Murray - O. briareus Our new addition..

eng50

O. bimaculoides
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Oct 23, 2008
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Long story short we have been waiting to find another hummelincki since our last one died almost a year ago. Live Aquaria listed a "medium Carribean" for sale yesterday early morning so we took a chance. It came today well packages as usual and appears to be a healthy animal although not really what we were expecting from a medium description! It is almost certainly a Briarius similar to our first octopus 4-5 years ago. It is acclimating by drip as I type now..initial parameters were 7.0 pH, 72 degrees and 1.025 SG. Here is a first look picture..
sa2uquru.jpg

It is easily 16-18 " across with better than a 2" mantle. So I guess we won't have it all that long..will certainly go for a small next time...
I will post more as things progress..
 
Looks beautiful! I hope you have it longer than you think, & look forward to reading of its progress...good luck to you & your new friend!
 
Capt,
Yes i agree it could get quite a bit bigger! Glad its healthy and happy so far. It has picked a den area that is quiet and decided to settle there for the evening.. I wont offer food until tomorrow or the day after so it can settle in. There is plenty of "huntable" food in the tank if it is so inclined..

Tentacle,
I hope so, it is hard getting attached and then they die..Especially the ones that are interactive. When one decides to be willing to interact with its human caretaker it takes things to a different level and it is so hard to have them for such a relatively short time..

Bill
 
At one time I said that at least with O. briareus, size seemed to be an age indicator. I have since retracted that completely. Since we have seen 3 in the last week and going by the O. briareus that CaptFish and I are keeping, my guess is that these were born in the spring and would be somewhere between 7 and 8 months old. Anything younger than about 5 months will be quite shy so there is some advantage to an older animal when you first acquire them. This one may be slightly younger though as I don't see the typical "adult dent" in the mantle (it may be there but I don't see it in the picture). As I noted on iAlex thread, I am not sure what the dent indicates but it seems to show up around 6 to 7 months.
 
I was going to say male because of the curled arm, which should be #3, but looking at it made me realize it he only seems to have 7 arms? So I dunno. :hmm:
 
Good spot Alex. This one definitely needs a name that means "lucky" as it has lost multiple arms multiple times and still survived. I can't locate the eighth arm position either and wonder if it was "born this way" :biggrin2: or lost one very early that never grew back. We have seen pictures of a few odd animals with more than eight arms (probably from damage and odd regrowth) but I don't recall one with fewer than 8. Eng50 will have to monitor for a new little thread to sprout if it has been recently cut off so cleanly that we can't see where it belonged.

CaptFish has mentioned that he has seen O. briareus throw an arm (not something previously known by the forum about O. briareus. We do know that this is typical of the Abdopus group) but did not give the details. I wonder if it can do this at the top of the webbing, resulting in what we see here.
 
Octos are reclusive. IME any "personality" you see in the first two weeks to a month is a matter of acclimation and will change. Often we see overt interaction that vanishes once they are comfortable. It may return but slowly, and with a lot of patience.
 
Well not a whole lot to report, my wife has seen our octo twice now at 5 am, and has had some face time with it for a few seconds before it goes back to the den. No pictures yet but hopefully this means its becoming comfortable in the new environment!

The kids want to name it Murray for some reason but I am trying to come up with a name more related to the seven arms..

Bill
 
Just a quick pic of "Murray" eating his third crab today. Working on the 6pm routine and so far we get the quick flash attack and retreat to cover, but it is progress!!



Bill
 

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Just an odd observation, we noted tonight where Murray is located he has one larger entrance/exit area and has dug out three other small areas. We didn't think much of it until tonight noticing at two of the smaller holes he has extended the very tips (1-2") of two arms that are just floating in the current we assume waiting for any kind of food to come by..he is bedded in the sand with the three holes almost at 90 degree compass points..
Has anyone else seen this type of behavior with past or present Briarius?
Kinda lazy if you ask me! vs out hunting..or maybe it's just "feeling the breeze" per se'. Interesting either way..
Our last Briarius was in a 180 now front and it's den wasnt where we could observe this kind of close up activity..

Bill
 
I have seen the trolling for food in the water column behavior with O. mercatoris (a dwarf species - the only quick reference I could find was to an observation of new hatchlings but I remember mentioning it with the adults as well). I had not noticed in O. briareus until Yeti and have remarked on it in her thread.

Up until Squid (Carol's last briareus) the only octos I have kept that would den in an area with only one opening were O. mercatoris. All others have only taken dens with at least a back and front door.

It will be intresting to see if this one remains small like Yeti and if this is a common behavior for those that don't get large.
 

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