Let me try again, I posted a long post and lost the connection. It is still thundering but here goes.
I can't give you a "best practice" senerio but I can tell you a little about how I have
received successful shipments.
My preferred method is when the shipper places the octopus in a plastic jar with holes all over the jar, lid and bottom (to prevent trapped air). The holes should not have sharp edges and a hot poker seems to be the best way to make them. Sizing the jar is a guestimate but something as tall as the arms of a shorter armed octo (hummelincki) or roughly 3 times mantle length seems to work well. The jar is placed in a DOUBLED bag that will hold water to a depth of at least three times the longest side of the jar and filled 2/3 with water and 1/3 with pure oxygen (there is only one kind of gaseous oxygen that I know of
). Jar size and coverage are guestimates but the idea is to ensure that it will always be submerged regardless of the orientation of the box. (saving periodically as the rains have returned with the thunder). The jar provides something solid that the octo can cling to while being tossed around during shipping. A side benefit is the ease of transfer to the aquarium. I have found that some are somewhat reluctant to leave the safety of the jar and O. briareus in particular may take several hours to explore the tank.
The more common method is using the standard, doubled bag but I have no good estimate of the amount of water vs mantle or the best width and height of the bag. Some shippers will place a black plastic liner between the two bags to ease the light exposure when the box is opened. I don't know that there is merit to this practice but it does not hurt anything.
Both methods use a hard sided insulated box as the outer shell (this can be a styrofoam box or a set of insulating boards (like house insulation), cut to tightly fit and placed inside a cardboard box. Shipping in the fall or spring is safer. Cold packs taped to the top of the container with newspaper insulation helps if the temps are warm, heat packs should be used very sparingly, both should be insulated so that they don't come in direct contact with the bag. Overnight is required, guaranteed early delivery desired. The only octopus I have lost to shipping arrived alive but died several hours later. She was an older animal and had been routed through a blizzard and extremely low temperatures.
It is a good idea to not feed for at least 24 hours when shipping ANY animal. In the case of an octopus, this seems about right as we notice ours eliminating just before feeding and they eat daily. I go a bit against the standard during acclimation and attempt to feed just before I release them to a tank. Many animals will eat from nervousness rather than any real hunger and this seems to be the case with many but not all octos. Getting them to eat before introduction removes my concerns if they don't eat for a few days while they continue to acclimate and may be more of a keeper salve than anything beneficial to the octopus.
Some of our members have shipped (vs only receiving) octos and will hopfully chime in with additional help or modifications.
