[Octopus]: Odo

[sedna]

Odo is tiny. SUPER tiny. We’ve had it for almost a month now, and it’s still just sooooo teensy tiny!!! I was ordering corals from KP Aquatics, and in emailing Philip mentioned that he had a few really small octopuses that were collected in live rock. Smaller than I usually like to keep- but my 20gal long was easily emptied for a grow out, so I decided it was worth a try! These pictures were taken when it got here on April 22.

 

[sedna]

Up until this weekend, this tank was in the laundry room- don’t ask, that’s just where it fit when we got it. . Odo is still very nocturnal, so to catch a glimpse of it we’d have to keep the basement dark and sneak down after 11pm or so. We were only seeing it a couple times a week, under the red lights, usually with the help of a flashlight. Here are some not great shots from May 10th, Odo next to a snail shell. From behind it’s eyes to the tip of its mantle is about one cm, according to John.

 

[tonmo]

wow! Cool little guy! What species, any ideas yet?

 

[sedna]

So yesterday, we brought the tank upstairs into our bedroom. I decided that Odo would not become socialized with the low foot traffic in the laundry room, and it’s not the best place for tank watching! . Now it’s on my dresser next to a paludarium where I have a barking tree frog in an endless supply of Endler’s live bearers, and an anemone and clownfish tank.

One end of the tank is full of Ulva that I got from Sach’s, filled with pods to hunt. We have seen Odo hunting in that patch! We’ve supplemented the algae with some groovy stuff growing in the other tanks. It’s a super simple set up, with an Oase canister filter which is AWESOME- the heater is contained IN the filter, a small internal UV filter and Fluval Aqua Sky marine lights.

The tank was initially bought last minute when we received a much larger mantis shrimp than we ordered. We then used it for curing live rock, and we loved it so much we just kept rock in it. We added a fish or two, but they went into the bio cube when Odo came. Eventually, will get different lighting when Odo moves into a larger tank, as our initial plan was to make this a nano reef with a mated pair of jaw fish.

 

[sedna]

A quick video of the tank- but no Odo...

 

[sedna]

wow! Cool little guy! What species, any ideas yet?

He was sold to me as a briareus, And that’s what he’s looking like so far…

 

[sedna]

It was totally worth moving the tank upstairs into our bedroom! She’s only been in that spot for two days, but we know where its regular hideout is! It’s very close to the front, she can probably see everything that’s going on in the room from where she is- we just can’t see her.

 

[tonmo]

 

[MightyMolusk]

WOW. WHAT A CUTIE!!!!

Do you know how old they are???

 

[DWhatley]

Definitely O. briareus.