Michael's bimac adventures

Hey guys, very low tides this weekend brought in a variety of octopus. I estimated we found around ten bimacs with mantle lengths ranging from 1.5"-to 4".

I also encountered a classic example of cannabalism in a tidepool were an adult octopus had suffocated a smaller octopus from the safety of his den and then pulled him inside to eat him. It was definetley exciting.

~Michael
 
well if anyone has been checking this thread for updates, sorry for not posting in so long I kind of forgot I created it.

Anyway, I have an update some of you might have already seen. but for those of you that haven't I went out today with tonmo member Joe-Ceph in a local tidepool area were I find most of my octo's. I was successful in finding two octo's and relayed most/all knowledge I have to him so in the future he will be able to find some on his own.

The first one we caught was one step away from an adult with a mantle of about 4" in length. The second one was a fairly small juvenile with a mantle about the size of a golfball. And surprisingly Joe-Ceph informed me that it would be the first one we caught that he is most interested in.

I would post the pictures but currently they are waiting approval from tony apparently. anyway, when that happens [or IF?] I will definetley edit this post and add em in for you.

~Michael
 
oh one more thing I forgot to mention.

as I was talking to Joe-Ceph the subject of shipping some how came about. Now, some of you may have read my post already but the reason why I stopped that "buisness" [never really got started I guess because I had no idea what I was doing at first and there ended up being a tradgedy with my first attempt] is because I could not find pure oxygen as was told to me was neccesary by tonmo member DHyslop . But as I talked to him about it, he told me that he knew were to find pure oxygen and also told me that he has a spare container for one [well apparently he might have sold it but he said he could probably dig it up].

SO, if I can get ahold of that and I can find the place that he described to me, I will gladly do some side shippings to all of you people who have pm'd me these past couple months. If you haven't already found an alternative I guess.

~Michael
 
Oxygen is available in a number of places. it's used for soldering, so Home Depot has small canisters. I think you might have to buy a regulator. Home heath stores also carry it for people who need oxygen.

Nancy
 
You can MAKE pure oxygen at home

I did some research about oxygen and it is cheap and easy to make it at home. If you mix Hydrogen Peroxide with a little Manganese Dioxide (a black powder used as a pigment to color ceramics and pottery) it will fizz for a minute, and give off pure oxygen! You can get a 3% solution of H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide) at any drug store or super market for about $1.60/qt. You can get MnO2 (Mangganese Dioxide powder) on ebay for $4 per pound (plus $6 shipping) or if you can get down to National City, you can buy it at "Freeform Clay & Supply" ((619) 477-1004) for about $3 per pound. A pound would be several lifetime supplies, because you can get enough O2 (oxygen) to ship an octopus by mixing about one and a half cups of H2O2 with about a half teaspoon full of MnO2.

For the nerds:
The MnO2 acts as a "catalyst" which causes each molecule of the H2O2 (which is made of 2 Hydrogen atoms and 2 oxygen atoms) to break off one oxygen atom, leaving H2O (water) and a bunch of oxygen atoms, which pair up creating oxygen gas (O2).

If you mix these two things in a closed plastic bag, with one end of a tube in it, and most of the air pushed out, you can put the other end of the tube in another bag with some water, an octopus, and most of the air pushed out. Then just let the oxygen flow through the tube and fill the octopus bag. Cheap, and easy!

Safety:
1) Only use the common 3% Hydrogen Peroxide. Highly concentrated solutions of Hydrogen Peroxide (like 30%) can be found at chemical supply stores. That stuff is dangerous to work with. The 3% stuff is relatively safe, but it will bleach the color out of clothes (or your mom's good towels!) and burn your eyes if you splash. Just read the cautions on the bottle.
2) The powdered Manganese Oxide is a very fine messy black powder. Treat it just like the powder you get when you sand heavily rusted iron. Don't eat it, don't breath the dust from it, and don't get the dust in your eyes. Use a WET paper towel to clean it up, never a broom or any method that will let the dust get airborne, and don't use it in a breezy place. It can be toxic if you breath the dust over a long period of time (months?) so just be careful with it.
3) When you mix these two things it will fizz a little, and give off a little heat (that's why you use the 3% stuff). Not enough to burn you, or melt the plastic bag, but don't be freaked out when you feel it get warm.

You can dump the used up Hydrogen Peroxide (now water with a little MnO2 in it) in the toilet.

I tried this last night (without an octopus) and it worked fine. MnO2 is not the only catalyst that will cause Hydrogen Peroxide to give up oxygen, but I think it is the best one to use. Believe it or not, liver (beef liver, chicken liver) also works. So does your blood, which is why Hydrogen Peroxide makes fizzy little white bubbles when you pour it on a cut. I also tried liver last night, since it is so easy to get, and while it worked great, the protien (goo) in the liver caused the fizzing oxygen bubbles to make a foam (like in a protien skimmer) which could get into the tube and into the octopus bag. The MnO2 makes nice clean oxygen without foam. I got my MnO2 by breaking open a flashlight battery, which I do NOT recommend. It was messy, dangerous, and I can't be certain that I was only getting oxygen because there were things in that battery that I couldn't identify. I just wanted to prove that it worked, now I'll buy the pure safe MnO2.

I hope this helps you ship a few bimacs to some eager Tonmo people.
 
So, being inspired by a recent users journal of his local octo, I decided to revive this thread just to keep myself productive on the forums.

I want to start by saying that anybody who is in my area who wants to check out some of the local marine fauna, primarily octopus, can drop me an email or send me a PM on Tonmo if they want to get together and check it out. I have done this before and it was really enjoyable to be able to experience this kind of stuff with fellow freaks.

I have a camera now that I can take pictures with, but I haven't been doing so because I have found it impossible to hold the octopus in one and take a picture with the other without the octopus making a leap for it into the waters bellow. Another reason why having a companion would be nice.

so yeah, expect some updates if you care

-Michael
 

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