Public Cephalopod Aquariums

Hi Deacon -- I hadn't heard of this, thanks for sharing. That is neat about the tending of eggs and the kids watching them grow up. Keep us posted on your next acquisition!
 
Received our female bimac on Friday - already on Saturday she was pole-feeding like a champ! Excellent color on her eyespots. I'm very excited.
 
Deacon,
You might start a journal on your new octo and take the approach of recording the student's reactions and participation. Additionally, do you know for sure that this octopus is a bimac (ie did you get it from an educational institute?). I ask because the Caribbean 2-spot (Hummelincki) has often been misidentified as a bimac and there seem to be quite a number of the Hummelinckis showing up in the aquarium trade. The major importance would be the water temperature requirements since the Caribbean Hummelincki is warm water vs the coldwater Pacific bimac.
 
We got her through a contact our curator made on this site, a researcher who collected her just for us (can't remember his name off the top of my head.)
 
I was back at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium today. The GPO is still there and so are her eggs. I didn't see any eyes but they are sooo tiny it would be hard to tell. The staff said that it has been three years since she could have had contact with another octopus, so it would be unlikely that they are fertile. She looks ok, her color is still good. She had an opened clam shell in front of her, still uneaten.
 
I just visited the new Steinhart Aquarium and California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, and got a bit of extra tour from Thales, who works there. The cephs on display at the moment are one GPO, who was being shy and hiding in a corner, and 3 Nautiluses (didn't catch which species.) The displays downstairs are quite good in a lot of non-ceph areas, including some nifty dragon pipefish, sea dragons, a number of large reef tanks, and quite a bit more. Although it's been completely redone, several of the styles of the old Steinhart were preserved: a lot of small, single-species tanks, a lot of amphibians and reptiles, and an alligator pit. Also, there is a 3-story sphere of "rainforest" and the planetarium is now inside another sphere in the museum. There is also a display on Humboldts that has a pickled squid in a big jar that's pretty impressive. Thales took be behind the scenes a bit to see some of the plumbing, and some animals not on display, including a "backup" GPO who was easier to see and a bit more outgoing.

Overall, I had a great time... two thumbs up! I recommend getting advance tickets on the web, since they were sold out of general admission tickets, but that may have been more because it's winter break for a lot of students than because this'll be a regular occurrence.
 
Since this has been bumped, I'll add in. If you live in the DC area, it will be great for you ceph lovers to visit the invert house at the national zoo in about 3-4 months. They just got 5 young officinalis, are about to get some (number unknown :roll:) pharaonis, currently have 10-15 nautilus (and they are actually breeding!), 2 GPO's, one of which is pushing on 5 years old, and at some point in the FORESEEABLE future, will be getting flamboyants. I've actually been given the ("joyous" :banghead:)task of helping to write the species acquisition form for the flamboyants. Joyous because, we are in a mammal world where, when the appropriate people at the zoo see the words - cuttlefish, invert, and poisonous together on paper, they freak and we will have to convince them that flamboyants are no more "dangerous" than the sea apples they already have and took 1.5 years to attain due to the work it took to convince the "bosses" that they didn't pose a "danger to guests", however, it is a rather simple matter to get a lion, tiger, and especially at the national zoo, cheetah :mad:. So I'll definetly be looking to you guys for help.

On a different note, if anyone is going to be in the area, shoot me a PM and I should be able to work up something special for you at the invert house :wink:. Especially because the older of the two GPO's is behind the scenes and can't really be seen without going back there.
 

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