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NEWBIE HERE WITH A HITCHIKER

P

pookie

Pygmy Octopus
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Dec 18, 2004
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:shock:
Thursday dec 9 th I got coral shipment from Singapore
and hidden in a sinularia there was a tiny baby octopus barely 2 1/2'' with tentacles extended.
I,ve brought it home thinking it was probably doomed at the pet store.
So I've set up a small colder tank for it thinking it might get scared some fish in my other tank.
So far so good , but I' like to identify it.
Difficult task since it's so small and shy.
It looks a lot like O. Rugosus as dicribed page 819 of the Baensch Marine Atlas 3.
It could be O. Vulgaris as well as O.cyanea-- although it has very ''bushy eyebrows''
I'll try to take a picture when she won't be so timid.

Does anyone have any ideas on what kind of shallow reef dwelling octopuses are most common in Singapore waters ?
-- oh ya -- one's that have bumpy skin around eyelids.


thanks
pookie :!:
 
HI Pookie and :welcome: can you post a pic?? Problem is most octis can change the texture of the skin!

With a Pic one of the "team" here may be able to help. Joel any ideas????

J
 
Hi and welcome to TONMO.com!

Hitchhiker octos are becoming more common, maybe because the live rock is shipped quicker or in better condition. I'm working on an article on hitchhiker octos so I'm especially interested in learning about yours.

Yes, we'll need pics to even begin to ID it. Is it eating amphipods and small crabs? Please keep us well informed and glad it has a good home.

We need to check about the temperatures of Singapore waters where the live rock is found and cultured.

Nancy
 
:mrgreen: I think I may have found something. In a book on invertabrates written by Julian sprung there is an octopus identified as O.Aegina and it is the closest match I've seen so far.

Unfortunatly I haven't found a whole of information on this particuliar type of octo.

I'm working on getting a decent picture to post.

As far as diet goes , frozen brine shrimp, mysis and plankton seem to disappear overnight. It also likes ghost shrimp and It probably snacks on all the gammarus running around. Though the pieces of squid offered were left untouched.
If I can get my hands on some fresh clams that'll be my next culinary attempt.

Salinity is 1.026 and water is 1 below room temperature = about 74 F during the day and 70-72F at night.

I'm open to suggestions and every available hypothesis out there.

Thanks

pookie
 
Hi pookie,

It's difficult to ID an octopus, especially a very small one, by comparing it with photos in a book - Jean is right, they change so much. Just look under Journals and Photos to see the many faces of Carol's G2!

Additional things I might recommend : make sure ammonia is 0. Try adding some small hermit crabs. Mysids are good - brine shrimp don't have much nuitrition, but maybe it's eating amphipods or something else. You might try small pieces of good quality shrimp, fresh or unthawed frozen.

It's very nice of you to adopt this little octopus. The young ones are very shy and hide a lot. Is it night active or does it move about during the day?

Nancy
 
Well its tropical down here and the water is around 25 celcius. The cephs i had all seemed to do well in 21 celcius which is around your water temperature.

Its gonna be hard to identify your octo as there are quite alot of species over here. Here are some of them.

Octopus (Octopus) aegina
Octopus (Octopus) cyanea
Octopus (Octopus) globosus
Octopus (Octopus) macropus
Octopus (Octopus) membranaceus
Octopus (Octopus) vulgaris

Their favourites seem to be crabs and shrimp
 
:welcome: So...will you keep him???? Sounds like he's doing very well! I find the youngums love small hermitcrabs! Have you thought of a name yet? Is truely amazing all the hitchhiking of octos in live rock! Makes me want to add some just to see if I get lucky too!!!! :mrgreen:

Carol
 
Maybe we'll have to run an exchange center for hitchhiker octos :smile: Some of the people with reef aquariums don't want to keep the little hitchhikers they find.

Nancy
 
:cry:

Sorry guys it wasn't meant to be I guess
yesterday I had one of those days when everything goes wrong
I got my hand slit open by a rabbittfish and spent two hours with my hand triple it's normal size, under boiling water to neutralize the effect of the venom

and when I came back home--- I saw my octo out for a stroll--- so I got my camera in hurry.....

And trying to get away from this very menacing object it knocked a large rock loose wich fell on it's mantle----
last night it looked paralyzed and now it's really dead

Thanks for all your help

pookie
 
Very sorry to hear about this, pookie.
:angelpus:
Maybe someday you consider having another ocotpus.

Hope your hand is better - that sounded terrible.

Nancy
 
:wink:
Hi there,
Thank you all for your concern
It took about two weeks to get back regular strenght in my thumb after getting pricked by the rabbitfish.
I went through all of the pictures in your gallery and my mystery octopus from Singapore was identical to the very last specimen ( who's unidentified)on the list 60-61.
When slightly stressed it automatically got a white-line accross it's mantle.

Well enough about that,
Since christmas, a pair of egg laying pearly jawfish have been keeping me busy----also i've had two broods of cleaner shrimp...

And all I can think about is... cool! Free octo food!
So I decided to try another one... this time I'll try not to drop a rock on it.

It should be in on wednesday, straight from california I,ve ordered a baby ''aquacultured'' octo. I'm expecting a tiny bimac to show up.
I'm hoping it comes in alive :rainbow:



pookie
 
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