[Octopus]: Mr. Ocho (O.Bimaculoides)

[Spinelli1]

First and foremost, I would like to thank Tony and anyone else that helped out the bimac program together. Super awesome!

October 24, 2019
THE ARRIVAL

I'm not going to lie, I was very nervous about shipping. By the time he arrived I thought there was no way he survived. Anyway, package came in right at 10:30 and we opened it up....
(Videos attached, unboxing and opening bag)
(I was unable to embed or put full video for some reason) (nevermind, it says they are not uploading as expected, I'll try later)

He was drip acclimated for about 5 hours in the bucket. Half the time he was out and about, half he spent in a pvc pipe.

Our chiller was up and going and the chiller had been installed and the water temp is down to 71 at the time. (Btw... as I have mentioned, the tank is at my office so getting chillers etc is much easier as the business pays for it and we write off the expense , afterall, he is an office pet!)

Getting the current octo inhabitant out was not easy to say the least. We picked up his rock and he instantly turned to sand color. It was really cool actually to see him blend in (color turned in a split second, see pic)

We finally coaxed him into a PVC pipe (the same one the bimac was in prior) but unfortunately not before he inked twice. Not huge inks but still enough that I got a little worried. I have a few poly filters and considering the tank is 200g I didnt think it was enough to hurt the bimac. After about 20 seconds each time, the ink dissipated and the water never got clouded. All the water also cycles through the polyfilter/filter about every hour.

We finally got him in a different bucket but left him in the PVC pipe. So we had to find something for the Bimac to go in. We used a ceramic cup (clean of course) (hopefully this is ok! Let me know!!! It has no metal) we didnt want to push things in the bucket so we left in there and in a few minutes he went in enough to transport him to the tank!

zoo









He zoomed around a bit. Seemed to be searching for somewhere to hide. Definitely was breathing heavy as he was visibly stressed. (I dont blame him! I get stressed for plane rides, bus rides and then having people stare at me!)

Continuing this in a separate post...

 

[Spinelli1]

Here is the unboxing video. Had to convert it to post

and here is the release video actually working

So once he was in, he zoomed around a bunch.....

After we him we spectated for a bit and he settled on the glass, which I know is a sign of stress. We left for the evening as he was on the glass and we hoped the alone time would help his relax and settle.

Day 2
October 25, 2019

As expected, he was no longer on the glass.
Instead he had settled down behind a leaning rock in the rear corner of the tank. In a darker spot. Great spot too, I hope he dens there as he is easily viewable. He doesnt want to seem to want to go under the rocks as the reef octopus did. He is behind a big rock between the rock and the back wall of the tank.

Whenever he sees our faces peering in, he takes a big breathe in and then blows sand at us. It's pretty funny. He also seems to be digging himself in and burying himself a bit, much different than the last octo.

At the end of the day we tried to feed him a piece of shrimp. He didnt seem to want it (as expected this early) at one point he did reach up and completely grab the skewer and the shrimp and was up on the wall grabbing the screwed but ultimately did not take the shrimp. Seemed to be investigating it as the shrimp was basically touching him as we held it in.

We will attempt again daily. Our plan now is to wait until Tuesday. If he hasn't eaten by then we will load the tank with fiddler crabs again and let him eat more naturally on his own when he doesnt see huge human heads peering in at him. That worked well with the briarius. Then once he is eating we will resume the skewer offerings and hope he takes on.

We left the ceramic mug in the tank as we thought he may like to hide in it. If this is a bad idea to leave in let me know and we will take it out. If not, we figured it was pretty neat to have in as our name is on the mug and is pretty fitting for clients to see in there!

All in all, this octo is amazing. I think his style (so far) of hiding will be much easier for viewing. He is also MUCH larger and meatier than our last octo. His legs are thicker. His mantle is much bigger and thicker. His legs are shorter and stockier, and his leg to body ratio is much less than the briarius was.

All in all, this guy is amazing. Thanks again for everyone that helped put this together. We couldnt very happier!

In the end I'll ask if anyone has suggestions for food. We have frozen shrimp and scallops. Do bimacs eat that as well? I assume so but if not let me know.

I will update next week with a progress on food and any other activities that have occurred. Fun!

