New Octopus! Octavian

blackz151

Cuttlefish
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2012
Messages
15
Today I received my first octopus form Jason at Salt Water Tropical Fish | Direct from the Collector | Salt Water Fish First off I want to say Jason is the best person to deal with. His customer service is second to non.

I do not know what kinda he/she is. We acclimated Octavian for 2 hrs or so today. We added him to the tank and he seemed to be pretty active at first. Thats where I got these pictures for. Then he found his den and has been in there since. I can still see him he seems to be happy not breathing hard or anything. Enough with the talking heres the new guy:






 
I am 99% sure Octavian is O. hummelincki (eye spots - picture 5 -, purple tips on suckers, quick taper of arms) and they often look like O. vugaris but the spot pattern,papillae and eyes are remarkably like one of Margay's looks. Watch the eye spots to see if they sometimes show bright yellow with a bright blue center or if they only display as a brown circle.

Sex is not clear. Watch the third arm to the right (clockwise as you orient your eyes to the octopus') to see if it is carried curled most of the time when the others are actively used.

Have a look at the other current O. hummelincki, DaVinci for some ideas on what to expect over the next month.

Oh, and :welcome: to both you and Octavian :oops:
 
My only question as of now is when should I try to feed him/her and is there anything special I should feed? Jason said he was feeding them bait shrimp and crabs. Just want to make sure I do it right!
 
To find other hummelincki journals, look at the top of the Octopus journals and photos (this subforum) (primary forum will be Octopus care) for the green stickies titled List of our Octopuses. The current year has its own thread and all prior years are combined and each year has a single post. After 2008 (I think) the name of the octopus will take you to its journal. Here is the link to the current list. If your are not using a phone (I don't quite know what is available on mobile) your browser should have a find on page option. If you type hummelincki, you should be able to find all the references in either list (it is OK to rabbit trail to other animals though :wink:).

Bait shrimp and crabs are perfect, kudos to your supplier. If you can't get them live, thawed table shrimp is quite acceptable. For crabs we go to the Asian markets and scrounge through the live blue crab bins for just the claws and then freeze them. Do NOT freeze whole crabs as the body organs will pollute the meat (you won't find crab uncooked in the frozen foods and you want to feed raw). Fiddlers can be obtained by mail if you don't have them locally or they are overly expensive but they are really too small for anything more than a snack. An occasional crawfish makes a good treat. You can freeze the tails and claws but not the body.

We usually get half a dozen clams every few months, soak them overnight in tank water to remove the grocery yuck (be sure the container has tall sides and that you change the water in the AM) and ensure they are alive and put a couple in the tank and the rest in other, non-octo tanks. If this is your only set-up, then only buy 2 or 3 at a time. Octavian will be able to open them herself but may or may not take an interest right away. Clams can help (a little, not a lot) clean the substrate and left in the tank as cleanup crew but keep an eye on them to be sure they are still alive. Other mussels are fine food (and you can offer just the meat if you need a change of diet food but letting them open it is thought to be an enrichment) but they make a mess of the tank and don't survive well where clams make a minimum mess and can live for a long time in the tank (I have had some for over a year).

SOME octos will eat snails and/or hermits. For Octavian, hermits are far too small for the effort and she/he is likely to leave them alone once it is clear there is a regular feeding time with easy food. If you want to add them for clean up crew and they are not already there, wait until she/he is eating well. If you already have them in the tank Octavian may or may not eat some or all of them.

We also feed all the other stuff in the tank Cyclop-eeze and have noticed that our octos eliminations are frequently red. We suspect they eat the Cyclop-eeze (and know for sure in some cases) but they may also be eating the pods that consume it so I recommend it in small quantities (frozen, not dried) as well.

Basically, anything you get from a seafood counter is acceptable to try but minimize any fish (or leave it off your list entirely) as studies have shown they will eat it but not do well if it is the main diet.

One thing I suggest to new member is to edit your profile and include something reasonable in the displayed location. City and state/province and country if not in the US is most helpful but creativity is accepted. Giving an idea of your location helps with food ideas as well as sharing local information and the occasional mini-TONMOcon get togethers when members travel or live near by.
 
Blackz151 Welcome and congratz. Good looking octo and I think you found A great octo to start. I have wanted A hummelincki for a wile now. Glad to see another one on Tonmo. If I had room for another right now I would contact your supplier and try but I dont have the space "have 2 already" Please post lots of pics and videos.
 
