My new octo!

Deathrott

Cuttlefish
Registered
Joined
Aug 20, 2009
Messages
19
Hey guys yesterday i recieved my new octo from saltwaterfish.com and he is so awesome. I acclimated him for 2 hours and away he went into the aquarium. He didnt eat the first night and was kinda upside down chillin. Then as the night went he started to creep into the rock and under the sand. Now today he has eaten a crab and a crayfish. I had to move a rock out of the way to see his new cave. I gave him another crab he gobbled that up after 24hours. Then i gave him another crayfish and he killed it then kept dragging it in and out of his cave kinda like hey dad look what i got and he would go back in. He did this about 3 times then finally i came back from the bedroom and the crayfish was laying out away from the cave and then he came out of his cave and kinda grabbed it and pushed it away while he was stairing at me it was so damn cute. Any ways the wife and i named him THOR! God of my fish tank! He hasnt tried to eat the clownfish yet or any of my snail/hermits. Ill have pictures soon my digital camera is broken atm. !! Oh and he is defenetly O. hummelincki his colors are amazing and his eyes are so cool. He changes his body and he looks like he has spikes on him pretty cool.
 
Hi and welcome to TONMO.com! :welcome:

And welcome to Thor! How large is he?

A couple of comments:
  • octopuses have been known to eat clownfish
  • feed crawfish only as an occasional treat, because they are freshwater
  • be sure to remove the carcas promptly - Thor was no doubt suggesting that you clean up after him!
Nancy
 
Lol im hoping he eats the clown he was just for looks before i got Thor! His mantle is 1.5 - 2inch id say but he is so awesome! Ya i wanted to get him something while i got fiddle crabs on order.
 
So Thor has been eating everyday i been feeding him fiddler crabs. He made himself a big den under my live rock and he has 2 different spaces under there. So what i do is use my feeding stick and hold the crab infront of the den then i put him on a coral branch infront of his den were the crab will sit there and eat. Thor will come all the way out and stock him and crab him and pull him into the den. This has been the only way i have been able to see him is to lure him out with food then we get to watch him spit the pieces out that he doesnt want this is also durring the day light is on aka white light. So after the 8 hours of being on, the moonlight comes on instead of the black light which i also have. We came into the room after the movie late last night and could see a big dark black octo on the tank glass so we snuck in to see him closer and he saw me so he changed a bunch of different colors and walked back towards his den and went to bed very quickly it was so funny. But after only a few days its good to see hes geting out and exploring the tank. So my question is..is it better to have the little moonlight on or the black light since he seems to not want to come out and linger in the bright white light for the 8 hours that it is on. Thanks :smile:
 
You might consider getting red lights; octos have very little sensitivity on the red end of the spectrum, so what looks red to us looks dark to them. The moonlights and possibly even the black lights would look bright to Thor, and might prompt him to hide more.
 
If you leave a light on at all, a red light will appear more like night and you will see more activity. However, hummelincki is diuranl and the light you are using my be disturbing his sleep. We had a night light that could be set to a variety of colors. It worked well for evening viewing in the red setting but any power outage would reset it to white. Octane would start pacing at night and it took us awhile to realize that the white light was on (again) and was clearly not comforting. Ultimately we removed the night lighting entirely and he slept all night and would eventually wake up somewhere between 1:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon and stay up until lights out. As much as you really want to see Thor, I would recommend either no light or red light only at night so that he will adjust back to a daytime schedule.

Do be sure to be in the room as often as possible with the lights on but try to keep movements slow. We have found that eating in front of the octo tanks is ideal. They can watch us and become accustomed to our presence but the motion is limited.
 
Thanks for the info guys. My 3 lights are built into the lid its a biocube so im wondering where i would find red lights for night time viewing either replacement for the moonlight/blacklight or some other type i could put on the side of the glass or something any info would be helpful thanks. :smile:
 
i have a biocube!

just wondering, but uhh,

if you had 2 mercatoris and they have babies,

would the babies be incest and have other octo babies?
:sink:
 
Dustinh;141332 said:
i have a biocube!

just wondering, but uhh,

if you had 2 mercatoris and they have babies,

would the babies be incest and have other octo babies?
:sink:

Yes, both gholland I have raised inbred mercs for one generation. We don't know at what point the inbreeding causes genetic problems but the mercs live close together in the wild and likely inbreed there as well.

The more common way to start with mercs is to obtain a fully grown female that has already mated (being a fully grown female will all but guarantee that she has mated as they do not fertilize the eggs immediately and retain the spemataphores until they are ready to lay eggs and brood and, unfortunately die). Read through the journals by gholland and myself marked mercatoris in the title.
 
Ok so any info on my red light situation were i can get one best set up for my biocube thanks. :smile: So i just fed Thor a emerald crab and instead of grabbing him he grabbed a turbo snail that was close to his den and took him instead but he looked at the crab after he took the snail and was like shit i took the wrong one and smacked him with his tentacle lol.
 
A simple trial would be to get red vellum and cover your existing lights. It will reduce the brightness but should work to experiment. If the covering will be exposed to heat, get the high heat kind. I use vellum on the outdoor light fixure we have for what was the merc tank (now owned by my green brittle star). An alternate is a red flashlight. I have notice that my octos can detect the flashlight light but their eyes do not react as with a white light. My suggestion, however, is to turn off the night lights altogether.
 
OK ill turn the night lights off just wondering how i will see him ill try to get a red flashlight i guess lol ill look into the vellum also thanks. Also bummer he is eating my turbo snail i only had 3 :x ill have to pick another one up lol.
 

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