Need some questions answered about my O. chierchiae (originally mercatoris)

[gholland]

Ah... is it O. chierchiae?
http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/imgdb/...D=&CephID=517&Location=&Keywords=&LowestTaxa=

 

[Animal Mother]

That would be the "Zebra" octopus in question.

 

[gholland]

Is Dr. Roy still looking to acquire them? Jon... who did you get this from?

 

[Jon Crossan]

O. chierchiae has to be it. I read that little article on the species and answering that question I think that there are variations of the stripes because charley's pattern is different than that octo's. Charley has circles kind of on the botton of his head below his eyes. Sadly though I think that means my little guy is full grown I hope he's still got some days left in him. I just called fins my fish store but my octo guy isn't working today I'll call again later or maybe tommorrow and find out what the supplier was that we got him from. Does nobody really know anything about O. chierchiae? And if not, I can tell you guys as much as I can about his behavior if that would be of some interest to anyone.

 

[gholland]

Dr. Caldwell (Neogonodactylus) has worked with them before, so he might be a good source of info.
the perfect octopus

 

[Thales]

That would be my guess - pacific zebra. O. chierchiae started showing up on export list from Nicaragua. Sadly, apparently the exporters aren't all that sustainable or reliable, so they rarely seem to actually ship them out. Everyone is looking to acquire them because they are a large egged species that should be breedable. I would would drop most of my other breeding projects if I were able to get some of these because I think they may be the perfect home octo.
Anything you have to write about its behavior would be really helpful.

 

[Jon Crossan]

I deffinitley agree when you say they are a good species to take care of. My octo is very passive and doesn't mind being handled at all. Whenever he wants me to leave him alone he just gently pushes my hand away with one tentacle. Also he's been out during the day a few times thats when I used to handle him. Also with my red lights now he comes out at night and moves about the tank. The food he seems to like eating the most is Fiddler crabs. I haven't had success yet directly feeding him but I'm going to keep trying. When I first aquired him he found a hole after a couple of days and for some reason he was very attracted to the light on my keys when I would flash it in the tank in different areas. This made him come out of his hole! He seems to be very friendly and whenever I approach the tank and he is in his hole he waves two tentacles at me like hes saying hello but when I try to interact with him he just goes back into the hole. If 2 cm is as big as their mantle gets then I would say he might have been full grown when I got him. In the event that charley might be a she I might get eggs but I would think that would have happened by now. I don't really know how long it takes before octos with fertile eggs actually lay them after mating. I'll keep posting and tell you guys everything I find out. If you find any info let me know.

 

[Animal Mother]

Females can live months after mating before laying eggs, fyi. The cirlces under the eyes sound like eyespots. Another identifying feature of certain species. I hope you get the ID confirmed!

 

[Jon Crossan]

well they arent exactly eyespots. His stripes just meet at a point where it makes a circle. Of the other pictures I saw of the species the stripe variations have all looked different so I guess individuals are distinguishable by their stripe patterns.

 

[fishman42101]

Jon, you never showed me that pic, my supplier told me that your octo was collected in florida, that picture is awesome, (this is michael)

 

[Colin]

O. chierchiae has been showing up on lists here in the UK too but when I ordered some they never arrived. I actually got a substitute order that I was less than pleased with.

Jon, make sure you keep your journal up to date, you have something special with that little octopus.

 

[Colin]

Oh, one other thing...

If you are handling the octopus just be aware that such contrasting stripes on an animal is usually a warning. They might not be aggressive but personally I'd be cautious about physical contact as it could be quite venomous if you accidently got bitten. I don't think there is much known about its toxicity. Might be nothing to worry about but better safe than sorry.

Think wasps and sea snakes, but then again it could be a zebra for camouflage?

 

[Thales]

O. chierchiae has been showing up on lists here in the UK too but when I ordered some they never arrived. I actually got a substitute order that I was less than pleased with.

Jon, make sure you keep your journal up to date, you have something special with that little octopus.

Damn! I was counting on you!

And, this points out an even worse aspect of the marine ornamental industry - substitutions. An octo is an octo yeah? Many exporters would rather send something that people don't want instead of nothing. Grrr!

 

[monty]

I fixed the title to reflect the new ID, just so people searching in the future for chierchiae will find it more easily.

carry on.

 

[Jon Crossan]

Wow thank you so much everybody for all the input every bit counts! I'm getting another crab for him today because he has lost track of the other one. I'm assuming this because I haven't found a crab carcass yet. Just out of paranoia I think I might do a water change soon but my water checked out as being fine last time I went in (which was thursday I think). I've been adding buffer every other day to keep the PH up. The crab is floating as we speak and I'm thinking about putting it in a little container in front of charley's new hole (which is much smaller this time). Just so he knows its their I'll leave it in the container, who knows maybe he'll be hungry enough to go in after it! Oh and about handling him, this is kind of scary now that you say he could be very venomous but while handling him there would be times where he would sit flat on my palm and I would feel some pressure and then a VERY minute sting. I think this was him checking me out with little test bites but I seem to be doing just fine. I'll try to avoid physical contact with him as much as possible though in case he is in fact venomous enough to kill me. fishman42101 is my friend who works at Fins the fish store I got charley from. He is the one who ordered charley for me so if you have any questions about the supplier hes the one to ask. The supplier's name was www.seadwelling.com they are based in california. When we got in contact with them they said that charley was a "day octopus" and that they got him in from florida? So yeah they didn't really seem to know what they were talking about or what they were really sending us.