new guy

Skyler

Pygmy Octopus
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Joined
Mar 5, 2015
Messages
11
Location
murray ut
Hello all. My name Skyler. Been here before for a brief time. Happy to say I'm back and a proud papa of I believe a bimac (YES hopefully). LFS said it was a GPO not sold on that. So I turn to the Pro's . Here's why I think it's a bimac. Two false eyes on the mantle and out during the day. Any thoughts
 
Look at the tips of the suckers. If they are orange than likely bimac HOWEVER it is more likely that they are purple/blue (which would most likely be an O. hummelincki). It is important to determine which as bimacs need cold water where hummencki are Caribbean.

Note that if you only see white, you will have to keep looking. Ultimately you will see one or the other colors.
 
Holy crap batman. Response at 3am see that s why you guys rock. I will take a look. Dumb question will they always be orange or purple or do they change color like the rest of the body?
 
The sucker tips will be either white (all can do this) or a color. IME, the color is always the same for each of the species I have kept and seems to be a consistent eliminator. Many of the warm water species will have a blue/purple and it appears that O. briareus (not a consideration from your description) shows white all the time (need to pay more attention though as this species is pretty easy to identify from other aspects). We have to go to a lot of generalizations though because we keep finding exceptions to the rule :biggrin2:

... and Yes TONMO does ROCK :wink:
 
Thanks for all the replies.Temperature is 73 night 75 day. From what I can tell they are all white, but towards the tips of the arms they seem to be purple. Was wondering how long cold water octopus could last in warmer temps?
Leonard has eaten a hermit crab that I had to deshell. Doesnt like mysis refused the second hermit crab day later. How long between meals? Seem like I heard about four days.
Leonard is just a little guy. Mantle about the size of the tip of you pinky finger.
 
Welcome, Skyler!

About bristleworms - I've read many times that "bristleworms are your friend," And to the extent that they help keep the tank clean, this is true. But a large bristleworm can overwhelm a tiny octopus. Sometimes it's not that the bristleworm wants to eat the octopus, but in stealing food from the octopus's arms, the bristleworm may also bite off an arm or two. (Sadly, I've witnessed this with briareus hatchlings a few days old).

As the octopus grows, bristleworms seem to become less of a threat, and the octopus is even capable of destroying the bristleworm. An octopus may do this to protect her eggs.

Nancy
 
I don't ever think of bristle worms (never know how to spell this) as friends but my tanks have more than their fair share. It does seem that only the newly hatched young (smaller than this one) and the very old (they will start eating the dying flesh of a soon to die animal - I usually put my end of life animals in a breeder net to let them die in peace).

It is only the sucker tips that noticeably change color. If you are seeing a blueish purple, then O. hummelincki is pretty likely given your other descriptions (definitely not bimaculoides) and is warm water and your temp range should be fine. Hummelincki is a peculiar species in a number of aspects. The come in a huge range of sizes so size can rarely help with aging. They have been a pill to identify over time and were originally given the name O. filosus then reclassified as O. vulgaris (erroneously) and rediscovered as O. hummelincki. There has been a lot of petitioning to revert to the original O. filosus but, as of my last check, O. hummelincki is the official name. With the size variance and a few other things I have noted over the ones I have kept, I would not be surprised if there were two (or even three) related but different species. My least attractive have been my most personable :biggrin2: and I was VERY disappointed to learn recently that I missed out on one that was available.
 
For feeding I recommend starting with a piece of table shrimp about the size of its eye. Place it on a feeding stick (the bamboo skewers from the grocery are my favorite choice but a commercial nylon stick is fine as well). Hold the food near the den opening and wait ... and wait as necessary until it is investigated or ignored after about 10 minutes. Repeat daily, regardless of other food in the tank. Young animals are more likely to be the most shy and don't typically interact until they are about 4 months old but should still figure out feeding time within 2 weeks.

Live fiddler crabs are a universal goto food for all octos. Paul Sachs is a very reliable supplier and many of our members use him to source crabs. I also use Kevin at at_your_door_fishstore (an eBay vendor) for alternate live saltwater crabs. If he does not show a listing for crabs, you can message him and normally he can set up a listing for you as he usually does have them available.
 
You can drag and drop a picture on to your post from a displayed directory or you can use older technology by clicking the "upload a File" button. There is more detail with examples here.
 

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