Monty - Unknown (brown eyespot Caribbean)

DWhatley

Kraken
Staff member
Moderator (Staff)
Joined
Sep 4, 2006
Messages
21,018
Location
Cape Coral, FL
formerly entitled: Monty - O. IHaveNoClue

I started an ID thread with his/her preshipment photos and preliminary species guesses here.

I was not very good about recording acclimation parms but the water was somewhere close to a neutral PH of 6 so it was going to be awhile. There was no nitrite to speak of and I knew everything else would be equalized long before the PH was adjusted. Fed Ex delivered her at 9:30 and I acclimated from about 10:00 AM until 2:30. Longer than I like but with this one being so small and no obvious danger in the water or showing in her breathing, I took a lot of extra time and used a pipette for the first couple of hours rather than my normal turkey baster.

The webbing spots were not observed with the eye and the stripes were much less pronounced.

Today I learned that photos come out better if I put a white bucket in the sink rather than shooting against the stainless steel. Needless to say her first photos are not stellar.
 

Attachments

  • conv_304264.jpg
    conv_304264.jpg
    553.2 KB · Views: 210
  • conv_304265.jpg
    conv_304265.jpg
    668.4 KB · Views: 206
  • conv_304266.jpg
    conv_304266.jpg
    604.9 KB · Views: 195
  • conv_304267.jpg
    conv_304267.jpg
    642.2 KB · Views: 185
First Appearance

I went down to check on the tank, not expecting to see her and didn't, at first. She is clear in the poorly focused photo but I think I looked at the tank for 3 or 4 minutes before I realized she was in the front.

For refererence, the upper shell with the black marks (I have never determined what these are but they don't come off) was Sleazy's (O. mercatoris) den.
 

Attachments

  • conv_296710.jpg
    conv_296710.jpg
    3.8 MB · Views: 190
  • conv_296708.jpg
    conv_296708.jpg
    695.8 KB · Views: 206
Yes welcome to your new little octopus! - I'm sure he or she will have a fitting name soon.

How does its size compare with that of your hatchlings?

Nancy
 
My first thought when I saw it was the mantle was about the lenth of Tatanka's but possibly the girth of Cassy's. Arms are about twice mantle length where the briareus arms are right at 5 times. Two arms, R1 and R2, seem to have found holes with something small that fought back.
 
Oh D, what a precious little one. Great video! I hope this one will be better company than the elusive babies, seems to be already. I am very happy for you. About time you start filling up those tanks of yours. :biggrin2:
 
Actually, this one kind of fills the octo capacity. I still have the living room tank but TBNL will acquire that one (about the time mercs are available I suspect :biggrin2:). I am NOT adding a tank to keep this one in the breakfast room (NOT, NOT, NOT) and I don't want to give up any of the others (what would I put in the corner?) and there really isn't room ... even though this is my favorite species and is diural and is often interactive (especially the males). We may have to eat in the living room half of the week :wink:. Right now getting through the next two weeks is my immediate priority.
 
Judging by the photos you have of the little fello(or fella), it's about a month or so younger than mine when I got her from the pet store. It's a beautiful animal.
 
Constant breath hold with this one. I have sat in front of the tank often without seeing her/him and by this evening was worried about food. I did notice the hermits (tiny) were not active so I collected them all and found several empty and three live. The live and three more went back into the tank but I don't know how many of the empty shell had inhabitants so I can't estimate consumption (if any). I have frozen mysis that worked as a first food for the briareus so I went on a pipette hunt and ultimately spotted TBNL avoiding the pipette. I try to provide lots of mazes for the octos in hopes that my not seeing them stress has the opposite effect and TBNL disappeared into the rock. I got a pretty good look at her though and she seems to be moving and responding well (just not to me :hmm:). I always hate the first two weeks with a new one and this one is probably going to be more stressful than usually because of its age and favored species.
 
No, awsome would be that I needed to find homes for the spares. I am encouraged and have some firm thoughts on next time but having only two survivors is mostly luck of the draw. There is one more stage that may be critical that appears to take place at around 4 months (timing based upon a chart I found and the age Nancy lost the last of her six). The chart shows a growth rate change at this point and I suspect the critical part is to have them well enough developed by then to be able to move into the slower growth pattern.

I am stumbling with this one though as I don't know that it has eaten since it arrived. I have been able to get it to touch and sample mysis and shore shrimp and even take food out of the pipette but it does not eat (it firmly rejects the food). It liked the "smell" of table shrimp today but still would not take it. Tomorrow I will try a thawed hermit crab and will see if Paul has any small fiddlers (he promised to watch for some for me). We are also squirting tiny mysis and Cyclop-eeze into the tank and there are some tiny mithrax and decorator crabs to find but I have not observed elimination yet so I don't know if anything is being consummed. Unfortunately there are no pods in this tank and the other octos have decimated the other tanks. I am going to pull the filter sock from my reef to hunt there for some in the AM.
 
What was it eating before you got it?
I have no idea as it refuses to answer my whispered questions and was shipped the day after it was discovered in the LR so they did not attempt to feed it to minimze waste in the shipping bag. :razz: It did poop when it chased the dead shore shrimp around the dish so it could not have been too long since it last ate.

It is very responsive so I am encouraged that is it eating (or atleast not weak from starvation) but would like to know for sure. I left a mysis in the tank this AM and it was gone by this evening. If he ate it then the refusal could be lack of appetite but there are plenty of brissles (that it has no issue with brushing aside) that could have taken the shrimp. It will put its arms out when food is placed near it though so I keep thinking it is hungry does not recognize or like the taste or texture of the offering. I have not had one that would not take food right away so I will worry a lot until I know it is eating, especially with it being this young and in a rapid growth stage.
 
Something I mentioned a long time ago which is worth bringing up again. I was at the NRCC a few years ago and asked them to tell me all about raising hatchlings, One thing they did was to introduce new live food frequently, to interest the little octopuses. Even if the old batch of food was not completely eaten, they added new. It's as if some needed to be encouraged to eat. Maybe we can learn something from that.

Nancy
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top