• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

[Old Board Archive] My new baby bimac died...

tonmo

Cthulhu
Staff member
Site Owner
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
11,267
Location
Pennsylvania
My new baby bimac died......|trana|
:'(

First time at keeping an octopus. I have a 15g tank filled with 10 pounds of live rock, 3" of live sand, an Eheim canister filter, etc.

Nitrates/Nitrites were undetectable.
PH 7.9
Salinity 1.024

Only issue that I know of was temperature which was 82 degrees due to a faulty heater.

The octopus arrived alive, but died after two days. We were out of town so we didn't see him acting strange. He hadn't eaten since he arrived.

Can anyone provide any comments on rate of survival for a baby bimac shipped overnight cross country? I am hoping that it is not a problem with my tank setup, and was more related to stress or illness brought on by the trip. Is this sort of thing ordinary?

We acclimated him with a variable drip pump over an hour long period. A hole was cut in the bag and he eventually climbed out on his own. He didn't appear to be stressed, but his breathing seemed a bit quick.

One other thing I am wondering about is air ventilation. The tank is completely sealed except for some slits cut into the top of the hood. The flow bar from the eheim causes a lot of surface water movement, I am hoping this is enough to provide substantial gas exchange.

Please let me know your thoughts.


Re: My new baby bimac died......|octomonkey|
Hi Trana, welcome to TONMO.com

Sorry to read about your bimac.

As far as shipping stress is concerend I lost a baby bimac in August which i put down to shipping stress. The other baby I got on the same day is doing great. I dont have actual survival rate figures but it is clear from taking part in several ceph forums for a while that bimacs are usually very hardy animals when it comes to shipping.

I would say that a 15 gal tank is too small for an adult bimac so you should be looking to get a bigger tank before your next octopus gets too big and it is important to make sure that this tank is well established. Mature for about 3 months or so with suitable starter crew.

The temperature was definetly too high for a bimac. Ideal for them is 65 - 72 degF and the addition of a fine wooden airstone would help to ensure that there was plenty gas exchange in your tank...

Are you going to try again?

Colin


Re: My new baby bimac died......|trana|
Oh, we are definately going to try again.

I am working on getting the temperature a bit lower. The tank has fully cycled over a 4-5 week period with 10# of rock and 3" of live sand. We added one hermit and one snail to do basic cleanup. I didn't want to add too many as they will certainly end up being snacks.

I am thinking about moving my Remora Pro backpack skimmer to the tank if I can figure out how to keep it sealed. That should add the oxygen that I need. I am going to get an oxygen test first to see if that is the problem. Do you have any recommendations for oxygen levels?

Are there any other tests I need to run that may be critical to a ceph? I have just about everything from my reef tank, but since it is a fairly new tank all the levels should be ok.

Thanks!
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top