 

[Spinelli1]

Quick update:

Mr. Ocho spent time in the back corner behind the rock formation. He threw sand around and dug for a few days.

Heres a pic of him from Saturday.

I had the webcam up on him saturday evening and into sunday morning until it fell from its spot!

When I got to work monday, poof, he was outta sight and went into hiding.

I scraped around a bit with a stick to see if he was under the sand but no dice.

Good news: he hasn't escaped. Checked everywhere. Unless he got in car and drove away or unless the janitor saw him and got in the mood for calamari (which he denied monday afternoon)

Bad news: hes still MIA in hiding. He must be under a rock denning.

Anyway, because I have no idea where he is in the tank, I am going to go route 2 for the time being for feeding. 20 crabs in the tank tomorrow. Hopefully they slowly dissapear. Then as he settled I'll try to start stick feeding again.

Once he is spotted and starts interacting I will restart the webcam and anyone who wants I will gladly email an invite to so they can also see the webcam if they want.

Will post update as more develops!

 

[tonmo]

Wow, very cool in the pic. Do you think the falling webcam gave him a fright? Live cam, love it! Hope he comes out soon

 

[Spinelli1]

No, cam didnt scare him. I prolly did!

Anyway, a quicker than expected update!

Mr. Ocho has been found! Alive, well and resumed normal octo behavior

I was talking to my mother (yes, we work together) while she was near the tank and from the corner of my eye I saw some sand come shooting out from under a rock.

Low and behold, later in the day I tried to feed him and got no response. So I dug a bit on the side of the rock with the skewer and out popped a tentacle to see what was going on. I put some shrimp back on the stick and he took it!

Then the rest of the day I saw him poking around down there with the occasional tentacle coming out and waivng around while blowing out more sand and doing his busy work.

Observations so far:

While i was able to get the briarius to eat during the day, he never was day active. (As expected) maybe he would have a bit more as he got older, but I will find that out from my tank maintenance guy as time goes on.

Compared to that, this guy also likes to go under the rocks, but while the briarius did his digging/activity during the night (daily I would come in and see his hole re-swept open etc) this guy seems to be happy doing his work during the day time. It will be interesting to see as we go on what else he does and what other business he must attend to while we work ourselves.

Till next update! (Maybe tomorrow, never know!)

 

[tonmo]

Awesome -- great update!

 

[Joe Beardi]

Man my octo hides under a rock I barely get to enjoy the thing

 

[Spinelli1]

Man my octo hides under a rock I barely get to enjoy the thing

My briarius never came out. Or at least that I saw. Just grabbed shrimp from under the rock and that was it.

So far the Bimac has been much more active. Despite most likely being pretty young, hes bigger than the briarius as well. I'll have more next update but I'll leave you with this video. This guy likes to dig

 

[tonmo]

That unboxing video is great BTW. Thanks for documenting all that, and the acclimation!

 

[Spinelli1]

Update. 11/13

Been a fun week! Good news and nervous news!

So Mr. Ocho hung out in his den many days.
Ate well. He seemed to wake up every day from his lair and come out and hang on the side of the live rock. He would hang still in the cave but not under the side rocks where he was underneath. He slept underneath but came out each day and hung out for the entire day.

Here he is hanging on the side of the rock inside the cover.

this was almost the entire last week.

Around last Thursday we noticed that he had dragged a PVC pipe into his den (under the rock to the right of that alcove) he must have come way out to get it since the PVC was on the other side of the tank and he had to drag it around the hunk of rock in the middle of the tank. He also did this during work hours as just a little while before we noticed I had been looking at him and would have noticed the PVC if it was already there.

When I went to feed him he strayed pretty far out of his den. I wanted to get a closer look at his markings so I bent forward with my head. This scared him and he jetted back into the rocks and did a small inking. The ink was much thicker and whisper than the briarius ink. I tried to net some out but it wouldn't net. There wasn't too much so I wasnt overly worried.

Anyway, this monday he switched den location to the left side of the tank. Now his head sticks out from the bottom of the rocks. He backs in and still sticks out.

