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[Octopus]: New Bimac: Octavia

Over the weekend we had some family come into town. Octavia was SO shy the first night! She didn't want to come out of her den at all. By the end of the weekend though she was out and displayed some beautiful color patterns for everyone to see.

It was a really humbling moment to be able to share and educate people on such a beautiful creature that most people have never seen in real life. I feel so blessed!
 
Thursday night I added the typical 4 fiddler crabs she usually eats in one sitting to the aquarium. I did not see her eat them that night which struck me as a little odd.

Friday night she moved to the top corner on the glass opposite of the TV- so not like her. I noticed 3 of the fiddlers still alive. Super weird because her appatite was borderline unsustainable up until now? I tried offering some thawed shrimp last night- she didn’t want it even a little bit. She kept pushing the feeding stick away from her.

This morning I woke up and she’s still on the glass and I saw at least two fiddler crab but there are so many hiding places for them I have no way of knowing how many are still actually there. I am currently mixing some water to do a water change. It has been 6 days from her last one but figured it couldn’t hurt to go ahead and do one just in case.

Parameters are as follows-
pH- 8.3
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 10
Temp- 65 degrees

I don’t like how she looks at all and I’m feeling very uneasy. Anyone have any words of advice?
 

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Yeah, he does look stressed! Don’t panic yet! Your water parameters look good! Double check your parameters! What kind of test kits are you using? They do have bad days are are back to normal the next!!! Good luck! Keep me posted! Tom
 
Yeah, he does look stressed! Don’t panic yet! Your water parameters look good! Double check your parameters! What kind of test kits are you using? They do have bad days are are back to normal the next!!! Good luck! Keep me posted! Tom
Checked them again and they are the same as I listed before. I also checked salinity- 1.026. Water is almost done mixing. She has since I initially posted moved around a little and flashed some colors but is now back to the same spot all curled up again.
 
Checked them again and they are the same as I listed before. I also checked salinity- 1.026. Water is almost done mixing. She has since I initially posted moved around a little and flashed some colors but is now back to the same spot all curled up again.
If your water is good give her a day to relax before you do water change? What test kits you using? You could text me if you want?
 
I am heartbroken to announce Octavia has passed.

All equipment has been checked twice over and nothing is malfunctioning. We went to our LFS today to take a water sample in and the readings were as followed-

pH- 8.3
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-8
Alkalinity-10
Calcium- 400
Phosphate- 0.1
Salinity- 1.026

We can not for the life of us figure out what happened. No hands had been in the tank with the exception the water change and I scrubbed my hands with a mild soap prior and rinsed insanely well(as always before going into the tank), nothing aerosol is sprayed in the room where we keep the tanks, no new water/salt source and our other tank is completely fine that uses the same water and salt. No new food was introduced.

Is there anything we could have done that I am not aware of? I would hate to repeat the same situation due to a human error that was unknown.

She (who once was removed from the aquarium I think was actually a he) measured 20in tip to tip give or take a little. I did not take any pictures after we pulled her out- I was pretty upset and my sweet husband stepped in to help. I will attach the last two pictures I took after the decline started before her/his passing.
 

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