[Octopus]: Baby Bimac - ("Raccoon")

Great updates!!! Raccoon sounds amazing, and like she’s really settled in nicely. So cool that your son got some contact time- my daughters loved being raised with octopuses.

I’ve only been bitten by an octopus once, it wasn’t bad at all, but I did put antibiotic ointment on it just to keep from getting infected.

Keep up the posts!!!
I’ve been bitten twice by Elephant, He injected venom on one of the two bites and it swelled up massively. It helps to place in hot water if you do get bitten with venom
 
I’ve been bitten twice by Elephant, He injected venom on one of the two bites and it swelled up massively. It helps to place in hot water if you do get bitten with venom
She does seem to be settling in nicely! Today is 18 since I got her I believe!
 
I am proud to announce the arrival of baby Bimac!!(needs a name! Suggestions?!)

Baby Bimac has been with me about 5 days now. I am happy to report he is eating and exploring!

I am less pleased to inform that his first real interaction with me was when he flipped out onto the carpet from the acclimation bucket I’d had him in and I raced over and grabbed him and tossed him back in and sat there in shock! Makes me sad his first interaction with me was a life/death frightening event!

The tank has been at:
Temp: 69.1; 71.2; 70.9; 70.4
salinity: 1.026; 1,026; 1.026
Nitrates: 0; 0; 0-2; 0-2

The baby has been watching me. When I tong feed or hand feed he/she pulls me and/or the tongs with great intensity while blowing streams of water at me, but not letting go… lol. Now he just waits pretending not to see the food until I’ve dropped it.
Food has been, lots of fiddler crabs, live clams, on the half-shell frozen clams, seems like a few snails as well.
He/She has excellent coloring of the skin/pigmentation and is very good at hiding/blending in!

Interesting side note- the octopus has been hiding from me, blowing jets at me, trying to move or bite my hand something idk but I’m not getting a friendly vibe -it’s more a fearful ‘get the f away from me!’ vibe. And despite all that, he/she are choosing to slumber (and I witnessed rem sleep!! Oo it was interesting!) slumber in the most open and visible caves where she can watch me, but at the expense of perceived safety-
So I have added this turf grass to the tank top to help make sure it is secure, Raccoon now comes to the top of the tank when she reallyyy wants me to come interact with her because she knows I always would shoo her down because I don’t like her being at the top because the only conceivable way she could get out is the top. So that has kind of backfired as now she thinks this is how to ask to play or for more food. So out of an abundance of caution I’ve lined the top with turf grass that she can’t suction onto and it’s prickly so who does like touching it-even animals of the human variety don’t like its feel! Attached pics.
 

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So that has kind of backfired as now she thinks this is how to ask to play or for more food. So out of an abundance of caution I’ve lined the top with turf grass that she can’t suction onto and it’s prickly so who does like touching it-even animals of the human variety don’t like its feel! Attached pics.
Oh no....! How is this coming along / is the turf working? Good that she is active!
:octorun:
 
Oh no....! How is this coming along / is the turf working? Good that she is active!
:octorun:
I haven't logged on in awhile. I have devastating news. I left the top off while cleaning her tank, carrying buckets of dirty water across the house to the toilet and Raccoon got out without me noticing. I found her body on the carpet next to the sealed clean water jugs :sob:💔 her body was stiff but not dried out, no pupil dilation nor constriction. I rushed her back into her tank and performed the "octopus resuscitation" I learned from i think the seattle aquarium? i dont remember forsake, just that it was a cephalopod expert who was explaining that sometimes octo can be brought back if they've stopped breathing if you massage the mantle forcing water in and out of the mantle. it didn't work. she was already gone. ive sobbed every day for weeks guys. i have this brilliantly designed aquarium that was perfect IF used properly!!!! my main mistakes were thinking that the tank top being off while cleaning would be fine because she usually goes to hide when im doing water changes and such. it only takes about 30 seconds for them to slip out behind you when you're not looking. and that I provided her attention every time she went to the top the tank I would immediately shoo her down because i didn't want her being interested in exploring the top- but I accidentally conditioned her to come to the top of the tank anytime she wanted me because she knew that elicited a response. I am so filed with regret and sorrow. The turf was excellent on the top like i showed pictures of above, just like they use these for octopodes in captivity -the turf grass is a terrible sensation for them, they dont like to touch it. there was no way for sweet Raccoon to get out besides my own human error. I can at least hope that writing this up for all of you to read (as humiliating and heartbreaking it is for me to write) I can at least hope by having this story out there that it may save one single octopus' life out there someday by learning from my mistake💔 I miss her every single day.
 
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Hey all, I've been meaning to ask if anyone knows about this white patch that looks like a heart cut in half, or like butterfly wings-that pattern that you see Raccoon had right beneath her eyes? She had it her whole life, it would come and go as she would shift her chromatophores but she would have it visible- always in that same exact location on her body- frequently.. the skin wasn't damaged there, it was the same texture as the rest of her and she could make it go away when she'd change colors.. and not just that it wouldn't be as visible because the rest of her body was a whitish color, but because she could still fill that area in with color.. The closest thing i can compare it to in a human would be a birthmark.. Has anyone seen or heard of this before???
 
tempImagePn5mgI.jpg

Hey all, I've been meaning to ask if anyone knows about this white patch that looks like a heart cut in half, or like butterfly wings-that pattern that you see Raccoon had right beneath her eyes? She had it her whole life, it would come and go as she would shift her chromatophores but she would have it visible- always in that same exact location on her body- frequently.. the skin wasn't damaged there, it was the same texture as the rest of her and she could make it go away when she'd change colors.. and not just that it wouldn't be as visible because the rest of her body was a whitish color, but because she could still fill that area in with color.. The closest thing i can compare it to in a human would be a birthmark.. Has anyone seen or heard of this before???
Yes! That’s quite common- depending on the species, those types of marks can help with IFs.
 
I'm not sure, but I was able to download this paper freely from PLoS ONE, as authored by @mucktopus, which talks about unique markings on certain species. Just markings, I guess!
 

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