Sedona - O.mycropyrus

Joined
Oct 2, 2009
Messages
1,462
My bimac arrived today. Hes very feisty and keeps trying to escape.
I have been trying to convince him that he like it there:octorun:, but so far no dice. Its going to be a long acclimation if I cant convince him to stay put... lol

Take care if you order octopuses from this company. I will say the owner was very nice and helped me out with shipping and kept me up to date with all information. However he knows almost nothing about the care of octopuses and his transport leaves a lot to be desired. He is learning I guess but I personally prefer to work with people who know how to ship sensitive inverts so as to not need to worry if my octo got squished. I may be willing to order other things from him like LR or corals but fish and octos are out as far as I am concerned, at least for the time being.


Update****

I feel I need to explain further on the shipping method used for the octopuses I received. In the video I saw of the octos they appeared MUCH larger so I asked for the youngest one he had. First shipment had a baby octopuses no older than 2 weeks. There was a container poked with holes floating in water in the bag, however the octopus was not in the container but swimming around in the bag. I was surprised it didn't get smooshed by the cup.

The second shipment was the same except this time the box was MUCH smaller and the containers lid had popped off and the octopus was not in the water! Apparently either the bag got flipped during shipping or she just didnt like the water... either way she wasn't in the water and I have no way of knowing how long she was out of it. I guess my displeasure of these shipments is I have ordered both from Live Aquaria and Tom and BOTH were flawlessly packaged.
Now having said that, I am sure this guy is just learning and he was very nice about everything however I feel he needs to learn more about octopuses before I order from him again.

I am just glad this little lady made the trip and she was much larger than the first one I received.
 
I thought this little guy/girl escaped but found that she prefers to be on the top of the critter carrier lid. After reading further in D's journal about the water flow I was thinking this had something to do with her current location so I tilted the carrier and power head more in her direction.

I watched her for a while last night... She was quite adventurous searching her new home. I was surprised that she didnt escape into the main tank.
 
I tried to feed Sedona a frozen shrimp tonight. She took it and held it for a while. I thought she was actually going to eat it until 5 min later when I checked again and found that it was laying on the carrier floor. She has found a very nice hole in the underside of one of the rocks in her carrier to call home. Other than a few arms waving in the morning I really havent seen to much of her. I suppose she is still getting used to her new home.

Because she is much bigger than Junior I put all of the tiny mysis shrimp in the main tank and started trying to feed Sedona small shore shrimp I got from the fish store. I will be putting a call into Paul come Monday to find out if he can help me locate very small fiddlers and or clams.
 
I went to go check on her late tonight and she was out. I put a live shrimp in there thinking she might eat it. I have no idea what happened but the shrimp was dead on the floor and she was on the rock watching me as I shined the flash light over the tank.

I thought I read somewhere that bimacs are most active at morning and dusk? Am I mistaken with that? Or does it simply vary from one to the other? I am looking into getting red lighting for night viewing and hope to have something cheap assembled in the next few days.
 
Have you tried frozen hermits yet?

All three of mine refused store bought table shrimp until about 4 months old (just guessing on Monty). We tried over and over but I think the meat may be too tough for them until they are older. They all seem to handle it fine now.
 
I tried a hermit yesterday but I crushed it and wasnt able to get the whole thing out lol. Huh thank you for that little tidbit about not eating table shrimp. I guess I need to get better at freezing and taking out those hermits from the shell. Practice makes perfect. I will try again tonight.
 
I picked up some clams and scallops on a half shell just to give it a try. HP would never take food from me so I really hope to have a better relationship with Sedona then HP. She was active late last night. She sleeps all day and is up late. I still havent gotten a good look at her though she is so small and my camera is so crappy who knows what I would be able to see.
 
I find that bimacs (at least older ones) really like pieces of thawed frozen scallop meat, and I think they prefer it to shrimp by far. On Fridays and Saturdays, Costco sells thawed, previously frozen scallops from a display case by weight. You can buy as little as you want, and I find that my full grown bimac eats about 80 worthcents of scallop per week, so don't be afraid of the cost, or of needing to buy too much at once.
 
I am starting to wonder if my bimac isnt in fact a O. digueti. I obviously might be wrong. but the arm to mantle ratio just seems to be a little off. Not to mention that the mantel doesnt look as elongated as the bimacs I have seen. It looks more nubby and round. There is also the fact that she has only come out at night that leads me to this conclusion. I still dont have pictures as the only way to get pictures is to force her out.

So I need some advice. Do bimacs which are just settling act nocturnal? Also how fast do bimacs grow.
 
No matter what kind of octopus you have, it will certainly take time to settle in and get acquainted. Almost all of my bimacs required between a week and two weeks to really get the hang of my schedule. Once they do, bimacs will remain highly diurnal.

If your octopus isn't taking food readily, give it a day or two-or four. If your octopus still isn't eating after a week, get an appropriately sized fiddler crab or a crayfish. Once you get a good feeding response, you can experiment with various food items. My bimacs were fond of any shellfish, but refused any and all bony fish. After about a month, most of mine readily took grocery store shrimp from my hand.

Also, don't jump the gun too much on trying to pin down an ID until the octopus does settle down and begin to act "normal." Right off the bat, I'd say if your octopus is trying to escape then it might not be a bimac. I've kept dozens of bimacs in completely lidless tanks and never had an escape.

All octo's growth depends on two things: water temperature and food.

Good Luck!
 
The hatchlings are harder to tell species and we don't have a lot of hatchling experiences. With the two O. briareus, their mantle to arm ratio did not match adult proportions until about 2 months. I have noted that my two species of hatchlings would stay hidden most of the time until about 5 months (Cassy and Tatanka are now waiting for their food at 4 months but still don't come out in the light). Both of the hatchling species I have kept were nocturnal or crepuscular though so I don't have any background in hatchling diurnals. Getting a color photo (I know how hard that is) will help to see the patterning and mantle colors. I don't think O. digueti shows the yellow dots that typify the bimacs. A couple of people have kept O. digueti and might be able to give an opinion.
 
I think I may remember seeing yellow dots one night when I checked on her. Its possible that she just really hates the carrier. I put a few rocks in there for her but maybe its just not enough. I think I will put a few more rocks in there to help her feel more secure.

Last night I fought the urge to keep checking on her. Every other night I would stay up a little later and look in on her. Once I saw her/she saw me she would dart to go hide and I wouldn't see her again for the night. I am hoping she will start to feel more secure soon.

I ordered some fiddlers from Paul. They should be here either tomorrow or Friday. I hope she starts eating soon.
 
It is most likely that it is very shy and will continue to be until it reaches a certain age. The "certain age" is not really known. With O. briareus I have guestimated that a 5 month old animal is more or less the optimum age where they will start to be seen. Now that I have a pair of hatchlings, I will get a better feel for this guess in another month or so :biggrin2: but that will only apply to O.briareus.

I wish we had better journals on Zyan Silver's hatchlings for you review but Carol did put a call out for keepers to report the status of these hatchlings and Brock's comments might be helpful. These hatchlings were born in early August.
 

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