D,
Thank you so much for the info. It really helped take allot of the guess work out. I do have a few other tanks so I will order up some crab and stuff in bulk and I can put it in the other tanks.

Sirreal,
Thank you! Yea he/she is really cool I'm pretty excited. If you are going to order one I would HIGHLY recommend Jason. He Is in the key's so hes close. He txted me tons of pictures of everything he has. Gave me the option to come pick it up. I was really busy with trips for work so he held on till I was ready for him to ship it. I will get some more pictures and videos soon!. I hope he comes out today He went into his "den" last night after I put him in the tank and he checked everything out.
 
I will throw in a caveat or two since this is your first octopus. If you have been reading the journals you will come across the info but much of it is scattered.

The octopuses we typically keep only live about a year and they are not hatchlings when they are collected. Additionally, size is not a good indicator of age so we are left guessing on longevity. I am never comfortable with acclimation until the animal has survived two weeks so keep this in mind before ordering mega food supplies. Additionally, female hummelincki have often brooded somewhere close to the two week mark. We are not sure why this is but it is common enough to note. My guess is that they are out looking for extra food just prior to brooding (they stop eating once the eggs are laid) but we have tossed around the idea of tank temperatures. Octavian is not a very young animal but that is as much as I can guess. I have had males at this size survive more than 7 months but not females. Most octopuses are semelparous (one set of offspring, we now know of two that can produce multiple clutches but they have not yet been introduced to the hobby in any numbers and may be very limited in the wild) and the female dies shortly after the eggs hatch (or would have hatched in the case of infertile eggs).

Hummelinckis are what we call a small egg species (if female and she starts brooding, the eggs will very likely hatch). What this infers is that the hatchlings will have a pelagic stage (living in the water column and not fully formed) that lasts about 1 month. Sadly, we have not (universally, not just TONMO) been successful raising any of the small egg species in an aquarium environment. Some of the others we keep, notably bimaculoides (cold water Pacific), mercatoris (Caribbean nocturnal dwarf) and briareus (Caribbean crepuscular - early evening, early morning feeder) , are in the large egg species and there has been some success with raising these (the first two being the most successful). Not what you wanted to hear, I know but something we have to accept.
 
Great info once again D! Im waitng to make sure he will be ok before I rush out and stock up on food for him. I woke up this moring and he was sitting on the rock right outside his den. When I came home from work he is back in the den. I have some frozen krill for my other tank so I thawed it out and put it on a skewer. I put It at the entrance of the den and he did reach out and grab it. I dont know if he ate it but he did take a few peaces I offered.
 
If he took it from the skewer and did not throw it out immediately, he ate it.

One other observation I have made over several species. Their behavior for the first two weeks will be quite different from what you will see after they fully adjust (about 1 month). Initially, they either eat anything offered or nothing at all. Later he may show a strong preference or start refusing food he does not like. Oddly, often the initial two weeks makes them appear quite willing to interact and then they become shy. After about 1 month a more stable relationship will slowly begin to grow IF you keep with a well timed feeding schedule and make sure you are in front of the tank for an extended period of time each day. Ours are in the breakfast room (or you might call it the fish room :biggrin2:) so they see us eating every night as well as passing through on a regular basis. I have kept a couple in a tank in the living room, a room not often visited but has viewing to the kitchen and the animals have not been as interactive as the ones that see us eating daily.
 
DWhatley;198608 said:
If he took it from the skewer and did not throw it out immediately, he ate it.

One other observation I have made over several species. Their behavior for the first two weeks will be quite different from what you will see after they fully adjust (about 1 month). Initially, they either eat anything offered or nothing at all. Later he may show a strong preference or start refusing food he does not like. Oddly, often the initial two weeks makes them appear quite willing to interact and then they become shy. After about 1 month a more stable relationship will slowly begin to grow IF you keep with a well timed feeding schedule and make sure you are in front of the tank for an extended period of time each day. Ours are in the breakfast room (or you might call it the fish room :biggrin2:) so they see us eating every night as well as passing through on a regular basis. I have kept a couple in a tank in the living room, a room not often visited but has viewing to the kitchen and the animals have not been as interactive as the ones that see us eating daily.

Sounds like a great room you got there D. I have him in my bedroom where if I'm not working Im in here. So he will be able to see things going on.
 
DWhatley;198615 said:
Is your computer in your bedroom? We have often had reports that it "appears" some will watch TV or a computer screen.

There is and a tv. Haven't really caught him watching tv though. This morning he was still tucked up in his den. We will see if he come out a little more tonight
 

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