[Octopus]: Kestra

@sedna, an inquiring mind wants to know! :smile:
What temp are you running your tank at? How many gallons in the display?
The tank is a 40 gallon tall, originally bought for sea horses, which we found out we hated... We have the temperature set at 76F, but it gets higher in the summer if the house warms up. At the moment it’s actually 80F. I googled the water temperature at Key West for a benchmark and found its higher there, and was able to find the yearly average fluctuations- quite interesting!
 
The heat generated from a chiller is leading me to go the briareus route, even though I had my heart set on a Bimac. Upside is I should be able to put some low maintenance SPS and softies in their since presumably a caribbean octopus can deal with corals. The 80 gallon (display) tank will start cycling next week, and I have a buddy who has 100% clean rock that he's kept seeded with bacteria for a year in dark trashcans so it shouldn't take too long to cycle, assuming we don't lose all the bacteria during the aquascaping (I am seeing with Dr. Tim's anyway).

I figured optimal temperature would be 72 or so, but am encouraged by 76 - 80 as this makes the corals easier to manage. I googled Key West water temps and it says 87 right now. Warmer than I thought. I'd think something right at 76 or so (hoping to slow growth) would be ideal, just as you figured.

Any issues with the corals? I worry about tentacles being stung by late night sweepers, but am choosing the friendliest corals I can to avoid that.
 
The heat generated from a chiller is leading me to go the briareus route, even though I had my heart set on a Bimac. Upside is I should be able to put some low maintenance SPS and softies in their since presumably a caribbean octopus can deal with corals. The 80 gallon (display) tank will start cycling next week, and I have a buddy who has 100% clean rock that he's kept seeded with bacteria for a year in dark trashcans so it shouldn't take too long to cycle, assuming we don't lose all the bacteria during the aquascaping (I am seeing with Dr. Tim's anyway).

I figured optimal temperature would be 72 or so, but am encouraged by 76 - 80 as this makes the corals easier to manage. I googled Key West water temps and it says 87 right now. Warmer than I thought. I'd think something right at 76 or so (hoping to slow growth) would be ideal, just as you figured.

Any issues with the corals? I worry about tentacles being stung by late night sweepers, but am choosing the friendliest corals I can to avoid that.

To be honest, everything in this tank came from the same place- which is also where the octopus came from. It was our original intention to design a tank where everything came from KP aquatics, to commemorate a trip we took last year when we cycled from Key Largo to Key West.

We happened to get Kestra while Anya was still brooding eggs, so she had to go into our “Keys Tank.” I don’t know if that makes any difference or not, that all of the livestock (including ALL of the live rock) is from the same place, Kestra is just accustomed to the corals? But I do purposely stick with mild corals because I don’t want anything to get hurt!
 
It breaks my heart to write this post, I’ve put it off for some days now. Kestra died, and the only reason we can think of is that we used coral epoxy- Seachem Coralcrete- in the tank. Everything I could find suggested that it would be OK, and though I felt hesitant I let John talk me into it. He feels horribly guilty, as if it’s all his fault. IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT, JOHN!!!

We did this in the evening, and saw no change in Kestra’s behavior. The next morning, I noticed she looked “off” so I made John get up early with me and we did a water change. Throughout the day we could tell she wasn’t looking great- we had moved the freshly epoxied corals into the larger tank. Then we got totally confused as to whether we should just try to go with more water changes or move her to a different tank, we decided moving her might cause even more stress, and changed more water. In the long run, she was gone by the next morning.

As all this was happening, my daughter’s leopard gecko was going back-and-forth to the exotic vet. She learned how to give it a shot and was soaking it regularly. I don’t even want to try to total the amount of money we spent between the octopus and the gecko, but at this point both are gone and there is great sorrow at the Bentley Street Zoo.

The major lesson learned, the very hard way – is it from now on if we need to use super glue or epoxy for corals, we will be doing it in a separate bucket and giving things time for the chemicals to wear away.
 
I am heartbroken to hear of this experience. Accidents happen all the time, even with people.

Do you know what it was in the coralcrete that may have been the issue? Are you sure it was the coralcrete and not just coincidental timing?
It’s absolutely the ONLY thing we did that was different. She was in perfect health the day we used it, and everything cascaded after that. It’s certainly possible that some freak thing happened hours after the coralcrete was put in the tank that we don’t know, but i can’t imagine what that would be...
 
Goodbye Kestra, it was lovely meeting you...You were truly a beauty...
I went back to the beginning of the thread to check the date of Kestra's arrival. It's been more than 4 months and as far as I remember, she was already a big girl when you got her. So it might be a consolation thinking that her death was perhaps due to happen soon
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top