Rescued an octopus from an Asian Food Market today

[davelin315]

Stopped into an Asian Food Market today and was saddened to see a bunch of octopuses in a tank, all dead with the exception of this one and possibly another one, but this one was moving around and looking very sad to be in there... it's different than buying a "don't encourage them" type of thing from a local fish store, as this is a food source and they're going to bring them in regardless... anyway, I couldn't help myself. It's currently in a 10 gallon tank as that's the best I could throw together with cold water and an ice probe to keep it cool until I figure out what it is (tank is woefully small for it, it's arms stretch across the tank and can curl up the wall while it's in the corner). My guess is that it's from the West Coast as it was in with abalone and I think that they are collected in California waters, but no idea. Here are some pictures that I sent to the National Zoo to get an ID from a friend there in the Invert House. The ones where it's just sitting there are from when the lights were on, the ones where it's stretched out are from when it was dark and I turned on the lights.

 

[CaptFish]

54 degrees!!! holy cow that is freezing! I spoke with my brother tonight who just returned from Korea and he said the water was very warm. He said just like the carib. if not warmer.

 

[DWhatley]

The writhing arms, if they are not corkscrewing at the ends, sound like a common behavior for a healthy octo. It has been labeled as a grooming behavior by scientists but I would argue that I have only seen it in stressed (but adjusting and not fatal) octopuses. Look at this to if it resembles the behavior

Then look at thisand observe the arm tips

The first video is considered a normal behavior, the corkscrewing of the arms in the second is behavior of a dieing or senescent octopus.

You might also see small disks of skin with a hole in the center floating around the tank. This will be the shed from their suckers, also a normal activity.

Lastly, here is a link to a rather lengthy video of Maya demonstrating the passing cloud display (among other color and shape variations).

 

[davelin315]

I am definitely seeing the sucker sheds and have seen that with all of them. The writhing arms are not corkscrews but it's certainly not to the extent of the first one, either. The passing cloud is very similar to what is in the video of Maya, half the octopus is darker and the other half is lighter and it's washing over it.

I'll continue to bring the temperature up during the day for these two.

 

[davelin315]

Went downstairs this morning... guess what? One of them ate the emerald crab I put in there last night! They were both sitting there on opposite sides of the tank but after I went in and then left to get a couple more emerald crabs and came back in they were both in the back hiding on top of each other displaying some pretty vibrant and angry colors! I'm optimistic!

 

[DWhatley]

This is really exciting! Even more so in that you are keeping a pair (so far only the mercs and bimacs have been kept successfully in pairs on TONMO, species mixing has been a dismal failure and one instance of hummelincki pairing failed without known reasons). If these are the species of my best guess, they are a large egg species which makes raising young viable (not easy - we have only had limited success with mercs and bimacs and no success with briareus).

As you surmise, eating is a good thing! Shedding is normal but not particularly optomistic as I have seen it with dieing post brood females as well as healthy octos.

How much light was in the room when they were out?

 

[davelin315]

Dim lighting. It was very indirect lighting - the room has only a set of french doors that face west and are located under a deck, so I could see, but I needed a flashlight to verify that the crab was only a shell. I will need to sex the octopuses if they survive, but will most likely separate them if they both survive. I imagine that if they are in good health there will be some aggression, so perhaps if one starts to beat on the other that's a good thing!

 

[DWhatley]

It is hard to say. We typically don't try pairings because of tank size but as I mentioned, we have seen some cases that work. We have one member reporting on a group living together in the wild but they don't have to contend with space issues and have been observed fighting over housing (without harm). Unfortunately, these guys may get too large to house together but it will be intresting to see how they do. Mote Aquarium were brought two vulgaris found living together in the wild and when I saw them, they had been housed that way for over a year and stayed in close proximity to each other all the time (I believe they were the same sex but I am not certain). Tank size vs animal size, however, can cause aggession if the animals are too large.

 

[davelin315]

One or both of them ate again, the two emerald crabs from this morning are littered about the bottom of the tank, little pieces here and there! Temp in the tank is at 56-57 degrees and they ate during the day when there was plenty more light in the tank. I'm debating whether to move the tank out of the colder area as they can take that kind of cold during winter months I would think, but I may move it out and turn the ice probe back on to keep it slightly cooler than the basement, so it'll be in the mid to upper 60s, maybe lower 70s tops. This is exciting stuff, but again, not sure which one of them is actually doing the eating or if both are. They are now in different parts of the tank hiding under different rocks. May be time to add some substrate in there for comfort for these two. I'm also debating on what to move one into if I think they will both survive. Again, not sure which one is doing the eating now but I'll try and film something tonight once the kids are in bed.

