[Octopus]: Intro Casper - O. vulgaris

[DWhatley]

I finally took a daytime look . It took me a minute to find her. I did see your "octopus rock" (a rock that can be mistaken for an octopus) but saw green on top of the eye stalk so discounted that. She finally moved ever so slightly and I caught the sucker movement on the glass in the back right corner and then finally recognized an eye.

 

[sirreal]

Amazing how you miss her all the time. I am going to text you when she is active LOL. Like right now she is all over the place.

 

[sirreal]

Very interesting that she spread everything out!

I agree. I will take the time to stack everything back up and within a day she has taken everything down to one level again. I have even added more rock and it does not matter so I stopped doing it. She still moves then around and sometimes will even stack 1 or 2 but then take them down. At first I thought she was knocking them down when she would try to carry the legos or a big blue crab into her denn but thats not the case. She just likes to move things around.

 

[sirreal]

So I am wondering if maybe Casper has slowed down on the growth. She for the first time left any food. It was frozen shrimp which then clouded the water and was the only reason I noticed the shrimp left. Since then I have been feeding live jumbo shrimp. If I give her more then 4 there will still be 1 alive the next day. I also notice she is breathing harder at times. Her intake is opening up farther then normal. I have not tested the water yet but I am going to today. Then again her mantle is as large or larger then a softball and after eating closer to a football. GF says a nerf football.

 

[DWhatley]

They have been recorded as having "exponential" growth for about the first 1/3 of their lives and then much slower growth there after so that would fit the decrease in food quantity but the breathing is a concern. Water parms first (I do a water change any time I notice a change in habit out of caution). You may want to add an air stone to your sump (but not the display) to increase CO2/air exchange. Is she hanging out more at the inflow from the sump?

 

[octobert]

Well looks like you were right D. Check this out.

I absolutely love this video! I wish I could get live food as easy as you. And I wish I got a vulgaris instead of the nocturnal one I got instead

 

[sirreal]

No she doesn't hang out at the overflow. She is still very active and spends a lot of time out playing or just hanging out. There has been no difference in her personality. I have a big skimmer but I will add an air stone. Did you check the live feed D? I am doing a large water change tonight.
I don't see her breathing faster just her intake seems to open more. Could be me not really noticing it before. The GF didn't notice it. Also might be because of her size. I will recheck everything tonight

 

[sirreal]

I absolutely love this video! I wish I could get live food as easy as you. And I wish I got a vulgaris instead of the nocturnal one I got instead

Ya she is awesome. Have you seen how big she is now? She was a baby in that vid. LOL You can check her out through the link I posted. Its a live stream. Lights are on from 11-9 pm and she is out more then 50% of the time. I just hit the link and it looks like I have to restart my computer as its having a hard time loading. I will do that tonight

 

[sirreal]

Did a large water change, Changed out the carbon and added a second type. Added a double air pump with stones. Check her tomorrow and see if the heavy breathing slows down.

 

[sirreal]

The heavy breathing seems a little better. Got a crab yesterday and she was very happy. I have said this before but I really don't think Casper likes shrimp. She loves CRABS!!! LOL
So I bought a 6' 150 yesterday for casper so she will have more space. I would love to set up the 300 for her but I just don't have enough friends to set it up. Weights a lot and 4 big guys can not pick it up. Might just set that one up in my garage where I can use an engine hoist to pick it up.
I bought this system and put all the coral in my other tanks. Got a fantastic deal for everything. Guy sold his house and just needed it gone. I am a bit of an aquarium hoarder LOL

 

[DWhatley]

You did not originate MTS but are clearly afflicted
Jealous of those corals but not the maintenance that goes with keeping them healthy. I suspect not matter what you paid for it, this was an excellent purchase.

 

[sirreal]

Thanks D. I agree that it was a great purchase. I find caring for corals to be a labor of love. I stopped drinking and was never good at chasing woman so for me its aquariums and all have corals. Its my down time and so peaceful. I grow a lot of coral and at one time I sold a lot to other club members and made enough money to pay for the hobby. I want to get back to that very soon. To do that you have to grow corals others want which means SPS, LPS and high end zoas. I got a lot of corals with this system I didnt have. The reason he didnt sell more to others is he was quit far away from most of the other reefers. At the moment I have 5 reefs going "soon to be 6" but I will be getting rid of the smaller ones and will end up with 3 or 4 "until I need more room and start another LOL"

 

[sirreal]

So I believe I found the issue for the heavy breathing. I hate to admit I dont test water much. With my coral tanks I can look at them and pretty much tell whats going on. I did full tests on Caspers tank and I expected N03 to be high and it is but My P04 is way to high. I did a large water change 50% and started a reactor with phos media. I use a Hanna checker ultra low tester and its higher then the tester can read. Even after the water change its still higher then it can read. I use a 8"x 8"x 4" block in the sump. Its about 6 years old and I am wondering if it is so loaded with P04 that its leaching back into the water. Going to pull it out and replace it with fresh cycled rock. Then I will acid bath the block to clean it.
I cant believe I let it get this out of hand. My tester only goes to 2.500 ppm. and its maxed out.

 

[DWhatley]

I don't know at what point phosphate would/could be a problem. I never check for it but always suspect it is high when I see hair algae, a not so uncommon appearance when I have no octopuses but keep the tank cycled by feeding ground shrimp to the few soft corals in the tanks. I have learned to cut back on my, keep it cycled, feeding but am also lazy with the water changes when the tanks are inactive.

 

[sirreal]

HMMMM. I need to do some research about that. You very well might be right. What I find crazy is my algae growth is minimal. I expect my p04 to be high. maybe .5 ppm or even up to 1ppm.