Monday afternoon I went to do something by the tank and I watched him for a minute. Then I bent down and fiddled under the tank and when I looked up he was right at the glass next to me! He ended up going back to his hole so I tapped the glass and slowly waved with my finger and he came back to me. I didnt get it on video, so I tried again and heres what happened:

Was a pretty neat interaction. It seems that he will eat once a day and if offered another piece of shrimp later in the day, he will throw it back at us. We have had shrimp tumble back all the way to the glass.

Now to the 'nervous' part...

I tried to offer a Lego today and he threw some white stuff at me. It was very odd. Later in the day, my coworker wondered if he had layed eggs and this is definitely a possibility. He refused his shrimp today (I will try again tomorrow to see if he eats) i cannot see anything under the rocks where he is (which is pretty open to see into) so I dont think there are a ton of eggs but there is white stringy stuff around the tank. Some along the back (maybe sucked towards the overflow?) And some right above his den. Before he said this, I thought it was just some type of algae in the tank or some raw shrimp leftovers the octo has spewed out.


Water temp has been steady 69 degrees and he def doesn't seem fully grown for Bimaculoides from what I've read. Hopefully he/she didnt decide to just lay some eggs early. He hasn't barricaded himself in, but does have 1 single shell he found by the den (I assumed just collected but doesnt seem to be using it as a door)


See pics. Does this look like eggs? Or is this not eggs and tank/shrimp related?

till next update!

 

[Spinelli1]

I sent pics to my tank guy. He said its prolly eggs since it's not algae.

I'm not so sure anymore. Stringy algae with sand on it?

Reason being, he was very normal today. Left his den a few times to come see my hand. Even left his den at one point and I found him in his old den. And he attacked his food when it was offered, so appetite is still there. Would he be leaving his den so much wide open and unprotected if there were eggs in it? I wouldn't think so

 

[Spinelli1]

Just now.... and now I'm nervous! Hope that lid is in tight enough! I shoulda put the rock on it and not the brick!

 

[Tomh]

Looks kinda small to have eggs!!!

 

[pkilian]

This is a great journal! Looking at the white stringy stuff in the tank that you posted photos of, it could be that she was attempting to lay eggs but they were unfertilized, or she may be not mature enough to lay yet. One way you can sex out your bimac is to look for the presence of the hectocotylus (it's the third arm from the right if you are counting clockwise around the animal). Males have one and females don't. The arm tip will look slightly different, and have a small groove running down the middle of the last few cm of the arm. I'm sure you can find photos of this online.

Once you have your animal sexed out, then you will have a better idea if the white stringy stuff was premature egg laying, or spermatophores that were expelled by the male. Either way, great journal!

(from looking at the night time video you just posted, I would make sure that your lid is very secure. Behavior like that can sometimes be representative of a not-so-perfect water chemistry situation). I like to keep my bimacs around 60-65 deg. While 71 is an okay range, I think that they typically survive longer and look more healthy in a bit colder water. Also, colder water has been shown to slow down the development of cephalopod eggs, and likely will extend the lifespan of your animal as well.

One final tip- when you are adding live crabs to the tank, be sure not to add too many. The presence of other live animals (especially something as curious and pointy as crabs) can stress out the octopus, and no octo will be able to eat 20 crabs in one period. I would suggest starting with 2-4 crabs in the tank and see how the animal does with that. An abundance of prey items in the tank can also cause this escaping behavior that you are seeing.

 

[Spinelli1]

@pkilian thank you. Can a Male throw his spermatophores? It almost seemed at one point he shot it or threw it as a deterrent at the piece if food being offered.

I will try to sex the octo this week.

Tank has been 69 degrees. I lowered the chiller to 66 but the tank size it large for the chiller so let's see if it can get it down that low. If so I'll try lower. I dont foot the electric bill in the office so that's no concern!

We havent offered this octo crabs until yesterday so I dont think he was stressed. We gave him 1 green crab although it was a little larger. We took the smallest in the bunch so we didnt remove claws. Octo flanked the crab and hours later it looked like someone sat on the floor with nutcrackers and had a lobster feast. Crab leg remains everywhere! And he was using the main crab shell as a shield in his den.

The escape behavior is the first we've ever seen him be active at night. He was very active that night for some reason. Maybe bc he hadn't eaten. Or maybe bc water parameters. The salt level was down a bit, borderline of ok. I added a bunch of salt and got back intonation good range. Maybe that was it. I'll be doing a nice water change this week as well.