confused?

[PSLee]

My lfs once got a "mimic" octo in, but it turned out to be a bobtail squid.

 

[Feelers]

Haha, man that's one bad ID!!

For $400 I'll gladly get anyone a bobtail!!

 

[M.V.]

Are bobtails hard to keep? *Offtopic*

 

[Feelers]

Jean would be able to comment on how hard they are to keep. (Her aquarium has one)

From my short experience with them they hide in sand all day, and are quite easily sent into shock which will kill them.

I would imagine that they are harder than octos but easier than squids. They are quite small and delicate, I don't imagine they make the best pets.

 

[M.V.]

Are they active at all? Or in the sand all day?

 

[M.V.]

I was looking around on Rc and found this, Octo egg laying - Reef Central Online Community interesting!

 

[Feelers]

I think they are active at night. In the day time they bury themselves in the sand with only their eyes exposed.

Here is Jeans one - (this is the same species that I had a brief encounter with)

 

[Jean]

Feelers is right as a pet bobtails are booooooring........unless you're an insomniac! They just sit around all day buried in the sand....what fun to get aquarium visitors to spot them! . That photo was taken just after it was placed in the tank so it was still pretty visible..can't see it at all now, unless you know where to look and even then it's hard to spot!
J

 

[Nancy]

We've been a bit off topic here - O.O., now that you have the octo, take as good care of it as possible. I know you plan to do this. You'll have to learn as much as you can about it. This decision must have been stressful for you and the LFS owner, hope not for the octo.

You might want to search on "mimic octopus" and look at Big Red's posts. His mimic turned out to be a wonderpus. He did keep it for at least a month.

Nancy

 

[Colin]

LE me just back up Nancy here and say that now you have the octopus you should carefully note down as many observations as you can about the animal... what it ate, how often, where did it hide, did it bury in sand, did it try to climb out etc etc all these things will be very useful

cheers
colin

 

[Nancy]

I think you did the right thing. The alternatives to you taking the octo were all worse, the the owner came through and gave your the octopus. It's some effort for you to accomodate this new ceph - I hope it all works out.

Also, I don't think the Ceph Care forums of TONMO.com are a place where people would be encouraged to request flashy octos that they shouldn't have, so you're safe in posting about it. Are you sure about the identification?

There is a sort of person who wants to impress people through keeping unusual or dangerous animals - I've encountered them on other forums, but even there they're not very common. Then there are the people who saw the TV show and are very curious - when I gave the talk in Baltimore, I had a question from the audience about mimics. It turned out there was one for sale in the Baltimore area (at a high price). I warned everyone against purchasing this octopus and explained why.

Nancy

 

[voodoo]

What I would love

I for one would love to see as many pictures and maybe even videos of this mysterious animal as you could collect. As long as the more experienced members of the board don't think the footage would promote more people to try and keep mimics, this could be a great chance to share scarce information.

 

[cthulhu77]

Well, it is a double edged sword, isn't it?
If you buy one of these captive octos (already dead to the wild population), you might learn more about it.
But, when you do buy it, you are encouraging the dealer/wholesaler/collector to get more...to sell to other people.

 

[main_board]

Well, it is a double edged sword, isn't it?

Thats the life story of home aquaria and a lot science!

Interesting thread, lots of good points brought up on both sides. I tend to agree with Neogonodactylus, but also see the others points. Man, glad I'm not in that position! By all means, please do keep us posted!

Cheers!

 

[OCTO OAKLEY]

Well yes all of these posts make alot of sence and i agree with them! but just to clear this up to everyone, sure they might look cool and sound cool but if you only knew what they go through to arrive at the lps then you would to agree with me that mimics are not the way to go the only reason i got mine was for study and a rescue perpose there is no show about him infact there is only one person that has even saw him other than me, its up in my room and the door is locked i dont want anyone messing with him and or possible encoragement to getting one! thats why im iffy about pics and video but the only way i would put them up is if people wouldnt get into wanting one. look guys you dont need one okay an octo is an octo some with more characteristics than others but they all have eight legs trust me you would be better off with a bimic but you might also say who is this guy to be telling me this? rite but look how would you like to have cyanide poured on you and your house? hmmm cool huh... NOT! then imagine going on a 20 hour flight to the other side of the world! now umm do you think you would be able to survive that! NO! the cyanide would have killed you within minuites! but if you guys here think it would not have much affect then sure i would gladly put some stuff up although there will be many of members that will do anything to get one after i do so i dont know if its a good idea! and i will keep posted on osiris by the way thats his name ha ha feelers helped me out with that its the egyptian god of the dead!

well i hope this whole thread made everybody think, i hope it mad you think that mimics are not really that cool once you see what they go through if i could choose to take a bimac over a mimic i would take the bimac and thats what you all should do to! so please understand that the mimic should be left to nature!

thank you guys for all the help! and i will keep you posted!