What did our O. bimaculoides just release?

[STSS]

Hi all,
We're new to the Tonmo community, and we have absolutely no idea what our senescing O. bimaculoides just released into the tank. We had noticed an orange-red blob trailing from a strand of something attached to him earlier, but we finally captured one that we saw floating around the tank. There is a darker blob and then tubes that seem to get lighter as they get narrower. The blob is about 2x4mm, and the tubes seem to be only about 1mm in diameter.
Here are some pictures taken under a microscope. Please excuse the quality (iPhone photos).

https://imgur.com/a/gtDbl

 

[QueenB]

Wink would release the same kind of stringy thing in her tank. My thoughts would be Octopus poo.

 

[STSS]

We weren't sure, because we hadn't ever seen this sort of red/orange blob come out until he started senescing. We have seen the white strand a few times after he ate, but he has not really eaten at all in the past week (maybe 1-2 fiddler crabs at the most).

 

[DWhatley]

Yep, I would say that is digested food. We feed Cyclop-eeze to our tanks so the elimination is often red/orange. I believe the octopuses eat it directly but it could also come from eating the amphipods that consume it.

I have noted three kinds of normal elimination. One is a cloud of milky white fluid (possibly something more like urine), the second is a stringy hair thin almost clear string and the third, a thicker string or elongated clump like your picture. I have seen all three in combination but have no clear clue what foods produce which type or if one or another is indicative of health or value of food.

One thing we have noted with several octos that have come out to eat but decline to immediately go after the offered food is the apparent need to eliminate before eating again.