- Joined
- Mar 8, 2004
- Messages
- 4,883
With the news of the passing of Barnaby today, I'm starting to be concerned that there is a trend with this batch of octos from saltwaterfish.com.
3 octos from this company that have been tentatively IDed as Octopus filosus, two have shown evidence of eye infections, and all 3 have died within a few weeks of arrival from unknown causes that don't seem to involve water quality.
barnaby ID (Bigpapa)
died today:
http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/8230/#post-105446
and was IDed here:
http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/8269/
kaleidoscope (Shipposhack)
http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/8064/
Tuvalu (Animal Mother)
http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/8047/
I don't in any way mean to suggest that saltwaterfish.com is in any way negligent or should be avoided, but I think one of the benefits of having a community of octo-keepers is that we can notice trends like this. Maybe there is some problem that the SWF folks don't know about, but could track down and fix, like one of their suppliers has a holding thank that's a reservoir for some sort of infection.
We also haven't seen too many of this species until recently, so it's quite possible that there is some unusual sensitivity that we haven't identified, and it doesn't have anything to do with the source. But I believe AM and Shippo are experienced octo keepers, and Bigpapa seemed to be being very diligent (although he was maybe a little hasty to decide that his tank was fully cycled, Barnaby's death wasn't coincident with an ammonia spike or anything of the sort).
I propose that we make a point of having someone contact saltwaterfish.com about the trend and make sure that they're aware of it. The way I would hope this will work out is that this will lead to a followup post here about how responsive and proactive their response is, so that this will be a positive review for them, and everybody wins... people generally seem to have had good experiences with them.
3 octos from this company that have been tentatively IDed as Octopus filosus, two have shown evidence of eye infections, and all 3 have died within a few weeks of arrival from unknown causes that don't seem to involve water quality.
barnaby ID (Bigpapa)

died today:
http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/8230/#post-105446
and was IDed here:
http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/8269/
kaleidoscope (Shipposhack)

http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/8064/
Tuvalu (Animal Mother)

http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/8047/
I don't in any way mean to suggest that saltwaterfish.com is in any way negligent or should be avoided, but I think one of the benefits of having a community of octo-keepers is that we can notice trends like this. Maybe there is some problem that the SWF folks don't know about, but could track down and fix, like one of their suppliers has a holding thank that's a reservoir for some sort of infection.
We also haven't seen too many of this species until recently, so it's quite possible that there is some unusual sensitivity that we haven't identified, and it doesn't have anything to do with the source. But I believe AM and Shippo are experienced octo keepers, and Bigpapa seemed to be being very diligent (although he was maybe a little hasty to decide that his tank was fully cycled, Barnaby's death wasn't coincident with an ammonia spike or anything of the sort).
I propose that we make a point of having someone contact saltwaterfish.com about the trend and make sure that they're aware of it. The way I would hope this will work out is that this will lead to a followup post here about how responsive and proactive their response is, so that this will be a positive review for them, and everybody wins... people generally seem to have had good experiences with them.