• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Found a 2-spot Octo in tidepools today; question

socal_saltwater;88534 said:
i was uncovering rocks in a dirty part of Redondo Beach, CA tidepools when i was surprised to find a CA 2-spot octopus. Body was about the size of a lemon, tentacles maybe 5-6 inches long (though i suck at estimating).

the color blew me away. i have a common brown octo which changes colors but always brown/yellowish/dark brown. This 2-spot octo today was speckled with blue and green and had a nice pink shade on the underside.

a few things to note: i read on here how water parameters have to be impeccable to keep octos, but i'm assuming for tropical ones? because this one today was in REALLY dirty water! 10 feet away was some sort of white film over it, and there was everything from bras to coke cans in this water.

my main question is, if one was to take one of these home to save the $30 at a LFS (and for a nicer color), how strong of a chiller would you need? CA waters are usually low 60s, however octos are in shallow water which is a bit warmer, no?

unfortunately my 1/15 HP nano chiller only goes down to 73, otherwise i could have a free supply of GORGEOUS octos. i can't get over how colorful it was - much more than the brown ones LFS's sell!



Joe13830- That might be a blue ringed octopus ! Ohhh nooo ! Stay away from those if you get bit the local pet store told me you only have about 10 minutes to live ! :-(
 
Joe13830;88936 said:
Joe13830- That might be a blue ringed octopus ! Ohhh nooo ! Stay away from those if you get bit the local pet store told me you only have about 10 minutes to live ! :-(

:welcome: Good thing he is in California then... Blue ringed octopus live near Australia and Japan. I think he is safe, although a bite from any octopus can be painful.

Check out this link for more information.

http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=403
 
You will definitely need a permit to collect crabs though! Either a collecting permit or a sports fishing license and if Fish and Game catches you - the fact that you didn't know you needed a permit won't get you far...

Also, you need to be mindful that you are not in a marine reserve, you cannot collect in a marine reserve, no matter what kind of permit you have... I think you are ok in Redondo Beach. Cabrillo Beach is a marine reserve, as is most of Palos Verdes peninsula.

See this link for locations of marine reserves in California.

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/mlpa/maps.html
 
Joe13830;88936 said:
Joe13830- That might be a blue ringed octopus ! Ohhh nooo ! Stay away from those if you get bit the local pet store told me you only have about 10 minutes to live ! :-(

If it's a blue ring, it's pretty far out of its element... they're only found around Australia, Indonesia, and the West Pacific, not over here in California. (Although Norman lists an undescribed species around Southern Japan)
 
um...NOT a blue-ring, i'm still alive 3 days after playing with 2 different octos in the tidepools.

you need a permit to collect crabs??? as kids we took them in california all the time, no one cares.

i dont feel bad because the waters here are SOOOO dirty - mostly from mexico dumping its crap (literally) into our ocean, thus polluting the coastline. i bet my new octo will be much happier and more active than in the water i found him in, which included a white film, coke bottles and other garbage! marine preserve? preserved with garbage !

what a shame. not to get political, but i wish our "leaders" would spend more $$$ on our own country like our beautiful coastlines instead of spending it on other countries (i.e. iraq).
 
another interesting thing to note: i was asking a female marine biologist @ Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, CA what the best diet is for an octo.

She told me crabs, but when i complained about how expensive they are, she suggested going right out the door onto cabrillo beach and collecting shore crabs. Never made any mention that it was illegal. An octopus, i can believe, but crabs?

interesting too that octos aren't OK to take but crabs are? they're both inverts...thx for the tip though, i hope mine lives a good while so i dont have to risk arrest snagging another (and touching the sh*tty water!)
 
socal_saltwater;88950 said:
another interesting thing to note: i was asking a female marine biologist @ Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, CA what the best diet is for an octo.

She told me crabs, but when i complained about how expensive they are, she suggested going right out the door onto cabrillo beach and collecting shore crabs. Never made any mention that it was illegal. An octopus, i can believe, but crabs?

I used to work at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, many years ago... :silenced:
 
I usually don't have to deal with this red-tape because each year I apply for a scientific collecting permit. I have to specifiy the animals I want, pay $50, and notifiy Fish and Game prior to any collecting trips where I will be and what I will be collecting.

A few years ago I had a graduate student who let her permit lapse by a few days. She was feeding Tegula (snails) to her stomatopods and went collecting. She was stopped by a ranger, cited for collecting without a valid license, was hauled into court and fined a dollar for each snail. She had over 200!

This is one of the reasons I take the process very seriously.

Roy
 
Feeder crab tank

Social Saltwater,

I keep fiddler crabs for trapper which I assume are similar to your shore crabs. Unfortunately, I have to buy mine and have them shipped since I am in-land. I have a two gallon tank subdivided into 1 gallon halves (I don't know that this matters :roll: but I keep 10 on each side) with a small nano filter - carbon filter pad only but constant circulation - a piece of lava rock in each 1 gallon section and a small light over the entire tank. The rock is positioned to allow the crabs to come out of the water when they choose but I keep the water low enough so that they cannot easily escape (I have had one or two "disappear" over the course of almost 3 months - one was reclaimed from the kitchen some 20 feet away). I feed them a small amount of marine fish food and rarely have one die.

I have read that others use empty salt buckets with some rocks stacked to allow surface time.

There is an escapee in my octo tank that cannot easily find surface area and it seems to be doing just fine but the ones in my feeder tank do often use the sunning rock.
 
Neogonodactylus;88953 said:
I usually don't have to deal with this red-tape because each year I apply for a scientific collecting permit. I have to specifiy the animals I want, pay $50, and notifiy Fish and Game prior to any collecting trips where I will be and what I will be collecting.

A few years ago I had a graduate student who let her permit lapse by a few days. She was feeding Tegula (snails) to her stomatopods and went collecting. She was stopped by a ranger, cited for collecting without a valid license, was hauled into court and fined a dollar for each snail. She had over 200!

This is one of the reasons I take the process very seriously.

Roy


Roy - i sure do appreciate the head's up. now i'm dreading going back to take another octo if this one dies. $50 sounds like a bargain if you consider:

1. octos live a short-time, possibly meaning taking 2 in one year for that $50 license fee

2. alot of special order online aquarium stores have octos in the $40-$60 range anyway

i doubt they'd give me one since i'm not doing any sort of research, except for my own fun and maybe future website.

as for the crabs, yeah i'm keeping mine - which are the same as "fiddlers" - in a bucket with some seaweed, mud/sand, small amount of water + rock in it, feeding them whatever i can give them.

i'm just worried - the octo doesn't seem to be eating much, and i have my chiller down to 73. he's moving around quite a bit, breathing looks to be fine, i just don't see crab bodies or any proof of a good meal eaten!
 
He's probably still a little stressed. Is there live rock in the tank? He may be getting amphipods from that.

As regards octopus vs crabs, in NZ there is animal protection legislation under which octopus (& other cephs) are defined as animals (although only in the last few years!) but crabs are not!!!!! According to the Act octopus are higher invertebrates and are therefore more likely to suffer stress from inappropriate handling....crabs apparently don't! Which is why in NZ it's still legal to drop a live rock lobster into boiling water :mad: ...........cos "it doesn't hurt it":confused: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Having said all that one doesn't need a permit to collect crabs or octopus..but it does pay to check fishing regulations cos the penalties are severe! Instant forfeiture of any equipment used to collect the animals (including cars, boats, SCUBA gear.....everything, even if it doesn't belong to you!), Then you may get a summons to court where the maximum penalty is fine up to $250,000 and/or a prison term of up to 5 years which can be for EACH species you have!..........It's really not worth it!!!

J
 

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