[Octopus]: Odo

[sedna]

WOW. WHAT A CUTIE!!!!

Do you know how old they are???

Not at all sure, just young! I’m just doing my best to grow them up safely!

 

[sedna]

This morning when I got up I was surprised to find Odo on the glass at the waterline. I’m a bit concerned, because it’s skin just looked odd to me. I was able to put my finger tip in the water and he did grab out and touch me, but stayed put. It makes me very nervous to find my nocturnal octopus is out in full daylight, but the lights at all going on suddenly only 10 minutes before – so maybe it was just startled and holding very still because we were in the room. I went out of the room to get my water testing equipment, and by the time I came back less than five minutes later it had gone off into the rocks. I’m sure I am just being overly dramatic, but I wish I saw some more color from this little one! I don’t have a lot of experience with such a tiny octopus- maybe D can chime in here...

 

[sedna]

Here’s a quick clip of Odo from this morning- you can see the darker skin that almost looks like it’s peeling off- but it’s not. It’s just so odd looking to me!

 

[DWhatley]

Not crazy about the waterline hang out but DON'T change a bunch of water. I don't have a formula for best practice when they are this small, it is still kind of hit or miss. It is anecdotal but both Steve O'Shea (squid not octos) and I both noticed that hatchlings and juveniles did better in older, less pristine water. I would even suggest using the water you take off from the other octo tank to do water changes in this one if you need to change out water because of waste. Wish I could be of more help.

 

[sedna]

Not crazy about the waterline hang out but DON'T change a bunch of water. I don't have a formula for best practice when they are this small, it is still kind of hit or miss. It is anecdotal but both Steve O'Shea (squid not octos) and I both noticed that hatchlings and juveniles did better in older, less pristine water. I would even suggest using the water you take off from the other octo tank to do water changes in this one if you need to change out water because of waste. Wish I could be of more help.

That is helpful! We are planning a water change later- and we can absolutely use water from other tanks. At the moment, the tank I’d usually keep Kestra in is going through “upgrades” so only live rock, corals and clean up crew are in that one. The plan was to move them both (Odo and Kestra) into larger tanks when they get big enough.

 

[DWhatley]

I have moved all of my octos when they started out too small for the larger tanks and have never had a problem moving teen/adults. It is just the tiny ones that seem to be very, very sensitive to water changes.

 

[sedna]

While we’re having great success with Kestra, Odo is a different story... I haven’t seen any sign of him in two weeks. No signs of life or evidence of death. Just a whole lot of nothing. We’ve done water changes as D suggested- “top down” style using water from a different well established tank, the chemistry is spot on, the tank is stocked with a multitude of prey items- nothing to do but wait and see if he’s still alive.

 

[tonmo]

thanks for the update...

 

[DWhatley]

Odo was so young it is hard to make any kind of call. Best case (and quite normal) is that she/he is holed up in the LR. Be sure you keep plenty of small crustacians (pods and hermits and you might try keeping some live shore shrimp in the tank). Worst case, she/he was so small that death did not disrupt the tank. Experience makes me tend toward the first guess. They typically stay hidden until around 5 months old.

 

[sedna]

Odo was so young it is hard to make any kind of call. Best case (and quite normal) is that she/he is holed up in the LR. Be sure you keep plenty of small crustacians (pods and hermits and you might try keeping some live shore shrimp in the tank). Worst case, she/he was so small that death did not disrupt the tank. Experience makes me tend toward the first guess. They typically stay hidden until around 5 months old.

That is certainly our hope, that it’s just in a rock being shy! Only time will tell, so we’ll just keep up with maintenance and wait for the tax return so we can get some Kessils for growing ricordea and zoanthids.