Hello all! My name is Alyssa and I live in the DC metro area. I’ve been a fan of this site for about a year and a half now. I’ve sucked down every bit of information I can find about cephalopods online, in magazines, books and scholarly journals and have learned a lot from this site.
My current octopus is (possibly) a O. Minor. He’s male and his name is Elephant
he resides in my custom edited 50 gal aquarium. It’s my first marine aquarium, so although I was never an “expert” My obsessive desire, dedicated learning and countless hours have enabled me to be successful with several octopuses now. (Note: I label it success only when the octopus eats regularly, has good coloring and exhibits normal behavior for cephalopods. The tank I bought used and then did the editing to it to make it octopus safe. All of the openings are smaller or thinner than his beak, the overflow goes down to the sump underneath and the top I drilled little screws into the frame so the plastic latches could be turned to keep the lid tightly secured and hold the overflow pipe drain top on so he doesn’t pull it apart. Size wise -if Elephant’s mantle were laying in my palm his mantle length would be a bit longer than my palm and his longest arms would reach just past my elbow. I’ve had him for a couple months and he’s really thriving so I thought I’d start a journal here to mention what has and hasn’t worked for him and his predecessors. I replaced the top the aquarium came with with acrylic and the bottom as well as it shattered when drilling for the center two pipes that are in the middle of the aquarium. There is a massive amount of live rock in the tank and an inch and a 1/4 to an inch and 1/2 of carrib-sea rock. He only eats live food: emerald crabs, hermit crabs, sea snails, and clams and he has managed to eat a peppermint shrimp but only one of the two that were in there. I keep his tank stocked with the other creatures so he always has access to a meal. He litters the shells and crab parts everywhere but mainly outside of his favorite den. I cannot stress enough the truth to the advice I’ve read on here a number of times- “give them good hiding dens that you cannot see the octopus in so that he feels secure and he will be happier and come out more!” He still pretty much exclusively comes out when it is pitch black. I have his tank in my walkout closet so he can have total darkness. And I have 3 night vision cameras that point at different angles and sides of his kingdom so lots of black and white videos and pics and am starting to add to his Instagram page (@Elephant.the.Octopus) I’ll attach some pictures to this post, not sure how to upload videos on here yet, I’m still learning how to navigate a forum (yes I know, worst millennial ever lol)
When I got him a couple months ago I did a veryyy slow drip acclimation that was over 6 hours then brought the bucket to the top of the aquarium and allowed him to decide when to let himself into the tank-to my surprise he did almost immediately. Then the first three days I left him completely alone (minus the 30 seconds a day I’d slip in just to clean the protein skimmer, get water sample for testing and top off his water) Every single octopus I’ve had has shown very different personalities, and Elephant is not as interested in me as most have been. He sees me or my phone and stares me down for about 10 seconds and then heads away-interestingly he never goes to his favorite den while Im watching him, but he does take cover elsewhere lol. He is almost always this orangish or reddish kind of color with some interesting patterns and his skin gets scrunched looking like an elephant’s in the picture that has a weird blue spot on it-note that that was a camera glare, his skin was not blue like that. He also sometimes makes little raised bumps, but only on his mantle. He’s also less interested in the toys and novel items I place in his tank than the other octopuses I’ve had-he seems more easily frightened than the others. Does anyone think he could be a different type of octopus than the octopus minor? He looks rather similar to some pictures I’ve seen on here that people have listed being the o. Briareus—though I scuba dived with that species a number of times, seen at least half a dozen of them on night dives in Roatan and Utila Honduras and they had much shorter, stubbier arms and I’ve always seen those in a “default color” of blue green with brown, not this orangish red..
My current octopus is (possibly) a O. Minor. He’s male and his name is Elephant
he resides in my custom edited 50 gal aquarium. It’s my first marine aquarium, so although I was never an “expert” My obsessive desire, dedicated learning and countless hours have enabled me to be successful with several octopuses now. (Note: I label it success only when the octopus eats regularly, has good coloring and exhibits normal behavior for cephalopods. The tank I bought used and then did the editing to it to make it octopus safe. All of the openings are smaller or thinner than his beak, the overflow goes down to the sump underneath and the top I drilled little screws into the frame so the plastic latches could be turned to keep the lid tightly secured and hold the overflow pipe drain top on so he doesn’t pull it apart. Size wise -if Elephant’s mantle were laying in my palm his mantle length would be a bit longer than my palm and his longest arms would reach just past my elbow. I’ve had him for a couple months and he’s really thriving so I thought I’d start a journal here to mention what has and hasn’t worked for him and his predecessors. I replaced the top the aquarium came with with acrylic and the bottom as well as it shattered when drilling for the center two pipes that are in the middle of the aquarium. There is a massive amount of live rock in the tank and an inch and a 1/4 to an inch and 1/2 of carrib-sea rock. He only eats live food: emerald crabs, hermit crabs, sea snails, and clams and he has managed to eat a peppermint shrimp but only one of the two that were in there. I keep his tank stocked with the other creatures so he always has access to a meal. He litters the shells and crab parts everywhere but mainly outside of his favorite den. I cannot stress enough the truth to the advice I’ve read on here a number of times- “give them good hiding dens that you cannot see the octopus in so that he feels secure and he will be happier and come out more!” He still pretty much exclusively comes out when it is pitch black. I have his tank in my walkout closet so he can have total darkness. And I have 3 night vision cameras that point at different angles and sides of his kingdom so lots of black and white videos and pics and am starting to add to his Instagram page (@Elephant.the.Octopus) I’ll attach some pictures to this post, not sure how to upload videos on here yet, I’m still learning how to navigate a forum (yes I know, worst millennial ever lol) When I got him a couple months ago I did a veryyy slow drip acclimation that was over 6 hours then brought the bucket to the top of the aquarium and allowed him to decide when to let himself into the tank-to my surprise he did almost immediately. Then the first three days I left him completely alone (minus the 30 seconds a day I’d slip in just to clean the protein skimmer, get water sample for testing and top off his water) Every single octopus I’ve had has shown very different personalities, and Elephant is not as interested in me as most have been. He sees me or my phone and stares me down for about 10 seconds and then heads away-interestingly he never goes to his favorite den while Im watching him, but he does take cover elsewhere lol. He is almost always this orangish or reddish kind of color with some interesting patterns and his skin gets scrunched looking like an elephant’s in the picture that has a weird blue spot on it-note that that was a camera glare, his skin was not blue like that. He also sometimes makes little raised bumps, but only on his mantle. He’s also less interested in the toys and novel items I place in his tank than the other octopuses I’ve had-he seems more easily frightened than the others. Does anyone think he could be a different type of octopus than the octopus minor? He looks rather similar to some pictures I’ve seen on here that people have listed being the o. Briareus—though I scuba dived with that species a number of times, seen at least half a dozen of them on night dives in Roatan and Utila Honduras and they had much shorter, stubbier arms and I’ve always seen those in a “default color” of blue green with brown, not this orangish red..
funny.
