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Will he live

rudy

O. bimaculoides
Registered
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
64
I just got a bimac yesterday. Dripped him, got him in my tank.

He immediately went to the bottom and laid against a piece of live rock. Breathing hard however seemed to be o.k. This morning he is still alive and breathing, however has a bit of slime around him with sand stuck to it and has not moved. I was happy he made it through the night however I am worried. Would that just be a stress thing?

Also when and what should I try feeding him if he recovers.

Salt level is 1.26 and the tank does not have RO water, however I do not really use it for any of my tanks with no issues. Has been up and running for 3 months awaiting the octopus. Nothing else in there.
 
??
RO water is a MUST
unless you can in sure (somehow) that the water you are using has no metals in it? Not even trace amounts?
what works for other tanks does not apply to Octos
My octo never got a slime thing going on.
read the ceph care quickly and i would suggest live food
fiddlers maybe
Good Luck
 
In most saltwater setups, the compelling reason not to use tapwater is algae blooms. For invert tanks, the worry is that there could be some copper in the water. I would ride it out, doing a 100% water change at this point isn't going to help anyone; especially because if there was a copper issue in the water, now there's a copper issue in your silicone and LR.

Would you care to describe the system and where the octopus came from? Might be helpful.

Good luck,

Dan
 
My system is a 30 gallon Oceanic Cube.
Filstar xp3 canister filter for water movement and it is filled with bioballs and live rock.
Skimmer is a remora with a maxijet 1200.
Tight fitting glass top and a single strip flourescent.
No heater in the tank and it sits at about 21 celcisu.

About 30 pounds of live rock in the tank with probably another 5 in the canister. Thin layer of aragonite

Tank has been surviving for 3 months with 2 snails in there and the live rock that is it. The rock came from another tank so was cycled prior to bein in the new tank.

Octopus came from a local store here Calgary/Canada and was listed as a bali octopus, however from what I can tell with limited knowledge it is a bimac.
 
Have you run standard tests since the octo's been in? Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH? For an early stab in the dark--even though the rock was fully cured and cycled when it went in--perhaps the colony of denitrifying bacteria on it has dwindled because of low bioload in the tank? Finding out the ammonia level would test that hypothesis.

The way I understand it, copper levels dangerous to cephalopods are below the detection threshold of most test kits because they're designed for dosing medicinal copper at much higher concentrations.

Dan
 
I have tested for all and found no issues. Tell me something though. If there were copper or something else in the water would it not have already killed him?

Perhaps I am over reacting. :confused: Sure hope so anyway. Waiting 3 months for him I want it to last more than a day.
 
I really don't know. I've never witnessed copper exposure. I believe it interferes with the ability of the octopus' blood to carry oxygen, so it may be consistent with little movement but heavy breathing.

What were the conditions in the pet store? Had it been kept in a small or a bare tank? Had he been there long? They might have started killing him by not knowing how to keep him. To be honest I suspect it isn't a bimac, but what it is I don't know. Do you have any pictures of the little guy?

Dan
 
Bimacs have become pretty rare. They can only be found in southern California and Baja and there are very few--if any--distributors that are collecting them.

"Bali octopus" is somewhat of a garbage-can description. People in the aquarium trade aren't taxonomists and don't know how (nor care) to identify these animals. If an octopus was collected in Indonesia, or anywhere nearby, they might just slap the name "Bali" on it and leave it at that.

Dan
 
Well, this was sort of broadcast from the get-go, no? Take your time, and let the tank develop well, and then try again. You aren't the first person to kill off a captive octopus (jeez, if you saw my laundry list, you'd shriek), but you can make the life of the next one better. Don't let it get you down, you have owned up to your responsibility, and I'm sure your future in cephs will be much, much brighter.
 
Sorry about your loss :sad: . Make sure you switch to RO water. Also it is entirely possible that your octopus was injured or ill before you purchased him/her. I have never seen copper poisoning in a ceph before but I gave my neighbor some African Dwarf frogs (which are also sensitive to copper) and she used well water to change their water. They got sluggish and died within 12 hours.
 
Sorry about your loss.

RIP :angelpus:

I second the suggestion about using RO or RO/DI water the next time, or really for any salt-water tank.

Nancy
 

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