My poor dead Octos

[Andy Lister]

Alrighty there, just got a little queary as to why my octos have died.

I have had two fairly large Curled Octopus (Eldone cirrosa) for around one month, they were caught off the coast of Scotland and shipped down to me in Weymouth on the South Coast of England. They are a cold water species so were in a tank chilled to 14 degrees and were doing fine, feeding away happily and being generally curly and active!

Last thursday I had to find a new home for them as I was receiving a shipment of O. vulgaris and was going to use the tank for them (it was my only option... big lack of large tanks at the moment... long story).

I moved the Curled Octos into another, smaller chilled tank which was running at 12.5 degrees with a chiller and canister filter set up, mature with bio balls. They were aclimatised properly and seemed Ok. The next day they were both dead, now while I can accept the fact that it could have been human error I wanted to try and reassure myself that it wasn't.

There were some other tank mates in the new tank when I moved the octos across, there were
Dead Man's Fingers (Alcyonium digitatum), a soft coral
BrittleStars (Various species) Some of these were looking munched the next morning as well...
Feather Stars (Atendon sp)
Plumose Anemone (Metridium senile)
Horse Mussel (Modiolus modiolus)

These, to me all seem like fairly harmless inverts to give me so many problems but I was wondering if any of these can be attributed to the death of the octs?!?!?!

All water quality parameters were fine as well

Thanks in advance, any help would be more than appriciated!

~Andy[/i]

 

[Nancy]

Sorry about the loss of your octos, Andy.

I think you've had no replies because no body has any ideas to offer you.

I'm not familiar with all of those tank co-inhabitants, but none of them would seem to be deadly.

Copper would be something to look for, perhaps the tank had been used for fresh water before - but many inverts are very sensitive to that, too.

That both of them died would indicate that something killed them, but what?

Maybe Colin or Jean or someone else will have some ideas for you.

You might try posting this under Ceph Care Q&A...

Nancy

 

[Jean]

HI Andy,

Sorry about your loss. I'm not very familiar with Eledone but it sounds like you did everything right. The only possibility I can see is the presence of Anemones in the tank. Anemones sting and octi's skin is typically very delicate. If they got enough stings they may have succcumbed from the toxins or some equivalent to "shock". I would never have anemones of any variety in with octopus no matter how inoccuous the anemones seem.

T'is the only thing I can think of.

Cheers

J

 

[Andy Lister]

Thanks for the replies guys,

I've had a good check and it's never been treated with copper as it's fairly new and only been used for inverts...

If someone could move this I would be greatful!

Regards
~Andy

Edit, sorry I was being blonde!

 

[Colin]

yeah sorry to hear...

also sorry i didnt see the post here

 

[Andy Lister]

Thanks for moving this!