[Octopus]: Ocho Meurto - Wild caught O. cyanea from Makaha beach, Oahu

Joined
Dec 16, 2005
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672
Location
Laie, Hawaii
Last Saturday I went diving with some friends at Makaha beach on the west side of Oahu, Hawaii. At the end of our dive we found an octopus! :smile: We caught him and he is now in a tank at school. He's doing pretty well. He's still pretty shy, but other people see him out a lot more than I do (seems to like mornings and I do not). He at a frozen xanthid crab a couple days ago, and there is a live crab, some live shrimp, snails, and a couple fish in there with him. He's little, maybe 2" mantle length. Here's a picture and a couple videos. His name is Ocho Meurto, which means eight death in Spanish. I didn't name him, another student did. Anyway he's pretty cute and starting curious.
 

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The colors in Ocho Meurto's (eight deaths? Kind of like a cat's nine lives?) intro picture had me wondering about ID but the last video shows the more typical color, patterning and eye spots of O. cyanea. I have seen plenty of passing clouds :wink: but have yet to see my first O. cyanea live and always wondered how well they would do in a home tank but availability (not abundance), size and their wondering have limited home journals. I know Monterey Bay's Tentacles exhibit has one and it was doing very well last I checked. Does the school have a large enough aquarium for this guy as he grows?
 
Yeah, the passing cloud is pretty cool! I don't see it much, but I was lucky enough to get a video of that time. He did it several times before we caught him in the ocean.

He was finally out this morning when I came in the lab! I was so happy. I was lucky to get a camera and got a bunch of pictures. Some are pretty good, some not so great, but cool nonetheless! I'll share my Google+ album with everyone.

What you need to know about the sunset of consumer Google+ on April 2 | Google Workspace Blog

If there is a way to embed this please help.
 
Dwhatley - We do have a big enough tank to put him in when he grows up, but we will most likely release him. I am planning to house several of these for my project, so we will need the space. I guess it will depend on how attached we get to him though!
 
If you don't mind me asking how big of a tank will you b using i want to house a larger octopus like this and would much appreciate any info you have or come across in the future.
 
Unless you are running a flow through system, it is not a good idea to release an animal once it has been in a captive tank because of the the chances of introducing bacteria or pathogens that can play havoc in the wild. How big is the risk? I don't know but do know that when the authorities in FL find illegally caught animals they are either destroyed or given to private aquariums to ensure this does not happen. Occurrences like the death of the Caribbean Diadema urchins in 1983 and the current starfish die off along the Pacific coast are reminders of the problems with introducing bacteria that can effect differing species. These two incidences are not likely caused by aquarists rereleasing animals but are serious reminders of the care we need to take.
 
Ahh Makaha! Fantastic octo spot! Good point D about the bacteria. Or are there sterilization techniques/antibiotics that could be used to clean Ocho Meurto so it could be released eventually? Thales do you know of anything?
 

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