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Octo Ships today

Mizu

Vampyroteuthis
Registered
Joined
Jul 27, 2004
Messages
268
From Florida.
keey your fingers crossed.
I custom cut a plexiglass top to seal the 150 gal from escape.
reinforced it with glass and duct taped the edges.
the over flow has a grill for preventing ingress but the holes are a little big for my tastes might stuff it with a foam block.
water is at 79 degrees because my heater apperrently sucks like a 50 amp vacum.
will get a new one soon.
salinity is at 1.0265
(EDIT: This number has been edited due to a typo)
every thing else is close to zero
Put the castle in (Megas loved his castle)
made a 3 part envirmoment
one part is castle
one part is open sand
one part is reef like with rocks and corals (half of the tank is this.)
Coral is doing well and growing.
I should post my tank pics havent done anythign like that since Zim died.
well wish me luck
Acclimation method for me is one cup of tank water every 15 min for one hour.
hopefully this works out well
I have had ok luck so far.
hope it holds
 
we need a "fingers crossed" smilie... (we can probably do without some of the other possible finger gestures)
 
Best of luck on your new octos arrival! One question though...what does "close to zero" mean in terms of ammonia/nitrites? Kind of important that it be zero as octopuses are very sensative in particular to ammonia.

Anyway, please keep us updated and make sure you acclimate slowly! Also if you have airline tubing, start a suction, tie a knot in the line and alow it to drip slowing for the hour or so.
Carol
 
Close to Zero means all zeros except for Nitrates which for some reason (maybe my brand of test kit) always show just a little. like zero is clear and there is always a hint of a shadow of color in it.
which of course reads as not zero.
 
I'd be more inclined to do a slower acclimation than what you are saying really. A lot of marine animals which are mainly water based will react very badly to sudden changes in salinity for example due to osmosis and can get irreversable cell damage.

Check the water that the octo comes in before you start an acclimation and float it in the tank for a good while (at least half an hour depending on the bag size) to ajust to the tank temperature before you start acclimation at all.

Just my 2 cents anyway (and I'm English so use pence so cents are pretty worthless)

HTH

~Andy
 
Acclimation is a two edged sword. You want to bring temperature and salinity to your aquarium values very slowly, but pH and ammonia are probably even greater threats and they will change significantly during shipping and will continue to change during acclimation. The idea of using a very slow drip to change salinity sounds like a good idea, but while you are slowly changing the salinity, the stressed cephalopod is putting out ammonia and lowering the pH. Also, if the animal was shipped sealed in oxygen, as soon as you open the bag, oxygen titers will start to fall. This can occasionally also cause problems.

I guess the bottom line is to use common sense. Floating the shipping bag in your aquarium as soon as it arrives is a good idea and usually temperature will matich in an hour or less - unless the bag is very large or very cold. If the animal is in good shape and the water clean, you can probably take your time acclimating over several hours. However, if shipping took a couple of days and/or the animal appears stressed and the water is fouled, accelerate the process.

Also, remember that a difference in salinity can be made up in two ways, acclimating the animal and by changing the salinity in the aquarium. We use a lot of relatively small dedicated tanks for our Hapalochlaena which often arrive in fairly hyposaline water. At the same time that we bring the salinity of thewater in the bag up, we lower the salinity in the aquarium. This speeds up the process and later the aquarium can be brought back up very slowly to normal levels through evaporation.

Roy
 
he arrived and he looks alive and ok
he did the whole periscoping eyeballs trick at me a couple times.
no pics yet as i kept the lighting way down to reduce stress.
No effort to escape the bag (megas was headed for the hills the second the bag was open)
hes got CRAZY long leggs.
wow long.
Wife is acclimating him now.
 
He's soooo cute....How's he doing? Reminds me of Egor. Think he was the same species. Did you name him Blue?

Best of luck!!!

Carol
 
was thinking of naming him Meatwad

and he is currently using a very advanced hide in plain sight ability
because hes in there but i cant find him.
 
Let's hope your Meatwad has a brain.
meatwad-smoking.jpg
 

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