A few more hours...OCTOPUS FINALLY

[brett]

well after almost A year of waiting he is finally in the mail. I found myself wondering what if he inks? I ws planning my protein skimmer and activated carbon will get it out but im having some doubts in my head. Will it be kind of spread through out the whol;e water supply or could i siphon it out. Or should I plan for a few hefty water changes?

 

[cthulhu77]

Whoaaaa! step A: calm down. everything will be fine...play some neil diamond or something...have a stiff drink.
step B: make sure that you darken the room during acclimation, and resist the temptation to "look in" at him/her all of the time...letting the new octo gradually feel at ease in the new home does the trick.
step C: if it does happen to ink, don't flip out, just run your filter and don't do anything massive (ie:large water changes right away)...once it has settled in, you can go in and turn on the room light, but I wouldn't turn on the tank light at all for the first day or two.
Keep us posted...
greg

 

[Nancy]

In addition to what Greg has suggested, remember that this is a tiny octopus, so it would have a tiny amount of ink! Your skimmer could handle it quite well.

And this is a note to everyone: If you have an octo, it's a good idea to always keep enough saltwater mixed up, tested and ready in case you need to do a 20% water change. If you have a problem, it's not the time to be running out to buy water, and you can't use it right after you've added the salt, anyway.

There are various ways to acclimate you new octo. I gently poured all the water and little Ollie into a large container (It was a big glass mixing bowl). I removed some of the original water, and began adding water from the tank, just a couple of tablespoons at a time. Ollie was swiming around the bowl, looking up at us. After about an hour, when there was more water from my tank than the original water, we carried the bowl over to the tank and picked Ollie up and put her in her new home. (You could combine the drip method with the bowl, if desired. )

She never inked or had any problem, but she did disappear for a couple of days, probably living off my very good supply of amphipods and resting up from her trip.

Nancy

 

[rcl]

My OCTOROK! has inked 2 times and both times my regular old hang on the tank filter has sucked the little globs up, never to be seen again. I expected more of an engulfing cloud of ink, but what came out was little mucous looking globs of black/gray stuff. At any rate, unless you had no filtration or skimmer going, I don't think you have any reason to worry.

As far as acclimating, I would highly recommend the DRIP METHOD above all others. Below is a link to an explanation of it I posted for somebody. This is the safest and smartest method to acclimate any livestock that you care about.

TONMO Cephalopod Community

I wish you the best of luck with your octopus! Post a journal and a tank update when you get it all settled

Robert

 

[Colin]

Any update for us Brett?

 

[brett]

ok!!!! no ink and he acclimated perfectly!! i coudlnt have asked more of Florence he's such a trooper. I used the drip acclimation and put him in like 55 minutes after i got him and he stuck to the glass then started to rove all over the place checkin it out. He loves to use his body to squeze thru insane spaces when he could easily go around...He is the most amazing saltwater animal i have ever seen. He was doing so great that that evening i decided to throw in a few clams next to him and see what he did with em. Well, after about two seconds of looking at them he punced and devoured them both. So in short hes doing really well. I was thinking about trying some shrimp on a stick in the next few days too. I couldnt have asked for more. THANK YOU OCTOPETS!! jim is a great guy! and thank all of you for the knowledge that got me Florence.

 

[cthulhu77]

Awesome! Glad your octo is doing so well...congrats!

 

[Nancy]

Welcome, Florence!

Brett, congratulations and please keep us posted about Florence!

Nancy

 

[Colin]

well done and stay in touch!

 

[brett]

ok, hes doing great! I often come int othe room and find him cruising all around the rocks camoflauging as he goes. He is so awesome! It seems like hes going thru all of my rock work and picking out from it what he wants to eat as he goes. I fed him a clam easily the first day i had him and now its day 3 and he doesnt seem to interested in the clams...maybe hes finding enough food in the rock work? The are a lot of pods in there and small snails too but i havent seen him eat the snails. How should i present the clams? i have been just dropping a few near him when i see him once a day. I will try table shrimp tomorrow on a stick.

 

[Nancy]

Glad to hear things are going so well. Yes, your baby bimac's probably finding plenty to eat. He grew up on pods as well as baby clams. He must think he's found a really nice place to live!

You could offer clams in a shell or small plastic container (to keep them from digging into the sand).

Nancy

 

[brett]

ok ill do exactly that once i find him...is there a trick to get him to come out?

 

[brett]

well he has eaten everyday now for the last week or so... so im pretty pleased about that. He is so cool. I still can barely ever find him tho i only see him like 10 minutes per day at the most.

 

[cthulhu77]

Cool deal!! I am sure he will come out more often as he settles in...glad to hear everything is doing well...any chance of pics?
greg

 

[brett]

im not really sure on how to put pics on here