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.

 

[davelin315]

I, too, looked at the crawfish suppliers in Louisiana. There are a few of them and they offer them at different sizes. There's one that offers them a bit smaller than the others. The issue is that most of these, except for the one you mentioned above that sells them as pets, too, have you ordering by the pound with a minimum of 20 or 30 pounds of crawfish... that's a lot of crawfish!

There's also:

LIVE CRAWFISH |Shipped Year Round
http://www.1800crawfish.com
http://store.bayoubountystore.com/liveseafood.html

and many more...

Unfortunately/fortunately, the remaining octopus died sometime this afternoon. It was still alive when I went to school this morning but it was dead when I got home at around 5. I have frozen it to see if I can give it to friends at the National Zoo to see if they can identify it with whatever methods.

As far as how they die, you mentioned bacterial infections and biting their own arms off, is that common with them? Any idea why they do that?

As far as the tank I've got a week to throw on a carbon reactor instead of using some passive carbon in conjunction with a homemade bubbler filter and also add some sort of mechanical filtration and possibly add a skimmer to the mix. I'll post some pictures of the tank set up and also keep track of what I do in the hopes that someone else can duplicate this. Sam, are you listening?

 

[DWhatley]

Infections often come with senescence and we think it is more the weakening of the immune system when that happens (eyes are often the first to be affected). One of the reasons we try to be cautious with what we put in the tank is to avoid lesions and some infections will heal (I have used tetracyciline and have seen healing but don't know if healing would have occurred without) . We are not sure about arm eating. We see self mutilation on occassion and in Octane's case the out of water exposure left visible skin damage and by morning he had started eliminating his arms. There seems to be a particular infectious disease/bacteria that can cause autophagy and can be spread to other octopuses long after the infected animal is dead if the aquarium is not sterlized (Jean mentions problems with it in the Portobello Aquarium but I can't locate one of her longer discussions) but we have never seen this type in the home (thankfully). The one distinction Jean mentions is that the arms would be removed at the webbing rather than as we normally see it at tip.

Here is the best thread I remember that discusses autophagy, infection and potential treatments all in one place.

 

[davelin315]

I decided that since I'm going to wait until next week to get another one that I'd add some sort of clean up crew since nothing that is in there now, with the exception of the mussels, will probably survive the colder water. I added 6 abalone and some snails from the grocery store where I got the octopuses (had to resist picking one up that was there since Thursday, appeared healthy and had very thick and strong arms, but knowing that it's been there I avoided it based on previous experiences). We'll see if what I've learned in practice so far works on the next one. Will carefully monitor this next one and hopefully post info on how it's doing as things progress starting next week. Still hoping to figure out what exactly this is, though, as I still have yet to see any cirri on any of these (at home or in the store) above the eyes and they have exhibited the textured pattern on their mantle. One indication of the health of the ones in the grocery store tank is definitely going to be the appearance of the eyes. When healthy (or at least healthier) they exhibit eyes that are raised out of the body and are very even. When they begin to decline the first thing that seems to happen is that the eyes no longer become raised out of the body and they tend to be uneven. The mantle also begins to list to one side or the other.

 

[DWhatley]

I have notice some mantle control issues with prebrood females and extreme problems on spent females and thought it was due to the stretching of the body (like humans) that never tightens back up. Your observation may mean there is more to it than just producing eggs. There is so much we don't know.

 

[davelin315]

You can definitely tell the difference on these octopuses when they are there. The lack of texture on the mantle from what I have seen precedes the listing of the head, the lack of control of the eyes, etc, and tends to precede the true crash of the octopus.

 

[davelin315]

Well, as long as they have a healthy specimen, getting a new one tonight to try it again.

