Please help me identify and sex this baby Octopus

QueenB

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I went to get a new Chocolate Chip Starfish for my Harlequin Shrimp since it's been a few days since her last one was devoured. (Hungry little bugger she is)

My LFS had ordered some LR and when they were cycling the rock to their :shock: this :octorun: crawled out.

Talk about LUCK!

I've been waiting for them to call me for over a year on getting one in. One of the women that works there thought of me immediately and put it on hold for me. She pulled out a Beta bowl for me to try and get some photos with, and I hope they turned out well enough. We were in the break room with my iPhone and iPad, so the photo quality is probably not all that great, but there were the best shots I could get. Sorry in advance.

Been twiddling my thumbs, researching, and trying to get one for over 2 years. I'm ready to jump in headfirst now if it's a small enough species.

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I'm hoping it's at least a breed that I can handle in my RSM 250. :fingerscrossed:
 
The Octopus is the size of my thumbnail.

I have no Idea about the type of LR in came on. I just got off the phone with her, and she said it was in a tank by itself when she got to work. She moved it & put a hold tag up on it for me. I'm afraid to put it in the RSM 250 right now cause it's sooooo super tiny.

Do you think a 14g would be ok until it gets a little bigger? I did have a harlequin shrimp in it until tonight. I bumped the shrimp to the 8 gal bio cube, and did a water change and filtration change on the 14. I did parameter checks and the nitrates are at about 5.0 from what I'm testing, but other then that all seems fine. (Thank God for MTS) :lol: Can never have enough you used to tell me.

It has the sump in the back but I have a piece of plexi glass with a plastic nut and bolt used as a handle cut for the front top so it keeps her inside the front and not the back.

Then I have the white fiber and black carbon filtration pads cut and pressed against the slots for filtration with the bio cube stock filter cartridge so she can't slip through there.

Then I blocked off the bottom vent section with 2 big sponges cut for it, with a heavy spare in tank filter (forget the name of it right now) on top of it so she can't budge the sponge. (it has an arm that the water filters up to and onto the Media basket) I like extra filtration where ever I can have it

Middle section has a Media Basket with white filter pad on top, Purigen in middle, and Chemi pure on bottom.

The 14g tank has been set up in my living room for about 9 months with only the Harlequin Shrimp, few Nessarius snails, and some Blue Leg Hermits. I had a few ric's in there but moved them with a few sexy's to a tiny show tank I have that's a Nuvo Innovative Marine 4g. Cute little tank that's starting to thrive.

Water changes are every 2 weeks on Sundays. I have not had any problems, except bristles keep showing up. :mad: I used sun dried rock and dry sand, and I still get them little buggers. I used to have nightmares of that one Dwhatley showed me.

The 14g was set up as a quarantine tank but I never got a sick fish, crab, or shrimp. Never used medicines in it and it was a new tank when I got it from my LFS.

I know my RSM will definitely be big enough for one, but when their this tiny I was hoping I could keep it in a smaller tank untill they get big enough for the Octopus Condo.

Wow I typed A LOT. :oops:
 
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One of the guys that works at my LFS just called me back and said it's a Caribbean. So I'm considering it & I dont want to lose the chance at my first experience, but I want to make sure it's not gonna get too big that I can't handle it in my 65g.
 
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I'm sure a 65 will not be too small I actual think it would be too big. I don't believe that is one of the larger carribbean species. I'm not very familiar with really small tanks like your 14. I suspect it would be ok at least for the short term. just keep an eye on the water chemistry and be diligent about cleaning up any remains after feeding. If it is a mercatoris, a standard 29 gal tank is a great size, not too big that you will never see it, not too small to handle waste, and it will give the octo some room to move.
 
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What I miss not signing in for part of a day :biggrin2: I saw your journal first and posted there but if the rock was Caribbean than definitely O. mercatoris. This would have been my guess not knowing Caribbean but O. digueti looks very much the same in photos (I've not seen one live) and is Pacific.

