New owner of a very shy Bimac - any inital thoughts/advice?

[victorlautreamont]

Hello to everyone! I've been a long-time lurker and I appreciate all the wisdom that's been shared here.

TL;DR is, I am a new Bimac owner and while he was very active for the first 48 hours he pretty much spends all his time in his den now. Any thoughts or advice are appreciated for making sure he's happy and encouraging him to come out more often. Long version follows.

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After keeping smaller fish+live rock tanks for years I decided late in 2023 to get serious about an Octopus and set up the 75gal pictured below. After months of tinkering with water quality etc I finally received a Bimac about two weeks ago and I was fascinated to see him moving around & exploring - worth the effort!

After the initial 48 hours however, he dug himself a den and I pretty much haven't seen him since, to the point that I was worried he'd died or even escaped! I lifted up the piece of live rock he was burrowed under and nope, still there, just very shy apparently. He did a few laps and then crawled right back in.

I am trying to be patient & realistic that they're under no obligation to put on a show for me. Curious to hear anyone else's thoughts or experiences with this species however. (Yes I'm also aware of the possibility that he was at the end of his lifespan when I received him - hopefully not the case but could be.)

75 gal tank, water parameters are excellent, chiller is holding at 69', and he has lots of food options (crabs, shrimp, snails) but I don't ever see him out hunting or exploring. The five blue damels are left over from when I was maturing the tank but I left them in figuring "It works until it doesn't" and I won't be surprised or upset if they disappear.

 

[TMoct]

The damsels are probably terrorizing him. I would remove them. I even had an octopus stress himself to death sharing a tank with fish -- fewer in number and less aggressive than damsels!

 

[TMoct]

Also, 69F might be a touch high. Others on here probably know better than me. I've got mine set at 65F (the actual temperature oscillates between 65 and 67, when the chiller kicks on). My understanding is that they will live longer if the temp is a little cooler.

 

[victorlautreamont]

Interesting, I had wondered about the damsels because they're pretty aggressive toward other fish, but they all cowered in the rocks when I introduced him. They only came back out after he established his den. I could move them into my quarantine / food tank and see if that helps.

And yeah I had the chiller going between 65'-68' but I kicked it up a few degrees to see if the increased temp would make him more active.

I appreciate the insight!

 

[TMoct]

I would definitely quarantine them -- sooner rather than later -- at least to see if it helps.
(I'm scarred from my experience finding a stressed-to-death octo one morning.)

 

[TMoct]

Great looking tank, by the way! Lots of places to explore.

 

[Tomh]

Damsels and Octopus are not a good match. No fish are.

 

[Hadla]

Omg I love that they got all “oh no something big and new!” Then they realized it wasn’t a threat! Never would have thought that fish could threaten an octo that much! Thought maybe just one damsel would be fine with him but I can see why a group would be bad… had thought of getting a fish to go with my abdopus but I’ll stick to inverts that won’t bother him love seeing bimacs! A friend near me had one a few years ago and I had the chance to interact with him once she was afraid to so he loved it and actually tested out my skin! The pic shown is when he was nipping me and after… lovely tank you have btw!

 

[victorlautreamont]

I understood that fish were not viable as long-term tankmates but all the discussion seems to revolve around people being sad that their new octopus killed everything else in the tank. I was prepared to accept that (expecting it really) but hadn't considered the fish would be the bullies.

Well let me tell you, extracting 5 very small and nimble damselfish from a tank with lots of live rock to dart behind is quite a chore! I got them all out though, so fingers crossed that as things get a little more calm in there I will see him out more. As I was chasing the fish around the tank he came out and swam around quite a bit and seemed as mobile & energetic as when I first got him.

Will follow up!

 

[victorlautreamont]

For the record, the other creatures in the tank now are just various snails, some hermits, small emerald crabs (~1 inch), and two camel shrimp. I assume those are all non-hostile and will eventually become food, but any further input is welcomed!

 

[TMoct]

How’s the shy bimac doing?

 

[victorlautreamont]

Still shy When I extracted the damsels I had to move around a lot of the rock, and I intentionally left one big pile near the front of the tank hoping he’d make a new den there, which he did.

Overnight he excavated a little chamber by blowing the sand out, and even dragged a few seashells in there with him. So I can see him a little now and he seems fine he’s just… at home, I guess.

I lowered the chiller back to 67-69 as well. Hopefully as he gets comfortable he will be more willing to come out more. From what I can tell he has eaten 2 hermit crabs and 2-3 snails in the 2 weeks I’ve had him, but never when I was looking - I only find the dismembered crabs and empty shells. That doesn’t seem like much to me but there are more of both in there if he wants them. (Kind of surprised the camel shrimp are still going, they are big and not particularly fast).

 

[victorlautreamont]

Pic of his new den

 

[tonmo]

Love it! Reminds me of this classic game -- hard!

Thread '"Find the ceph in this photo" game'

Jun 13, 2008

I've been having some fun playing "Find the ceph in this photo" game with Dreadhead, cuttlefishguy, and others lately and wanted to more-or-less "organize the game" into a single, on-going thread and invite everyone to post their challenges here as well as establish some simple guidelines for posting answers.

Rules:
1. Post a pic of a hard-to-spot ceph.
2. Indicate what kind of ceph and how many people should look for.
3. Include a link to another version of the same photo (in your TONMO gallery or a photo archive site) where the hiding...

• gholland
• fun
• Replies: 81
• Forum: The Octopus' Den

Unfortunately a lot of broken links in the first couple pages of the thread; I'll see if anything can be resurrected, but I'm afraid they're lost.... I think it works later int he thread, though!

 

[victorlautreamont]

I don’t think the exposure/resolution is high enough to actually see him in the first photo but this one is better.

I think the shell is his Ring Camera.