[Octopus]: Shelly - The Bali Octopus

tkong

O. bimaculoides
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Nov 8, 2012
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I've been meaning to start my journal since last month but have been super busy with work. But better late than never right? I believe she has laid eggs now that I haven't seen her much for about a week now. But I will continue to update the journal until she passes, and back journal some of my observations and experiences over the past month. In the future, I'd be interested in keeping a larger growing and/or colder water species, such as a bimac or rubescens, since my basement is naturally 58-62F all year round.

Anyways, last month, my local fish shop in the Bay Area received a tiny octopus that they had labeled only as "bali octopus". She was there for a week before I decided to octo-proof my existing tank and take her home. Tank is currently heated to ~76F

At first, I fed her ghost shrimp since that was what the LFS was feeding her. She immediately ate some once I released her into the tank. Then eventually started feeding her hermit crabs. live/freshly frozened small manila clams and market shrimp. She took the clams pretty well, but as aggressively as she would attack the tongs for the shrimp, I would always find the piece of shrimp in the tank in the morning, albeit missing a small chunk.

My gf named her Shelly because once i started feeing live clams, she took one of the clams and covered the front entrance of the cave that she had dug out, so I could no longer observe her during the day 😂. I thought she was moving it every night to get out, but she dug a back entrance that I couldn't see. What smart creatures.

Shelly was a very nocturnal octopus once she got acclimated to the tank, hiding during the day in the various caves that she had discovered or she had dug out underneath the live rock. When I would accidentally leave the tank lights on in one of the other tanks in the room, she would not come out until those were turned off. I eventually bought a red led flashlight to observe her at night.

Here are some pictures of when she was first introduced into the tank. If anyone knows what species she is, please let me know :smile:
 

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Update: the eggs that Shelly had been protecting hatched today! Some iphone pics. Will definitely try to rent a macro lens for my mirrorless camera this week. Will they eat baby brine shrimp?

I assume Shelly doesn't have much longer to live correct?
 

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Any update on the babies?
Even though I fed baby brine shrimp. they ended up slowly decreasing in numbers up until a week after then I couldn't find any. Since they are paralarvae, the outcome was expected, but I couldn't help myself but try feeding them haha

Shelly passed away maybe 1-2 weeks after that :frown:
 
Sorry to hear that. My lfs just got one in but it’s full grown. I’m heartbroken cause I can’t stop thinking about it now but $80 isn’t worth probably less than a month with it. :confused:
 

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