 

[DWhatley]

If they are moving around and choosing different dens, I suspect both are eating.

I think both CaptFish and I really want to push you to up the temp into at least the low 70's. This is obviously gut feel and not knowledge (other than CaptFish checking in with his brother's recent dive/surf experience). There are octos that need cold water but best guess is that these are warm water animals kept on ice as food (like we see clams).

Again, not knowing anything about this species, I can only make guesses by the ones I have kept. If you feel you need to add substrate, I would stick with it in the form of cured or dead LR and/or a very thin frontside only sandbed. My octos either live in the rocks or clear out the sand and sleep on the glass/acrylic bare bottom even though they wander on the sand when out and about (I have some video of KaySoh clearing the sand from her den area here. I only keep sand in the front half of the tanks and the octos that choose the bottom will clear any away that comes into their dens. That being said, there are octopuses that bury and make their homes in the sand but I would think it is less likely to be a mass caught food source that is likely caught in pots.

 

[davelin315]

Good point on the substrate. I may try and take out some crushed coral I have in a sump in my reef tank and clean it out to add to the bottom. I figure some of it's large enough to pass as rubble so these guys can hide in it if they want to. My thinking was that one of them was eating and it was the one that was out more, but I dropped an emerald crab on the one that I felt was not doing as well that was hidden away under a rock and it immediately pulled the emerald into its arms. I took some video tonight of them and used a flashlight to get one to move around a bit, but it was doing this when I went in there before on its own anyway, so I don't feel that I was annoying it too much.

Feeding question (I have to convert the video before I can upload it) as I'm very rusty on this. Octopuses don't push the remains of food away from wherever they have created their den, do they? The last time I had an octopus I believe it left crab shells all around its den and used them to build it up. Do they typically push the shells away from where they are after they finish eating? The shells were primarily around the one that seems to be more active, while the other one that took the crab I dropped on it had no shells around it. I am going to try and move them inside tomorrow or Sunday, I figure if they're eating right now, that's a good thing. When I move them inside it'll require me to drain some of the water and disturb them so I'd like to give them a chance to recuperate some before doing that (plus, I need to make some more water as I don't want to use water out of my reef due to a nitrate explosion I'm experiencing).

 

[davelin315]

Oh, and how often do you feed your octopuses? I fed the one I had years back only 1-2x per week and that was enough, but I'd like to fatten these guys up a bit.

 

[davelin315]

Leg structure question, not sure if I've already asked this, but do a lot of species have the squared off arms? These have legs that when stretched out look (again) like the picture on the website background of the GPO. I always thought of them having round arms but all of these and the picture above show them to be squared off.

 

[CaptFish]

Oh, and how often do you feed your octopuses? I fed the one I had years back only 1-2x per week and that was enough, but I'd like to fatten these guys up a bit.

At first when mine was young and i wanted her to grow i fed her once a day and sometimes twice, now that she is older she seems to like on huge feeding every 2-3 days.

 

[CaptFish]

Feeding question (I have to convert the video before I can upload it) as I'm very rusty on this. Octopuses don't push the remains of food away from wherever they have created their den, do they? The last time I had an octopus I believe it left crab shells all around its den and used them to build it up. Do they typically push the shells away from where they are after they finish eating? The shells were primarily around the one that seems to be more active, while the other one that took the crab I dropped on it had no shells around it. I am going to try and move them inside tomorrow or Sunday, I figure if they're eating right now, that's a good thing. When I move them inside it'll require me to drain some of the water and disturb them so I'd like to give them a chance to recuperate some before doing that (plus, I need to make some more water as I don't want to use water out of my reef due to a nitrate explosion I'm experiencing).

Legs usually leaves her crab bodies in front of her den for me to fish out, but I feed mine mostly live shrimp, so when Legs defecates usually between 3-5pm every day i have to collect all the shells and heads or they will pile up fast. 12 shrimp every 2-3 days so that makes six shrimp heads a day!

 

[davelin315]

Haven't previewed how this uploaded to Youtube, but here's a video. I also just walked in there a few minutes ago and they were both cruising around the tank and the last crab was gone! Woo hoo! Had to break the video in half and reconvert and repost...

Part I

Part II