Lennon- Macropus complex

[DWhatley]

Do you have access to a copy of Norman's, Cephalopods, A World Guide? I am not comfortable with the size description and photos of luteus and our little guys. If you look at the picture on 254, Octopus sp.10 shows the much smaller, thin back arms and much fatter front fore arms that are a much better match for Beldar (also visible in the above dive pictures). Unfortunately, this one is not named and was photographed in Australia. I would venture to guess that either Norman has the wrong octo depicted and described as luteus or ours is a different macropus commonly called luteus.

 

[forever27]

D- Lennon does eat dead food. Frozen fiddlers and freeze-dried krill is pretty much all I feed him. And to put the fiddler on the skewer, I just pull out the claw (don't break it) and push the skewer into the hole that's left from the claw. Also, Lennon has left hermits, snail, and clams alone. I wanted to try some scallops, but I didn't want to spend too much for a flame scallop...and didn't know where to get any cheaper ones.

I don't have access to that book. Is it worth buying? It may be a handy tool. I can't really comment on that because I've never read it, but I'm still calling him O. luteus. haha

 

[DWhatley]

If you only buy ONE ceph book buy Nancy and Colins , Cephalopods Octopuses and Cuttlefishes for the Home Aquarium (I was paid to say that ) if you buy a second (and this one counts as two price wise) buy Norman's Cephalopods A World Guide. I put my name on a search list on Amazon for the Norman book in the used section and lucked out on a new copy for almost half the selling price but I have never seen it again for anything close (but I don't look often either). I use the Noman book at least weekly for one thing or another and consider it a must have.

The first picture is the one I find most like our octos. The other two are luteus

 

[forever27]

Wow that's a tough one. It looks a lot like both, and I can definitely see where you're coming from. I still think it's most likely O. luteus because of the distribution and the webbing. Lennon has more webbing then Sp. 10. I think that their picture of O. luteus looks like a full grown specimen to me, so it does look a little different than Lennon. And the way that it's positioned in both pictures makes it tough to find too many discrepancies. Although, the arms (excluding webbing) and eyes of Sp. 10 does look closer to Lennon.

 

[DWhatley]

Interesting! I Beldar's webbing looks like SP 10. It is always visible for almost a relaxed mantle length (I mention relaxed because they can double that so easily) but then only a slight trace down the arms and I have never seen him deploy it beyond the upper section.

I am betting that Beldar will not get anywhere near the size of the full grown one in the photo. I just hope he is not full grown now.

 

[sedna]

I always thought that Artemis was a different type of macro that Lennon... more like SP 10. Also, Artemis never did end up eating the dead food he'd take from the stick. I have been wondering if he ever ate or just went hungry for lack the proper food- but then he never ate the live hermits OR emerald crabs.

 

[forever27]

Yeah Sedna, I agree 100%. Lennon looked like he has a different mantle shape and more webbing than Artemis. And it's weird that you guys have had trouble getting them to eat dead food; Lennon goes after it the same way he does live.

Also, I'm hoping that Lennon will get about as big as O. briareus, if not a little bit bigger.

 

[DWhatley]

Beldar took three just dead shore shrimp (my shipment died after 6 hours - likely my fault due to PH differences as they were in transit 3 days and I did not acclimate - normally not required but these were an extra day in shipping - the few that were in the tank already are still alive) from neal's fingers tonight. I froze the rest so we are hoping he will eat them thawed. Not my preferred second food but better than live crabs only.

I have ordered some tiny (dime sized) clams, oysters and scallops from a new seller that seems promising (she raises these in her tanks). We will see if Beldar has any interest in them but he often wiggles his "fingers" in the sand so I am looking for little things for him to find.

 

[forever27]

Well, I haven't really updated too much..no shocking news. Lennon's been progressive towards coming out more in the daytime to play. His "naptime" is always from around 8 PM to around 1 AM though. Most other times, he'll come out if I'm in the room. He's definitely starting to warm up to me. Today, I let him play with a Gatorade cap, and he had fun with that. I'd take it away for a few minutes and as soon as I put back in he'd claim it. I left for a few hours and when I got back from class, I put a thawed out shrimp in the cap and floated the cap...he liked figuring that one out and distinguishing what was food. I'm looking for more toys to make him more interactive, anyone have any suggestions?