With good filtration and weekly water changes, the 14 will be fine. Mercs are not overly motivated to wander and the females I have kept usually find one den and keep it throughout their lives.
 
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I tried to feed her again today and she didn't seem to want anything. :concern: I even stuck ghost shrimp in there to hope it was easier for her to catch and eat. (still so tiny)

I checked her this evening she was gone. :sad:

I triple checked my water parameters and everything was fine except my nitrates were about 5.0, the water temp was 74.8, nothing else in the tank except tiny blue leg hermits so nothing to harm her.

Starvation? ~ LFS said she didn't eat for them, but she was right size for the tiny blue leg hermits, cyclop eeze or ghost shrimps. I tried some uncooked shrimp with the shell without the shell, and nothing. (had the same problem with the freshly hatched cuttles, they wouldn't eat)

Stress? ~ She came in on Wed the 19th to their shop then I got her on the following Wed the 26th. Too much traveling stressed her out in that short period of time? (tank to tank).

I use my own Ro/Di water mixed with Red Sea Max salt I buy from my LFS. So it's definitely purified of all toxins and such.

After my last video post I kept the lights off even with the red covering them, so she could get used to the tank a bit. I thought all the pictures with my iPhone/iPad would stress her out so I stopped.

Does this happen a lot with baby Ceph's? (starving themselves)

I'm completely stumped.
 
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Thumbnail sized is still a bit small for an adult merc but not by much and a mantle the size of the thumb to the first joint would be normal. Sizes vary a lot with octopuses so there is a possibility she was already full grown and had laid eggs but her color in one photo did not show the typical gray white I have seen in all my aged mercatoris. To offer a guess, I suspect that the live rock was not shipped in water. It was likely kept wet but not submerged (nor would you expect it to be) and not shipped overnight so she was likely very exposed for a day or more. If this was the case, I find it odd she was even alive at all but they do occasionally arrive and survive as LR hitchhikers. My first merc did very well, had hatchlings and they had hatchlings. HOWEVER, I tried two others while I still had Trapper and neither survived the two week period I reserve for complete acclimation success. I have since kept a few others that have all lived full lives. One big advantage to getting animals directly from a collector is the reduced number of times the animal is shipped.
Experimentation with K&P has taught us to use a LOT of water shipping even small octos and most recently we have been including a clump of macro that is looking like a good option to reduce mortality as shipping is a definite stressor.

Lowering your nitrates would be a good idea because the tank is so small and they could clime easily but at 5 would not have been a factor. I have been fighting high nitrates in one of my tanks (they are all over 5 years old) and usually remove the sand every two years to keep it under control (I have replaced the sand and am experimenting with a remote DSB of sorts in this tank as I write). Since your tank is relatively new stirring up the sand while doing a few large water changes will likely get them back down pretty easily. The only thing I am aware of that might be impactive (and not likely at your rate) is increased chances of eye infections (something I recently read and have indeed had a problem with in the mentioned tank) but the danger is above your current levels.
 
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Did another water change on the tank, and put some clowns in temporarily to keep the bio load going. Just as a precautionary measure.

We are in the process of tearing down the 65 doing a complete maintenance, lights, pumps, media etc. It's overdue for a good cleaning with new lights. (did a complete last Dec) But mainly just a good cleaning of the black sand and the LR that is growing some hair algae on it. (I suspect is from the lights) I don't have anything in the tank that will eat it. And don't want to get a tang in fear of getting a Vulgaris, Briareus, or Bimac by accident, and not have anywhere to put the tang.

On higher note, I'm picking up a 46g Bow Front with stand fluval 205 canister and hood. Darn you DW! :lol: MTS Taking over my house. lol I went from 7 down to 5 now I'm back up to 6. lol Not sure what kind of skimmer to use in it, but the top is going to be easier to Octo proof. :smile: Never had a complete bare tank like this so they added the Fluval 205.
 
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