- Joined
- Sep 25, 2006
- Messages
- 572
The arms look too long, and/or I don't see as much webbing as I would expect. If this is a pacific coast native, and a dwarf species, I think there's only one possibility, and it's a long shot: O. micropyrsus (California Lilliput Octopus). A big one has a mantle length of an inch, and they are nocturnal. They live in the hold-fasts of giant kelp, or sometimes in little shells. I don't know how in the world they would get one. Maybe they have a bounty on them and some enterprising ten year old in Mexico spends all day picking through the kelp hold-fasts that wash up on shore after a storm. this is the right time of year for that, with storms.
I wonder if an emaciated baby bimac would look and act like that? In either case, I'd try to stock the tank with lots of easy prey in the right size. I'm finding that my baby bimac isn't fast enough to catch tiny shrimp, and seems reluctant to tackle large hermit crabs, preferring to jump on small ones (and only after I remove their shells (with a hammer)). You chill the tank right? If so, I would guess that a warm water octopus would have died from the cold by now. Did you ever see eye spots on it? I don't think O. micropyrsus has eye spots, but there's so little on the internet about them that I don't really know.
I wonder if it would help to keep a few de-shelled small hermit crabs, or other live food, in a jar, submerged in the tank, that has an opening that the octopus can get through, but that the hermits can not get out of? Hermits mostly crawl instead of swim, so a 2" long piece of 1/2" pvc pipe, shoved through a roughly cut hole in the plastic lid of a clear jar, would probably work. I'm thinking that the big tank is just too large a hunting ground for a tiny octopus, unless you put 200 naked hermit crabs in there too, so maybe a feeding station, that's always in the same place, would allow Sedona to consistently get food, and allow you to know whether or not she is eating.
I wonder if an emaciated baby bimac would look and act like that? In either case, I'd try to stock the tank with lots of easy prey in the right size. I'm finding that my baby bimac isn't fast enough to catch tiny shrimp, and seems reluctant to tackle large hermit crabs, preferring to jump on small ones (and only after I remove their shells (with a hammer)). You chill the tank right? If so, I would guess that a warm water octopus would have died from the cold by now. Did you ever see eye spots on it? I don't think O. micropyrsus has eye spots, but there's so little on the internet about them that I don't really know.
I wonder if it would help to keep a few de-shelled small hermit crabs, or other live food, in a jar, submerged in the tank, that has an opening that the octopus can get through, but that the hermits can not get out of? Hermits mostly crawl instead of swim, so a 2" long piece of 1/2" pvc pipe, shoved through a roughly cut hole in the plastic lid of a clear jar, would probably work. I'm thinking that the big tank is just too large a hunting ground for a tiny octopus, unless you put 200 naked hermit crabs in there too, so maybe a feeding station, that's always in the same place, would allow Sedona to consistently get food, and allow you to know whether or not she is eating.