On a side note, I'm moving in a week and a half and need some advice. Lennon will be moving into a 75 gallon tank with a 20 gallon refugium that's in use right now on another tank (I'm building a bigger refugium for the other tank). I've got water at my new house in Rubbermaids with live rock in them and a damsel or two in each. I plan on using the water in his tank, plus whatever's over there. Does anyone have any tips on what precautions I should take? What I should and what I should not do? Any info would help out me and Lennon!

On another side note, Wednesday my dwarf cuttlefish eggs came in that I ordered from work. I ordered three and they'll be in the tank Lennon's currently in (the eggs are in a 10 gallon right now). I'll be putting the two systems together, so I'm pretty excited about that. haha!

 

[DWhatley]

And you are going to MOVE too? It sounds like you may have the luxury of doing a little at a time but moving is one of the things on the very bottom of my enjoyment list.

 

[forever27]

Yep, I'm moving too, and I've got until the end of the month. So I have plenty of time to do it at my leisure, I'm just worried that me and Lennon's interactions will pretty much have to start over after he's moved.

 

[DWhatley]

I doubt you will have to much interuption with your interaction. When OhToo was moved to a larger tank he acted oddly for less than a day (I believe I put a video of his odd behavior in his thread - I know there is one of the transfer) and then adjusted quickly. His new tank setup was quite different from his first one but he found his way around without a problem. If you are concerned about how to transfer Lennon, you might look at the fish transfer device I used as it worked better than expected and made the process almost totally stressless (I don't know that all octos would just swim into the transfer bowl like OhToo did but if you can coax Lennon in to the thing, the transfer is a breeze).

 

[forever27]

Back on

Wow it's been forever since I've been on. I moved into the new place and we just got our internet up and running! We were slack on it, then Comcast didn't really give us speedy service. Anyways..

Lennon has been moved into a brand new 55 gallon tank from his 37 gallon. I chose a 55 over a 75 because the 75 I had was used, so I traded that one in at work for the new 55. It's running with a Aquarclear 110 and a Koralia 2. I'm adding a Prizm hang on the back skimmer shortly, or I might try and make one myself.

The transition for Lennon was surprisingly smooth. I used all of the water from his other tank and got and extra 15 or so gallons of RO/DI water mixed with Tropic Marin salt (what I always use with Lennon). I added some pieces of rock from my 125 gallon tank to fill the tank for the most part, but I'm planning on getting some lace rock just to add some more crevices and caves.

It's starting to get hotter here in Savannah, and we've got plenty of marshes around my area so Lennon's been getting FREE live food lately. The best kind, for sure! Last year when I went to catch fiddlers for my old octo, that's all I found- fiddlers. This year, however, in addition to the fiddlers I've been finding some mussels or oysters. I'm pretty sure they're mussels. Lennon eats those too, so that was definitely a good find. I think that interaction has been somewhat halted by the move...he'll still play tug-of-war when I feed frozen foods, but aside from that I don't get too much out of him. I'm hoping that will change as he gets accustomed to his new tank. I'll keep postin'!

 

[Nancy]

Good to hear that Lennon survived the move to the new tank so well. He's a fortunate octopus to have that good live food!

I was interested to hear that you're using Tropic Marin so successfully. When I switiched to that salt, my tanks did a lot better. It has a higher pH than many salts, which is good for octopuses.

Nancy

 

[DWhatley]

Beldar has been less energetic in his play for the last three days, I wonder if it is the warmer water. I have a fan on the sump and turned it up to high today but the AC is not on (I am in Gainesville, GA) and won't be until either A) I find a job B) One of us gets heat stroke or C) I can't keep SueNami and Bel's tanks below 80 (my electric bills go up $300 a month when the air goes on bringing them to $700 ish in the summer). I have a small chiller I can put on Bel's tank but not a second one for SueNami, however, they are on two different AC systems and I could opt for half and half.