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.

 

[DWhatley]

I have to ask since the "new" tank is now "in the house", what does your wife think about having an octo tank inside?

 

[davelin315]

She's OK with it so far! It's in the basement and that's where she said things need to stay.

 

[L8 2 RISE]

So I logged on all excited about this and there's not a single update. FYI, it's THURSDAY! Where's the octopus!!?? Don't forget! BTW: I need more food/an excuse to see the octo . How are the pipes working?

 

[davelin315]

I called today and they hadn't received any yet. They said maybe tonight or tomorrow morning. Keeping my fingers crossed. I don't know how well the pipes are working, but I have been putting food in there to try and get them to go in. Don't know if this is any indication, but I haven't seen one in that particular tray in a couple of days, so maybe they are hiding in there.

 

[davelin315]

OK, they got them in tonight and I had a chance to speak to the main guy in the seafood department. He recognized me as the guy who called a couple of times per week to see if the octopus were coming in and we spoke of them a bit. He told me that they came from an island between South Korea and Japan so this means that they are coming from the strait between the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea. He said they ship them in liquid oxygen/with liquid oxygen so that they can survive and that they need cold water - once they warm up they don't do well. The shipment didn't look so hot - many of the octopuses had marks all over their bodies - but we picked out the two best looking ones and, stupid me, I bought both. I am not sure how well these will do, but they looked OK, although I could not tell if they had corkscrewed arms or not - they certainly did not look the same as the ones I had when they went into temperature shock, but they looked somewhere between. Anyway, I purchased a male and a female as evidenced by the 3rd arm of the male. They are both on the smaller side of the ones I have seen come in so I decided to give it a try. I have the healthier looking one - the female - in the tank itself while the male is in a critter cage in the tank. I turned the temperature down to 52 as that's what the store fluctuates up to according to him. We'll see how they end up doing. I have no opinion on the chances that these two have - they don't look as good as the ones I got last time around and neither inked in the bag. They also said these were a bit delayed and got in late. The female got into the water and once it hit bottom beelined for the rock and hid inside and the male hid inside the PVC pipe I had in the critter cage for cover immediately as well. I tossed a snail into the critter cage to see if will eat and I'll go from there. I actually think it'll be pretty easy for it to escape if it wants to, but neither can get out of the tank. I'll try and take some pictures of these two to document it this time around. I'm thinking that I might be able to get the guy there to call me when they come in so I can rush down there and pick them out of the shipment instead of getting them after they have already gone into their system as I spoke to him about how I've been trying to keep them alive at home and he said how hard it is to do so.

 

[davelin315]

OK, I sat watching them for awhile (with almost no movement) and also tried to take some pictures of the male, but it was not cooperating and the fact that I was taking pictures of a tank in a tank didn't help. Anyway, I did get a chance to look closely at the arms and they don't appear to be corkscrewing like the dying ones. Although they were curled at the tips, they were more coiled than anything and the male moved them around in response to light being shone on them and they didn't automatically coil back up. I was hoping that I might get a chance to see the female come out of hiding, but it was still in the rocks when I came up and if they are in fact nocturnal, one light from my reef was still spilling over and probably keeping it holed up. I'll try and get down there again tonight before I fall asleep (fell asleep sitting in a rocker in front of the tank tonight for a bit) and see if darkness brings out any activity in them.

 

[davelin315]

The male is out and about and, fingers crossed, looks to be in excellent health this morning. There is no curling of any arm tips, coloration was a night time pale white but quickly changed to darker coloration upon me shining a light indirectly into the tank, eyes are even and mantle is held strongly upright, pupils are responsive to light changes, and it's stuck to the side of the critter cage with a couple of arm tips extending out in search of whatever. The female is still holed up where she was last night, but I don't know if she has moved out of there or not. It's possible that she came out last night and wandered around, but it's also possible that she has not moved at all. I can barely get a view of her other than seeing part of her mantle. Her eyes appear to be sunken in a bit, but I can't say for certain. I know that they can do this if they are sleeping, so I can't say for certain that this is a sign of poor health or not as I don't have enough experience to say that they shouldn't be doing this. My thought is that if they can, then why not?

One thing of note, despite the fact that I believe GPO is ruled out as a species, they are often caught off the coast of Japan and Korea and the resemblance is uncanny!

 

[Joe-Ceph]

Thank you very much for taking the time to keep us all informed and let us be part of this interesting project you're doing.

FWIW:
I found a study of water temperature which includes the area between South Korea and Japan. The temp map is given on page 7 of the PDF and you can zoom in on it to see all the detail.
http://www.whoi.edu/science/PO/people/abower/papers/DSRII1684.pdf
I think the temps were taken at 60 meters depth (180 feet), so they are probably colder than surface temps, but still useful. The big island between Korea and japan is Tsushima Island, and the temps around that island (at 60 m) range from 55 to 62 (F) through the year.

I also found that a common food octopus fished in that area is Octopus Minor. The three sub species are:
* Octopus minor minor
* Octopus minor pardalis
* Octopus minor typicus

The bad news is that I couldn't google any information about this octopus, but maybe someone with access to an academic publication service can find more, and help determine if your octos are O. Minor.

 

[davelin315]

I think that O. minor is the same (I found some research that calls a lot of them the Korean common octopus) possibly as variabilis or the whip arm. I found some of the literature that is out there (of course in another language, typically based on research of Sasaki) that seemed to interchange the terms a bit. Thanks for the info on the water temp, I am thinking I'll raise the temp up to around 58 or 60 over the course of the next few weeks if they do OK. I had the ones outside hovering at around 57 degrees which seemed ideal for them as far as activity and overall health.

 

[Joe-Ceph]

In my search for info about O. Minor (Variabilis) I found a study done by a Japanese fishing interest, trying to determine the best way to catch them. It found that they eat more at night, and respond more to live "bait" than dead "bait". It also said that they ate four crabs per day (seems like a lot).

Good luck with these new ones.

 

[davelin315]

Both were very active after the lights went out, but neither ate. Again, I'm kicking myself for getting 2... have to figure out something better than a critter cage to separate them. They see each other and immediately perk up, although they are active without seeing each other as well.

 

[davelin315]

Still very active, but still not eating. I have been offering "red claw" crabs from Petsmart and shrimp but again, still not eating. They are both still very responsive and very active at night. I leave food in there overnight, but again, still nothing. They also have not eaten any of the snails or mussels that are in the tank. Anyone have any advice for enticing them to eat? Is there a magic formula that encourages them to eat? I've seen people refer to feeding cyclopeez or mysis, but those are pretty darned small for such large octopuses.

 

[Nancy]

Some people luck out by trying different foods. Have you tried thawed frozen shrimp? A scallop? A mussel from the fish market, just cracked? A small piece of fish?

It would help if we could identify the species, then we'd know what food it eats in the ocean.

Nancy

 

[davelin315]

I have tried the frozen shrimp, have not tried the scallop, I have live mussels in there with them but haven't broken one open to see, and have not tried fish. I'll see if there's any fresh scallop in the store tomorrow and also try a small piece of fish (will try and find some silversides, I've got some really old freezer burned ones but those not only look awful but probably are awful).

 

[OB]

This must be pretty frustrating at times, Dave, but I am very interested in how you'll eventually succeed.