Squirt- O. Bimaculoides

[DWhatley]

If he is healing on his own and you see no swelling or white at the end then he should be fighting infection on his own.

 

[bluespotocto]

Well what i saw was correct. On top of losing the tip he some how also lost another whole arm. So he has about 6.5 arms right now. D, will you tell me if the arm looks ok?

 

[DWhatley]

Unfortunately, I don't qualify to decide condition. All I can say is to watch to see that there is new growth (it will look like a hair of white flesh when it starts and the temptation is to remove it as left over dead parts) and swelling at the wound for infection. If she is eating well, that is a good sign and extra water changes never hurt to keep oxygen levels higher and water cleaner.

I would try to figure out how she lost the arm though. The one item most of us have that may cause this would be a Koralia. Octos seem attracted to them (and I have a video of one of mine, SueNami I think, using it to help him shed) but they may be a problem for small octopuses. I have not kept one in with a dwarf and Puddles (who is dwaf sized with long arms) had an unexplained nick. Additionally another keeper reported seeing an arm inside the cage and receiving a nick (I have seen Kooah's arm tip inside one that did not have the front cover but there was no resulting injury).

After a trauma, there is the possibility of self infliction (this happened with Octane) but I would have expected it to be the damaged arm and not a healthy one. From what I can see in the photo, the arm looks cleanly severed and I seem to recall that Octane's stumps were ragged. Octane proceeded to chew off additional arms and Squirt has not done this so I would find some comfort there.

Another throught is an undiscovered hitch hiker but because it happened right after a tramatic experience, I would not put this high on my list of possibilities.

 

[bluespotocto]

My theory how he lost the arm is he got really stressed after losing that tip then he chewed the other one off. He lost the tip from the magnet then went to his den. I gave him a crab. He sat in his den for an hour or two. He then came out and was missing that other whole arm. That why i am starting to think he chewed it off.

 

[DWhatley]

Which arm was damaged and which was chewed off (starting from the front as 1, going to the back as 4 so that you would count semetrical pairs)? I am curious about their ability to distinguish the point of damage and wonder if the severed arm is the same one but on the opposite side.

 

[bluespotocto]

The one that i think he chewed of is his left 2 tentacle. The one that i think got nipped by the mag float is his right 2 tentacle. He is eating well and has good color. So i think he will be ok.

 

[bluespotocto]

Squirt is back to his old self. He had about a week of being very mad at me and would barely come out. After that week was over he was back. Now he comes out every morning and plays then i give him a crab. then he comes out every night and plays and i give him one more crab. He has gotten so tame that i can hold him in my hands out of the water. I dont have a photo of that, but i did just do it this morning while playing. Squirts legs are looking much better. I dont see any new growth on them but they dont look bad. here are a few pics of us playing.

 

[corw314]

Oh how I miss having a bimac! He looks good!

 

[DWhatley]

I have often said that I think there is something unusual about their memory as the withdrawl behavior is so common and it is as if they forget for a week and then suddenly remember. It could be something entirely different, of course. Even something to do with maturation or physical cycles might explain this common observation.

 

[bluespotocto]

Well this is way over due. Squirt is still going strong has gotten HUGE! He still loves to play every night and in the video you will see how comfortable he is with be in contact with me. You also see why he is called squirt. His arms that got cut off and he chewed off is growing back very nicely. Well heres the video.

[video]http://s890.photobucket.com/albums/ac107/octotrainer45/?action=view&current=medium.mp4[/video]

sorry first time using photo bucket not sure how to put the video in thing.

 

[rryyddeerr]

man. it would be worth it to come out to CA and go on a dive vacay just to land one of these guys. squirt is awesome.

 

[bluespotocto]

Ya i really like him. I have been diving but have had not luck finding one down there.

 

[DWhatley]

BSO, you put the video in correctly but for some unknown reason, it is not showing up as it should. It may have to do with it being an MP4 or that PhotoBucket is now creating a link style the Vbulletin does not recognize. I played with it a bit and could not get the desired results either.

 

[rryyddeerr]

D, it works for me just fine.

 

[DWhatley]

The link works but it does not provide the embed that most video links can show. Our bulletin board does not accept the standardly provided embed code but creates one from the standard http link in most cases. Embedding is displayed when you see a picture and can click on the arrow to view without having to go to the site. I know photobucket furnished embed code so our bulletin board should be able to create it and I thought I looked at all the options but will I am not sure what address they give for embedding vs linking. I will go back and look again but it maybe that we can't embed from photobucket and I just don't remember