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

[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.

 

[sedna]

Umm, the white stringy stuff was most likely poop. Yes, they can poop “at you!” . It looks a lot like white “silly string.”

They lay eggs in a den, which they usually take several days to make. It’s different than a regular den in that every tiny shell and rock available will be blocking any entrance. The female doesn’t usually leave the brooding den, but sometimes in captivity they will reach out an arm to accept food, but not always.

I’ve never seen a male by itself “throw” a spermatophore. I think you got pooped at because he didn’t appreciate you Lego offering! LOL

 

[sedna]

BTW- awesome journal!!! I enjoyed reading, and will keep up with your updates!

 

[pkilian]

@Spinelli1 That's great to hear! @sedna could be correct with their poop guess. The reason I leaned toward spermatophores or failed egg laying is because typically I see bimac poop that's brown/reddish/black, and while it does look stringy like that photo, usually there is a more compact piece forming the "body" of the poop, and your photos just showed the strings. Additionally, the white globules in the photo look like unfertilized, underdeveloped eggs. Like I said earlier, it'll be hard to tell without sexing the animal, but I digress.

About your chiller - one tip to increase the efficacy of a chiller is to reduce flow into and out of the chiller. The water will spend more time in contact with the cooling coils, meaning you may be able to get those few more degrees you need out of it. I recommend fussing with the chiller a bit more- it can really increase the lifespan of your octo!

Keep up the good work and I look forward to hearing more updates!

 

[Spinelli1]

@pkilian yes I think @sedna was correct and it was poop. Makes sense to me. There were only little small clumps in it at points but maybe he was being underfed? I only had been feeding shrimp once a day. Maybe a thumbnail size piece. Now he ate 2 crabs (1 every other day) and some shrimp in between so if he throws it again I'll see if it increased the texture.

He also seemed to have calmed himself and has been a little more dormant in his den for the day after eating a crab. Perhaps he is stuffed and more complacent/digesting.

Got a water change coming Wednesday so I may do another crab that morning so the water change/cleanup happens afterward. His den area looks like someone went to red lobster, went nuts and nobody is around to clean the table

 

[Spinelli1]

@sedna btw, 'silly string' couldn't have described it better.