Rescued an octopus from an Asian Food Market today

Joined
Dec 6, 2009
Messages
294
Location
Herndon, VA
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.

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Solution
Macropus is the name of a group of octopuses and they come in many sizes (I have had two I believe are in the complex, Puddles is dwarf sized and Beldar small but not dwarf, Roy's latest is growing like a weed and is at least a medium sized animal). Norman's Cephalopods A World Guide suggests that variabilis may be a member of this complex and it appears to be the primary food octopus in Korea so that's likely as good as we are going to get on ID. For temperatures, I would suggest attempting the cooler end of the water temperatures around Korea as it is not likely an arctic animal (they are looking at harvesting some in the northern extremes though but most current food octos are still found in warmer waters). If you can extend...
Not all octopuses create a midden of shells around their den. Briareus are supporsed to be known to in the wild (and I believe I found an empty den last visit to the keys in an area where briareus are common) but the three I have kept do not show this behavior in the tank.

In known species, keeping tanks in the warmer end of their tollerance is supposed to increase activity and appetite so as you raise the temperature the video will be a good reference to see if this is happening.
 
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I knew you had one but did not realize you picked up another. This is fascinating. Eating is such a good sign. Keeping fingers crossed for both!
 
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They are now officially very active... both are in the sump area of the stand alone tank... they crawled over the top of the internal sump and decided to hang out in the bottom of the sump areas. Definitely not out of the tank, as I have a pretty tight fitting lid (just a couple of electrical cords coming out and a tank is sitting on top of this). They squeezed themselves through a 1/4" gap between the top of the in-tank sump and the bracing of the tank. I will take this as another sign of good health!
 
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Was trying to remove abalone from the tank to deliver to a friend and one of them became very curious and kept on reaching one arm up to "see" what I was doing. If I can get ahold of some more crabs tonight I'll try and coax one out to hand feed it, otherwise I added some more rock structure to the front of the tank so that they can hide in the main section more. May separate into two tanks, but not sure yet.
 
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Looks like you're having success with your rescued octopuses! How large are they - Mantle length? Arm length must be quite long, but then I always found arm length hard to measure because octopuses are so stretchy.

Nancy
 
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Hey Nancy, this is very frustrating... but not because they are not doing well, because I can't get them out of the internal sump!:biggrin2: I am really optimistic right now as they both took pieces of shrimp off of a feeding stick (man are they ever strong!) but I cannot get them out of the sump! I would guess that the mantle width, given that they have small mantles and the webbing does not extend very far, is probably 5"-6"? I can't tell, though, as they are hidden away in the back. I am trying to figure out a way to get them out of there and have stuck a 2" diameter piece of PVC into one chamber to see if the octopus will go into it. I will then try this with the other one, too, if it works. I figure a pot trap would be great, but I don't have much that will fit down into there. I am also thinking I will try and separate them as they don't seem to want to hang out together. Problem is, I have to figure out how exactly to do this... I have some tanks in the garage, but I don't want to go too big with this. I also am thinking I'll drill whatever I put one or both into and run a sump instead of what I've got right now, but I also have to figure out what temperature I want to run this at as they seem to be very comfortable at this temperature right now and are very responsive and hungry! They are also showing very fast color reactions so I think that they are really doing well right now. I'm going to knock on wood that I don't jinx this, but I am excited (but frustrated!)! I want to see these guys!
 
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Ha ha, I told my wife a couple of years ago when I built my tank room with my 300 gallon reef and 350 gallons of sumps that that was the end of more tanks in the house. Then we put a turtle into a 26 bowfront, then moved it and another into a 55 again, and then you have to consider the tanks I put into the school I teach at (75 predator, 72 bowfront FOWLR, 29 fish and soft corals, 30 fish and soft corals, 14 biocube reef, 26 bowfront FOWLR, 15 mantis, 55 reef waiting to come back to school, 50 gallon invert touch tank/water table, another 26 bowfront mantis tank)... I don't have MTS, it was named after me!
 
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Found an abstract of a Chinese paper which stated that variabilis can survive from 6-35 celsius but optimally are 12-27, which is 53.6-80.6, quite a wide range. I am still thinking I'll keep them out in the workshop for the time being to slow down their metabolisms and produce less waste, at least for a week or so until I'm sure of how they're going to do. I figure despite the optimism, I'm still not out of the woods until they are interactive with me and feeding easily and regularly. I also am unsure of age, although it says that they can reach a mantle length of 10 cm on http://www.sealifebase.org/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=86997, if that's in fact what they are. Unsure also of life span, but looking...
 
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Somehow I had a feeling this was the case.

We still don't even really know what they are but I can't find anything to discount variabilis. I did a little looking for your square arm syndrome but only found a paper on the guy at the top of the page that made any kind of close reference (oddly enough the paper was by our Dr. Steve O' Shea and gave me some interesting insights that had nothing to do with the subject at hand).

