And then there were three

DWhatley

Kraken
Staff member
Moderator (Staff)
Joined
Sep 4, 2006
Messages
21,018
Location
Cape Coral, FL
It seems that the diver who found Octane for me went looking for a replacement and found one. The following day he came across another, different looking little fella and collected it too. Then he found out that Ken had already sent me Serendipity. Long story short, I now have three octopuses (plus Wiley - I think - he has not been out in weeks - again - but the shell is in place and the crabs become empty shells).

One is definitely the same species and sex as Octane. He was immediately interactive after acclimation and comes to the front of the tank anytime someone enters the room. He is smaller than 'Tane was on arrival (maybe 2/3 Octane's size) and larger than Serendipity. All four front arms have been removed at some point in his life. Three have grown back enough that you have to look at them to see where the new growth starts but you can still see the difference and they are significantly shorter. One was a relatively recent amputation but has about half an inch of healthy suckered "string" started. I am holding my breath for the next two weeks but he appears healthy and adjusting quickly (took a fiddler from my fingers).

The second is not as easily determined. I am leaning toward a large dwarf but not mercatoris (arms too long). I have not seen joubini (also common to the area) and suspect this one may be joubini in the last stages of its life. It was active in the shipping container but had difficulty finding the exit from its jar when placed in the water. I tried a recently expired mithrax to coax it out (it would put its arms through the holes and would touch my hand but just didn't seem to understand that it could exit). It rejected the mithrax and kept blowing it away, leading me to think it may be a post egg female. Also, there was an odor from the shipping bag that reminded me of the smell I noticed when Octane died. Octane had not been dead long but the smell was quite strong so I suspect the mantle air exposure had put the skin into decline even when he was alive. Once out of the container, the new octo went into the live rock. At no time during acclimation did it show color other than white with a few traces of brown across the arms reminding me of the last stages of the mercs. It did show some texture in the form of small pointy bumps on the mantle. We will watch tonight to see if it comes out after dark.

I will start at least one journal after a name is given. We will probably hold of on naming the second one for a couple of weeks.
 

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