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Preparing For a Fleshy Minion *cue mad scientist laugh*

Joe-Ceph;178997 said:
In theory sure, but I'll bet you haven't tried to sex a bimac.
I think you can only count the arms if looking at the top or the bottom (sucker side) of the octopus, I'm not sure what "facing you" means.

I've only sexed O. Hummelincki, O. Briareus, O. Rubescens, and E. Dofleini. What I mean by facing you is imagine the animal sitting on a table with it's mantle flopped over away from you with it's eyes looking directly at you and arms L1 and R1 pointing at you. That's what I mean by facing you.

I think a more clear way to describe it would be:
Imagine that the octopus is stuck to the wall, with its eyes looking up at the ceiling, and it's "head bag" hanging down toward the floor (you are looking at the "top" of the octopus). The two arms pointing up are called L1 and R1 (Left-1, Right-1). R1 is at 1 O'clock, L1 is at 11 O'clock. Count clockwise from R1, to find R2, R3, and R4. Count counter-clockwise from L1 to find L2, L3, and L4. The hectocotylus is at the end of R3.

You're right, you did a much better job at explaining it.

Bimacs are particularly hard to sex because the hectocotylus is very small (2% of arm length) and only developed in adults, so sexing a small one is impossible (so I've read). Add to that the fact that the bimac is squirming and slippery. In a tank, at home, I had to take lots of pictures of my bimac before I was able to find one showing the tip of R3 that I could blow up. In the field I've found it close to impossible short of snipping off the end of R3 and studying it (which I haven't done). I've read that females say "excuse me" after they ink, while males just snicker, but I haven't observed that myself.

I've sexed my E. Dofleinis but that was in a 1000 gallon system of course. I pulled it to the surface and wrestled it's arm from the others to sex it. It wasn't too difficult, but their hectocotylus is very prodominant.
 
The hectocotylus is at the end of R3.
Not quite. The ligula is the "spade looking" tip at the end of the hectocotylus. The hectocotylus is actually the whole specialize arm that has a channel for the spermataphores and the ligula at the tip (initially named and thought to be a worm when found inside a female from what I read). Additionally many males have enlarged suckers on two or more front arms (bimaculoides has them on two R2/L2, R3/L3 :wink: - will try to add photos of Diego to my sexing thread. The most obvious sign is observing the hectocotylus being carried curled (see photos in the thread linked above). However, looking into the water without a mask or if the animal is upset it would be hard to detect. You might be able to tell by letting it sit in and investigate a bucket (remember I knew Diego was male and he was relatively small). I could not make distinctions with either species of hatchlings I have raised until a couple of months but still fairly early.
 
Thank you for the input, Joe-Ceph, I'm a little disappointed that I'm so behind the times! As I was visiting the page, the name of the town I live in caught my eye and it turns out a educational distributor of Dofleini is right down the street, at least it was in 2004... Anywho! As for O. Hummelincki, it seems like a great little animal, and I wouldn't want to cramp a bimac, but would I be "cheating" if I asked the distributor to sex the octopus and only send a male? Also, isn't it a Atlantic species? It just seems like a far way to ship, I'm worried he wouldn't make it to little old Oregon.
I can understand the difficulty of catching one for me (thank you for the consideration!) I see that bimacs and octopodes period don't have a high demand and then there's the keeping them alive, contained, happy, etc... etc... If you do happen to see a young one by the time my tank's cycled and if I don't have an octopus by then, I would welcome him with open arms (as would he..?). It's just a lot of "what-if's" Do you, by chance, know of any Hummelincki distributors?
Also! You have figured out my master plan, eBay and Craigslist are the two places I'm scoping out for the "big" items, I thought I posted my 4-phase plan yesterday, but it must not have posted. Will have to re-type that later.
And the last part, Joe-Ceph, I read up and stalked all (or most) of the posts on here about the Nitrogen cycle, I'm also thankful for all the biology classes I took. :smile: I think I might put the live sand and rock in a section of the sump to save room in the aquarium, still thinking on it, though. :smile:
Sea Dwelling Creatures.... will have to look into that, thank you skywindsurfer!
 
No problem, but like I said they are a whole seller. So you will need someone to order them for you. As for sexing, its not likely to happen. Most collecters don't even know what species they have. You'd be better off just asking for the smallest they have. Ask for golf ball sized or smaller. Shipping will not be an issue as long as its over nighted. As for O. Hummelincki's origins, its actually a Caribbean species. Most are collected from or around Hati.
 
skywindsurfer;179044 said:
As for O. Hummelincki's origins, its actually a Caribbean species. Most are collected from or around Hati.

Oh yes, I meant Caribbean and must have left off a couple letters or something... >_> ...
 
When will your tank be ready? I should be expecting five bimacs in the next few weeks. Since I only need one male and one female I may be able to send one to you.
 
Oh my, that certainly sounds persuading, however, I only have a tank and with my method of acquiring materials (craigslist, eBay), I can't see my tank set up and cycled by then... However, if you still have one to send away, ask me when you get them, miracles can happen and I do plan on using live rock/sand to cycle- it might just be ready but most likely not. Thanks for the offer, though! :smile:
 
Just my two cents, unless you know for certain that your 'live' sand is fresh, I would just use regular dry substrate and seed it with live rock. A lot of times that so called 'live' sand has been sitting in a bag for weeks with no air or circulation and has probably become anerobic. Just my two cents though.
 
True, but really how long does it take for something like that to become anerobic? But it's just a personal preferance. I like to use dry sand if I cannot get sand from a system that is already running or from the wild.
 
I am not a fan of live sand and actually replace my sand (argonite) every couple of years in the ceph tanks (when there is no one in residence) because I feel it harbors more bad than good even though I stir it each water change fo minimize the waste buildup.
 
Have you thought of just taking it out, rinsing it, and re-cycling the system? I know that after a certain amount of time the substrate needs to be replaced because all the minerals and what not have been used up.
 
The tanks do not need recycling when I do this and all my tanks have substantial live rock. Bottom substrate does not contribute that much to the positive bacteria. I rely on my LR for bacterial filtration and keep minimal bottom substrate because IMO it collects more waste than it contributes to the health of the tank. Rinsing would still leave a lot of nitrate and ecologically, I know of no issue with ground argonite. I would keep bare bottom tanks if my other half did not insist that esthetically the tanks need "sand".
 

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