing the "spots" but if they are the dark circles at the back of the mantle, those are the branchial hearts (2 hearts that pump the oxygenated blood from the gills through the body). The hearts are more obvious in the translucent white of O. briareus young but can often be seen in other octopuses.
 
Well, unfortunately I have not seen Speck since that last posting and I am afraid he is dead. I have looked every morning and evening for him in every hole and under every rock but no Speck.
 
I got the octo this am and he looked alright so I put the bag in the tank to start acclimating. I would check on him every little while and after about an hour I looked and he started inking so I manually took him out of the bag, having to get the suckers loose, and just held him in my hand in the tank. He was sticking to me but not moving, BUT he was breathing. I held him in the tank for 30-45 minutes and now I have him in a glass bowl with an air stone. He still has not moved his arms but he is still breathing and sometimes the breathing gets quite aggressive. I don't know, can octopus have strokes? I am a medical person. Is he dead or alive? What should I do?
 
At least your octo had some acclimation. He may be suffering from stress or fear. It's really hard to know what the right thing to do is, but are the water parameters in the tank the same as in the bowl? I'd consider putting him in the tank where he would have a more natural environment and feel more secure. He could hide, rather than being so exposed.

I don't know whether an octopus can have a stroke or heart, but some of us have observed something similar as an octopus is passing away.

I hope yours makes it.

Nancy
 
I have noticed O. briareus seems to be especially prone to being stressed and not moving for an extended period of time during normal acclimation. Hopefully, it has moved by now but if not, I would turn off the lights and leave the room for awhile.
 

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