[Octopus]: Intro Casper - O. vulgaris

Ok so I have mentioned the harder breathing which sent me looking at water parms. Found the N03 and P04 to be very high. after some research I will agree that P04 should not bother Casper much. In the process of trying to get my numbers down i bought the tank in the pic. There was lots of good cycled live rock in that system and I needed someplace to hold it so I put about 50lbs in Caspers tank thinking it would help to remove the N03 and P04.

I feed her a blue crab afew days ago and the water turned white. I believe I over loaded the bio system with to much waist and started a recycle. I did another large water change and this time I used water from my SPS reef tank. "Both N03 and P04 are .03 or less" I was thinking it would transfer some good bacteria to help. I didnt have and ammonia or nitrite test so I got one the next day. No ammonia but nitrites where above .5 PPM and Casper was not looking good and stayed hidden most of the time. I was feeking out and didnt know what to do. How could I get nitrites out of the water. Googled Nitrite remover and found the "Prime" water conditioner from Seachem made ammonia and nitrites non toxic. It was 10pm and I was stressing. I went digging through all my supplements and sure enough I had a new bottle. It said to detoxify nitrite in an emergency use up to 5X normal dose which I did.

2 mins later out comes Casper looking a bit rough but acting much more normal. This all happened thursday night and I am happy to say my nitrites are coming down .25 and Casper is looking better.

The moral to the story is I will always keep a bottle of Prime as I think it saved Caspers life.

Now to what caused this in the first place. I am very good about WCs 20% or more every week most of the time closer to 30 because I keep corals in her tank and dont want the crazy high N03 and P04. Did I change to much water to cause a cycle? The crab was alive and she ate most all but left a bit more then she has been and I didnt get the shells out until 24 hours later. Did that cause it? was it all the extra rock I added? Is it the problem that she has outgrown the system? Maybe a combo of all? I have been in the salt water hobby for 20+ years and dont remember seeing this. I am guessing its a combo of 2 or more things I did. Crazy, I did not own ammonia and nitrite tests because I have never need to test for them. Even when starting a new system I know how long it takes and when your N03 spikes your done with nitrites. Kind of beating myself up but I feel like if it would have gone on for another day she might have died.

The live stream is down not because of whats going on but because the new tank is going where my computers were. Once everything is set i will go back live.
 
I suspect tank size/tank load is the biggest factor. Your bacteria was likely low for the new occupant and her eating habits are overwhelming it. I would definitely look into picking up some test strips. They are not supposed to be as accurate as reagents (my couple of tests early on did not show a difference but I can see where they get a bad rap when they get old -- same problem with reagents though) but they are fast and invaluable for acclimation and quick concern tests. Since my own tanks have no occupant, I feed ground shrimp to the few things that remain just to keep the bacteria high. The feeding does lead to excessive nitrate and probably phosphate (I never check PO4 but I do get hair algae) and I do really big water changes when I am expecting a new octo but I think it helps.
 
Yes I wont be without those tests again. So I did another big water change and drianed the tank down to about 30g and then moved it to another spot. Ended up doing a 35g water change on a 93 with about 20g in the sump. i had to move it because tomorrow the new tank will be here and I needed that wall for it. Casper was a little stressed about it and I really didnt want to stress her at this moment. I new live rock for the new tank and I am going to get a bottle of turbo start to get the cycle done faster so she can move. I am hoping for 2 weeks but I will test. The sump for the new tank is about 60g so total water will be over 200g which I think will help a lot.
 
I could see it being a nitrate problem but not an ammonia producer. If we knew all the answers though, we could do a heck of a lot to help mitigate the problems we are seeing across all the oceans. Some things we know but there is still a whole lot we don't.
 
I am glad everything is ok with Casper. Tell me, are these fresh water blue crabs? That's what I found at the Asian food market and I just took the whole claw leg off and offered it to Bubba.
 
Can you take a pictures of the claw? What makes you think the ones you are seeing are fw? I have never heard of freshwater blue crabs but know there are lots of critters I have never heard of :biggrin2:
 
So I wanted to let everyone know that Casper is brooding her eggs. At least I think thats whats going on. about 5 days ago she stopped eating and moved rocks around to make a better cave. Went inside and has not come out. I dont know if the poor water quality started this earlier then i would have thought. Maybe she is older then we thought. I have had her since oct 10 so a little over 6 months. I have no idea if the eggs will be fertile. Heck I dont even know if she has laid eggs but thats what I expect. From what I have read Vulgaris is large egg so if I see them develop I will try and gear up and bread mysis and pods but with as small as she was when i got her I would be shocked to think she mated. I am beating myself up for letting the water quality get bad but whats done is done. I guess there is no reason for the new tank but I will set it up anyway for the next one.
 
:cry: I started to say something when you mentioned the rock moving but held my tongue because of her expected age (and not wanting it to be so). Six months is pushing any viability but not totally out of the question. Sadly, O. vulgaris is small egged and raising them from eggs has been an ongoing challenge for the Europeans with most research occurring in Spain. There are a number of scientific papers referenced in the Cephalopod Eggs and Hatchlings thread with the abstracts posted in the entries if you want a gander at what some of the biologists have tried.

I knew for sure that LittleBit could not have mated and even tried removing the eggs to see if she would stop brooding. She did start coming out for a day or two but then went back to her den for the duration. A few of them ended up outside the den so I watched to see what would happen. One day they were just gone. I put some of the eggs in saltwater container to see how long it took them to disintegrate but often forgot to refresh the evaporated water. After months, they still looked like eggs but I suspect I preserved them with the dried salt. I suspect the serpent star ate the ones that were left outside the den.
 
Hi Sirreal, been there, the hardest part for me was not knowing whats going on? i had one make a den and i could not see inside which drove me crazy, another laid eggs but they were not fertile. That one was a vulgaris and she lived for about a month after eggs and even ate. So this one might surprise you and hang around for a while. Tom
 

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