The new set up is raring to go, I did a little more maintenance and prep on it last night to add some mechanical filtration that also has removed some of the bubbles from the water column (lack of appropriate baffles in the sump), removed a ton of bristle worms that were slowly succumbing to the cold water, and removed one of the abalone that had died. I also rearranged the rock work a bit (not a whole lot). I have yet to add the carbon reactor and am still relying on a mesh bag of carbon that the water flows through in the sump, but it's fairly effective. The tank is also filled with food items for an octopus as I added a bunch of Littorina littorea (proud of myself for remembering the taxonomical name of the common periwinkle from my high school marine biology class), there are still 4 abalone, and also a small clump of mussels. Earlier in the week I also installed a small skimmer that Sam brought over that I gave him a couple of years back and I also cut the acrylic sheet that goes on top down to size.

Pretty much the only thing to do is to find a healthy octopus and add it to the system!

 

[CaptFish]

I too use the bags of carbon in my 125 gal. I just let them float around in the sump and they seem to do a great job. I cant wait to see the new guy! we're all pulling for him to make it!

 

[DWhatley]

I use a filter sock with a bag of carbon at the overflow pipe in the sump. It is better than a passive bag but needs no mechanical component (filter bag is attached using DIY PVC pipe and elbows to hold the 7"/8" dia bag).

 

[davelin315]

My reef has a number of different filter socks and reactors hooked up to it but this tank was kind of thrown together with the parts I had. The major drawback is the lack of an external pump for this one. If I had the pump, things would work much better, but unfortunately I'm lacking in that department right now (too many of my pumps ended up in school tanks). I bought a bunch of DIY reactors from a local vendor but just haven't had time to hook one up yet. I am hoping to do so tonight, though, once I have the octopus acclimated and in the system. This will allow for a lot of the water to be filtered out in case of inking rather than what is happening right now. I will also try and snap some pictures of the set up tonight as well.

 

[davelin315]

Darn... no octopuses in today. They said possibly tomorrow but that's almost certainly a no go for me as I'm at a soccer clinic until almost the time they close. Will have to wait until next week...

 

[CaptFish]

Ohhhhhhhh Man, Iwas waiting to hear about the new guy...oh well patience is a virtue.

 

[davelin315]

Here are some pictures of the tank setup and one of the periwinkles. The fluidized media reactors are on top of the tank. I put two of them together from the kits and I am probably going to hook them up this weekend, one with GFO and the other with carbon.

This is the tank set up as a whole. The sump has only 2 baffles so is not really a great one for reducing bubbles, but the floss in there does the trick. The chiller is on the floor next to the tank and is running it at 55 degrees. The acrylic is thick enough to not feel overly cold to to the touch, but my arm certainly does not like how cold the water is!

Here's a closer view of the tank itself. It's 3 sides viewable but I oriented it to the wall. I may drain it and move it sideways before adding another octopus. You can also see the overflow, I plumbed 2 bulkheads together with the slotted pipe.

Here's a periwinkle for any algae that might possibly grow and for a live snack for the octopus. I had to feed the periwinkles and abalone some nori, some of which you can see in the above picture stuck to the overflow pipe and also in the tank on a clip.

 

[DWhatley]

I love acrylic tanks because they are so easy to plumb and replumb if you decide to use them for sumps later (we actually cut off the overflow from the bottom, patched the hole, redrilled and moved the overflow 6 inches on one tank). I just wish they would not scratch so easily. My older (really old - noncellcast that have never yellowed) don't scratch anywhere as easily as the newer ones. I don't see the scratches (minds eye, they are visible) until I take photos though.

I have never kept a bimac because I used to keep pot bellied seahorses and swore that I would not keep another tank that cramped my hands while I was cleaning it. Of course, I should never say never and, with a few minor parts the chiller could be used again ...

 

[Joe-Ceph]

how well does that overflow arrangement work? is it noisy?

 

[davelin315]

Hard to tell if it's noisy, but the overflow itself doesn't seem to make any noise. It also doesn't seem to make any noise when it hits the sump as they are both underwater, but you also have to take it with a grain of salt... I've got a ton of pumps running on my reef right next to it (300 gallon display, about 650 gallons total with sumps) and that has 2 barracudas running closed loops, another barracuda running the return, and 3 eheim 1260s on my skimmer so there's a lot of water noise from this system.