Been a member for years but got my 1st octopus today

Joined
Sep 23, 2012
Messages
14
Location
Dardenne Prairie , MO
Well I decided today after a few years of having a fish and coral aquarium to take the chance and get an octopus. It's a fairly little guy (about the size of a quarter all shriveled up) but wow is it energetic. It has adapted well to its new home, even feasting on a hermit crab only an hour after introducing it to my aquarium. You guys are right about red lights! Once i tried my new red led light, the octo didn't hesitate and came right out of its hiding place and pounced on one of the hermit crabs, dragging it back into its hiding spot among a pile of ricks i stacked up for it. Another neat thing it did was when I put my hand in the tank to flip a hermit crab back up right, the octo darted out of the rocks and up towards the top to my hand and rested at the top of the tank. I took that time to make a video of it. Hopefully I can figure out how to download it on here. The guy i bought the octo from told me it's a brown pacific octopus but it's so small, it's hard for me to tell exactly, especially since this is my 1st one. All advice and opinions appreciated. Thanks
 
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:cuttlehi:@Mike House ! Unfortunately, Pacific Brown is not an accepted common name for any specific species of octopus. We have seen a number of nocturnal Pacific dwarfs show up this year and believe them to be Octopus Bocki. Meet Victor and Poni, Zeke, Unnamed 1 and unnamed 2. You can review these links for photo comparisons as I believe your new buddy is likely the same.

Hopefully, you will continue to journal your experience with TONMO and will let me move this thread to the journals forum. It is helpful to have its name (if and when you name it) and supplier as I log that information (when known) in the list of our octopuses thread.
 
Ok thank you for the tip on identification. It's so little that it's hard for me to tell. As for where I got it from, it was a local pet shop here in st. Louis mo. If you need the name, i can send it privately. The owner of the store told me that he believes it is indo pacific but calls it brown. Right now it freaked me out this morning cause I woke up and could not find it anywhere in the aquarium. I tore the rocks apart, removed parts of filtration department until I seen it's tentacles waving out of a small hole in a piece of live rock. It won't come out. I stuck my fingers near the hole and it grabbed onto them but when i tugged on it to try and pull it out, it retreated its tentacles back inside the hole. Is it possible that it could be stuck in there or is this just normal? My daughter shows up here at the house today will have a name for it by the end of the day.
 
Thinking that this signifies the octo is a male? Took this photo with my magnifier feature on my phone.
 

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No, what you are seeing is regrowth of an arm that got in the way of a predator. All known octopus species can regrow their arms if they lose part of them. Some have the ability to self amputate an arm (like some lizards with their tails) but I don't believe that is true of this species.

Don't try to pull them out of the LR. They do NOT get stuck but do hold on for dear life if something tries to pull them out and can be injured in the process. Hiding inside rocks is natural. It will find a crevice or hole it likes and use it as a den. It may change dens from time to time. You will eventually get your octopus eyes and be able to find it most of the time but don't be tempted into panic and disassemble the live rock. There are times when they do die or escape but the majority of the disappearances occur because they are intentionally hiding.
 
That's good to know. Rupert has been hiding in the particular hole in a rock since early sunday morning now and has only come out once since then, being out for only about 15 seconds and then popping back into the same hole. I'm guessing he could have injured his arm when He feasted on the hermit crab the 1st day we brought him home? Anyways I checked on him this morning. He's still in there and moving around. Hopefully He comes out eventually so that my daughter can see him.
 
The arm injury did not happen in your care and probably not in captivity. Very few, if any octopuses come to us without recovering arm damage. If you watch them hunt, you can see how this happens as they go along poking their arms in holes looking for food but finding a predator.

You will need to observe Rupert in the open for a bit to try to determine sex. Here is a thread with pictures that may help you know how to look for the curled up third arm.
 
Ok thanks.... He's still hiding in his little hole in a rock and has been now for days. I use my magnify feature on my phone to investigate inside the hole to make sure he is still alive and he is. I had a bit of a spike in nitrates after he ate the 1st hermit crab and have since used some prime to get things back under control. It would be nice to see him outside of the hole for more than 10 seconds but a friend at the fish store today told me it could be weeks before he comes out of there and stays out, argh! Oh well I guess there's nothing i can really do about that. Also I added a few blue legged hermits today along with one Emerald crab. Hopefully they will get a good chance at some time to clean my tank up before He goes after them which judging by his seclusion I see that being quite possible
 

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