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unusual behavior.

zooom101

Pygmy Octopus
Registered
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
7
I finally recieved my octopus 4 days ago. I have been waiting on him for about a month now. He is bigger than I thought he would be. His head is about the size of a lemon and his tentacles are about 10" long.(from head to tip) Yes, he's pretty big.

Since I've introduced him to my tank(30 gal.), he has just stayed in one spot. He sits near the surface of the water in the center of the back wall. He has plenty of rocks to hide in, but he just stays in that one spot.

The two damsels that I had cycling the tank are still in there, he hasnt even tried to catch them. I also added some live shrimp. I havent noticed him try to go after those either. The only I get him to eat is if I take a shrimp, cut the head off so it will stop jumping, and feed him the tail and body. He will accept this right out of my hand. Actually its more like me putting it into his mouth.

My question is: Why has he not started to explore the tank? Will he ever catch the food himself? And, if he doesn't try to get his own food, what should I do?

Thanks for the help,
Billy
 
some times damsels scare octopi its strange you could sell the damsels back to the pet shop at least then you havent lost the money but your octopus was probably wild caught and would have spent most of his short life in a bag in a polostyrene (styrophoam) case with eather other octos or more likley fish i know wild collectors and some times theyre way of thinking is strange they bag things and ship them with animals in the same crate (diffrent bags) that never in 1,000,000 years we would keep together my thery is that youre octo has been starteled by the fact hes been removed from the coral reefs of his home he doesnt want explore because hes in shock or hes got i know how stupid this sounds jet lag throw a couple o coakles or mussels in his tank sell the damsels check the water parimeters and turn the lights off leave him in a dark aquarium for what a period 12-24 hrs and check on him evrey hour and then its up to fate

sam
mcatee
:madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: [/u]
 
:welcome: to TONMO, zoom101!!

Your octo may be shy, or nocturnal, or still not comfortable with it's new home yet, or maybe is fully grown and is entering sensence, but I doubt that since it will eat.
Try using a feeding stick, I used a sharpened chopstick.
:smile:
 

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