Pics of Fluffy

[Nancy]

We've had a lot of octopus eye problems recently. Some discussion and remedies are already on the Octopus Care forum.

How large is your octopus - is it a young one or older?

Nancy

 

[drakanorn]

another concern, a 1/2 inch section of arm got bitten off and propelled out of his conch shell "den". all of the parameters are fine but i did a small water change anyway. the new starfish(sand sifter) might be stressing him out but i think boredom is more likely so i boiled a couple of plastic balls and put them in the tank. hes still resting in his conch shell as usual so i don't know what he will think of the toys. hopefully they wont stress him further...

another 1/2 inch portion of arm just got bit off :/

 

[Animal Mother]

another concern, a 1/2 inch section of arm got bitten off and propelled out of his conch shell "den". all of the parameters are fine but i did a small water change anyway. the new starfish(sand sifter) might be stressing him out but i think boredom is more likely so i boiled a couple of plastic balls and put them in the tank. hes still resting in his conch shell as usual so i don't know what he will think of the toys. hopefully they wont stress him further...

another 1/2 inch portion of arm just got bit off :/

Hmm.. are you saying crabs are taking the arm tips off or do you think the octopus is severing them?

 

[drakanorn]

i think the octopus is and he is noticeably redder today, could it be bothering him that i am always in the room? (the tank is in my bedroom)

 

[cuttlegirl]

How long was your tank up and running before you added the octopus?

 

[drakanorn]

hes no longer showing red i think the red was just because i was feeding him. the tank cycled in a month then i let it run another month with hermits and a damsel in it. the parameters were stable throughout that month.

 

[cuttlegirl]

The reason that most people on this site recommend waiting three months before adding a cephalopod is that it takes that long for a tank to mature. A tank can cycle in a month (especially with live rock), but it needs time to build up a good population of bacteria that will break down the waste that an octopus produces. It takes at least three months for the population of bacteria to be at a level that they can handle the amount of wasted from a cephalopod.

I hope your little guy is ok, but it is a little worrisome that he bit off one of his arms...

 

[drakanorn]

he only bit a the tip but i just looked at him in the tank and he was very red again and moving lethargically with his eyes somewhat withdrawn, once he noticed that i was watching him he slowly returned to his normal state but im very worried at this point...

on a slightly higher note the eye i was worried about seems fine today

 

[cuttlegirl]

I would recommend a water change at this point, maybe there is something in water that is stressing him out. You can do several 10% changes over the next day or so. If you are really worried, you can do up to a 25% change, but in general, you want to change the water slowly, so the octopus' system has time to adjust.

 

[drakanorn]

i normally do 2gallon water changes daily. because of the out put of my RO unit i can only do 2 2gallon water changes a day. ill do the extra water change every day for the next week and see how he does.

 

[cuttlegirl]

You have a 55 gallon tank, correct? Is there anyway you could purchase some more RO/DI water and mix up a bigger batch of salt water? I usually keep about 20 gallons of salt water in a rubbermaid storage bin, that way if there is an emergency, I can do a quick water change.

 

[drakanorn]

50 gallon. since im not paying for this setup myself (cant get a job until i get my license). after dishing out the money for the r/o unit they would be hard pressed to buy more water.

another

 

[cuttlegirl]

You can get RO/DI water at the grocery store or at Walmart. It isn't that expensive and it may save your octopus' life.

 

[drakanorn]

yesterday i gave fluffy his first dose of tetracycline, and he got to be more active than usual overnight. he played with the little floating ball in the tank for the first time (as far as i know) and he moved a shell to make a new den. previously he had just tucked himself away in the conch shell. his newfound interest in his surroundings is encouraging (:

 

[drakanorn]

little update, fluffy hasn't bitten of any more arm tidbits and has become less shy especially around feeding time and his arms that he arrived missing are growing back quickly. in another thread i saw that some people found their octos did not seem to like the tetracycline but so far fluffy hasn't had a problem with it. He still seems to favor one eye ,the other shows less color and doesn't protrude as much, but when excited the eyes look the same. this hasn't gotten worse and doesn't seem to be causing any problems for him.