New Octo is here!

[Jocephus]

Well, this one is a lot more spunky than the first, so keep your fingers crossed! It is however, about the same size. I will try the critter keeper inside of the 55 again for a while, at least until I can see it eating. After that I will let it roam the 55. I know I won't see it much, but it should be healthy enough in there. Attempt #2 underway! Yippee!

 

[sulley]

good luck

 

[Jocephus]

I checked on him last night, he was out. Cruising the 55. Slipped right through the critter keeper. Today, he is balled up in the corner. I assume he feels safe there because it is dark (tank's in the basement). Otherwise, everything seems okay. Pics tonight.

 

[DWhatley]

Exiting the critter ceeper and finding a den is a good sign

 

[Jocephus]

I hope so! I went and checked on him a moment ago, he was beneath a piece of live rock, color is reddish brown and he is about three inches across the legspan when stretched all the way out. Really bulging eyes. Much more active than the first one.

 

[Jocephus]

New Pics (Photo Heavy)

So here we go again, not the best but this guy is really small.

FTS

Acclimating

In the critter keeper

Hanging out

Corner hiding spot

And one just for scale

 

[CaptFish]

WOW. tiny that's great! I look forward to reading about this little one.

 

[Jocephus]

Tiny is right! I still can't believe he slipped through the critter keeper though. With this little one being so small, does anyone have feeding suggestions? There are a ton of micro brittle stars, chitons, and copepods in the tank, will he eat them? Should I still try crabs? Shrimp? Any and all ideas are appreciated!

Joe

 

[DWhatley]

It will likely try the copepods but won't eat the brittle stars and not likely the chitons so yes, small crabs (any kind mantle size or smaller, hermits may work - I have not been successful feeding hermits but others have had very good success) and try a sliver of frozen table shrimp. If you can get it to eat the table/bait shrimp feeding becomes far simpler.

 

[CaptFish]

when Legs was that small I fed her Pea size pieces of shrimp with a bamboo skewer

 

[sedna]

Welcome to your new friend, he's super cute! Is it nocturnal or diurnal? If nocturnal, look for some small black dots on the underside of it's mantle. I had a dwarf octo supposedly from the Pacfic, who looked like your friend- with great big eyes. Friendly little thing but very nocturnal. The best the supplier gave for ID was "Pacific Brown," but I'm pretty sure it was O. boki. I had great luck socializing it under red lights, and fed it small hermit crabs and small pieces of shrimp on a stick. Good luck!

 

[Jocephus]

Definately nocturnal. I googled O. boki, the pictures look close, but I've not seen many so who knows. It would fall into the "pacific" category though. I fed some frozen mysis tonight and I'm pretty sure he ate some. Or at least he jumped from the glass and onto "Something" on the sand. Otherwise everything seems fine. I didn't consider a red light, but I will pick up a red L.E.D. tomorrow, thanks!

 

[DWhatley]

I tried to find a photo of the black spots (founder chromatophores) Sedna mentions (there should be two on the under side of the mantle but are not the gill hearts you can see in the photo at the back) to give you something to look for but unfortunately, I can only find views from above and then the best photos are the ones already in Norman's book. Another trait of this animal would be (again from Norman's Cephalopods A world Guide) "patches of iridescent blue-green tissue scatter over the body and arms" I assume this would look much the same as the blue-green the suspect macropus complex octos show (and will usually show up with a flash photo).

 

[Jocephus]

Great news, watched him eating a shrimp tonight. He is out and about more (still only at night) and seems to have denned in a piece of live rock. I got a great look at the underside of the mantle this evening, but it was white, even when he was red. I didn't see any dark spots.

I named him Pinto, because his mantle is the size of a bean.

 

[DWhatley]

I still can't tell a lot from the photo. Look at the arms in Sisturus' photos and note the tapering as well as the 1.5-2 x mantle length. Does your little one have longer and less tapered arms? Sisty is probably 6 or 7 months in that picture. There a few more if you scroll down the thread that might help as well.

If Pinto is choosing LR over the barnacles and is mercatoris (big IF still) then my limited observation would suggest male. Watch to see if he switches dens every couple of weeks (and he may choose the barnacles during some of those switches). This was typical behavior for the ones I have kept but by no mean difinitive.