I found this abstract: On the ecology of Octopus variabilis typicus (Sasaki), with special reference to its breeding habits | CiNii Research but the full text is in Japanese and not toll free.

In this paper are given some results of observations on the general as well as the breeding habits of Octopus variabilis typicus (Sasaki), carried out in Tyosen (Korea). This octopus lives in the shallow calm water of muddy bottom, burrowing a deep tunnel in which it hides itself. On the western coast of Tyosen it is caught with a kind of spade or a small hand plough, digging the muddy flat at the low tide, chiefly in spring and autumn. The main breeding season is from May to June, sometimes extending to the autumnal months. The number of the ripe ovarian eggs found in one female is about 120-130. The egg is comparatively large and takes an elongated egg-plant form, measuring 21.1-22.1 mm×7.0-7.9 mm in those shortly before hatching. The basal part of the egg-shell is elongated into a filiform stalk of about 9 mm in length, by which the egg is attached to the inner wall of the-tunnel. After spawning the female parent is supposed to guard anxiously over the eggs in the hole, till the young hatches out. The larva just hatched is about 29.0-33.2 mm in total length, and the arms are already very long, showing the formula 1>2>3>4, as in the adult. The organisation of body of the young after hatching is so well developed that it can enter the burrowing life from the beginning. It seems to become mature in two years, and its span of life to be over three years. The size of the adult commonly met with is 400-600 mm in total length, and the largest ones reach over 700 mm.

Nice lifespan if this turns out to be the proper species and it is viable to raise the young. 40 cm is not too bad for max size but 60 - 70 would be tank challenging. These numbers agree with Norman's sizing (10 cm on the body and 30 on the arms as minimums). Unfortunately the mud bottom (contrary to my thinking) and burrowing might not work out so well unless they can adapt to living in LR or plastic pipe.

Still no reference to the squared off arms though. It does mention that the first pair are the largest and each adjoining pair smaller than the last so that is something to look for again in the video and when you can coax them back out.

I also found the 1929 description: http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache..."Octopus+variabilis"&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Octopus variabilis (Sasaki, 1929)OCT Oct 21Polypus variabilis var. typicus Sasaki, 1929, J.Coll.Agr.Hokkaido Imp.Univ., 20:90.Synonymy : Polypus variabilis Sasaki, 1929.
FAO Names : En - Whiparm octopus
Fr - Poulpe fouetSp - Pulpo antenadolateral view

Diagnostic Features : Mantle elongate, oval, up totwice as long as broad; skin covered with variable-sizedwarts and papillae; 5 to 8 cirri over each eye, one quiteenlarged; neck strongly constricted; web very low. Armsvery long, unequal, arms I longest, up to 2 times longerthan arms III or IV; male with some considerably enlargedsuckers; right arm III hectocotylized, at maturity onlyhalf as long as left III; ligula large, conspicuous (1/4 to1/7 the length of the arm), terminally rounded; groovedeep with 10 to 14 strong transverse ridges and grooves;calimus relatively large, bluntly pointed, conical; 20 to24 lamellae (total count).Geographical Distribution : Western Pacific Ocean:Japan; limits unknown.tip of hecto-cotylized rightarm III of maleHabitat and Biology : A benthic, littoral species occurring down to about 200 m depth around Japan.Size : Maximum mantle length 10 cm total length 70 cm; sexually mature at about 50 cm total length.Interest to Fisheries : The species is important in the Japanese fishery off Honshu. It is also one of thethree species reported in the Chinese octopus catch. No separate statistics are available.

I also found this video on YouTube showing fishermen catching an octo (doesn't say what kind) but we are not even sure Korea is right. They kill the octo in the film but you can get a good look at it for comparison:
 
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Yeah, I've been reading the same articles and thinking about whether I would pay for one of them not knowing if there would truly be any helpful information in them once I had them translated. I forgot to finish editing my response early this morning but at least if it's this species I know that I'm in the correct temperature range for them currently. I am guessing that even if it's not this species (I have also found reference to the Korean Common Octopus, which is not vulgaris, and Octopus minor as the same thing as variabilis/whiparm) it is still within the correct temperature range based on probable source region.

Now here's a question for you, other than eyeballing or using a ruler or other reference point in the tank and hoping the octopus places itself in the tank in a way that is conducive to measurement, how do you measure a mantle? All of the things I see on websites basically has them grabbing the octopus and sticking it on a table and pulling it which I'm not about to do...
 
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Fed them using the feeding stick again this morning. Gave one about 1/4 of a shrimp, gave the other the rest of it. The larger of the two is much more outgoing and the second I started breaking the shrimp apart it started to get active. I let my 2 year old do the feeding and it nearly pulled the stick out of her hand as she was basically hanging on it and bending it over the lip of the tank as the octopus pulled down. One of them also posed perfectly as it was trying to pull the stick down and then while feeding and I measured the mantle from tip to the base of the eyes/where it thins out at about 3", so if it's variabilis, neither is fully grown.
 
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