eating his arms

[jimmy 22]

hi does anyone know why my octo ate 2 of his arms off? he is eatind crabs.

 

[Jean]

Jimmy,

Did he just nibble off the tips or has he taken off the whole thing?

J

 

[jimmy 22]

no not the whole arms about half of the two fronts.

 

[shipposhack]

Many times octopuses in senescence will become autophagous. That means that they will eat their arms. It is usually a sign that your octopus is very close to the end of it's life. Sometimes octopuses will develop this disease before senescence, and in that case it is a serious problem. However, I doubt that your octopus has the disease; he is most likely near the end of his life.

 

[Jean]

It doesn't sound like the disease, if he had that he would have bitten the arms off at the base, right where they join the body. This sounds like old age....unless you have something else in the tank which may be harassing your octopus?

J

 

[jimmy 22]

o nothing else in the tank. and he is a very little brierius. about the size of a dime curled up and he stoped eating.

 

[Animal Mother]

What kind of crabs were you feeding him? Can you be sure that the crabs didn't remove its arms?

A dime sized briareus surely wouldn't be senescent. Are you absolutely 100% positive it's a briareus?

 

[jimmy 22]

tes for sure hes a brierius and the fiddlers have no big claws. he ate all the time up untill yeserday when i noticed his missing arms

 

[Animal Mother]

How long have you had it?

Really sorry about this. Hope it recovers.

 

[Nancy]

This could be the result of stress.
What are your water parameters?

Nancy

 

[jimmy 22]

i have hade him about 2 months he was eating fine untill today. he does not look sick. but he is ingnoring the crabs.

 

[jimmy 22]

oh yes the water is perfect nitrate is 10 ph is about 8-8.2

 

[Animal Mother]

Hmmm...

In 2 months my "Dime sized" briareus had grown like crazy.

From this:

To this:

If it is a briareus I'd say its growth is severely stunted and that would probably be a good indication of having something else seriously wrong with it.