Suppose I should introduce myself!

Joined
Dec 6, 2009
Messages
294
Location
Herndon, VA
I am Dave and I just joined the other day (probably had joined in the past at some point in time but haven't been on in the memorable past until I started looking for an octopus for my classroom). Anyway, I am a 5th grade teacher in Herndon, VA, at Floris Elementary School where I put tanks into classrooms all over the school - all saltwater. I have been doing this for 5 years now and at one point I was asked to be Tank of the Month for RDO for my 15 gallon nano (RDO never followed up after asking me to be TOTM). While on there I was told about my local aquarium club, WAMAS (Washington DC Area Marine Aquarist Society), and shortly thereafter I became an officer with that club, I'm in my 3rd year on the board.

I started posting here when I went to a local Asian market to get some abalone and some oysters for a friend with a cold-water reef. I volunteered to do it because one of the club members had mentioned that they had live octopus. I went down there and lo and behold, there they were. Most of them were dead in the tank so when I saw the one crawling across the glass seeming to want to be free, I bit. My thoughts were that this is a food source, they're going to get them in regardless because people buy them to eat, and I really wanted an octopus and it was worth trying to save this one. I have had 2 octopuses in the past, a blue ring that lived for a week tops and another unknown octopus that I had for a couple of months in college, never saw, and that died when I was away on winter break and my tank sitter freaked out about something and unplugged not only the octopus tank, but the reef that it was plumbed into - and didn't bother to tell me - I got back a week after the fact to a lot of dead stuff... Anyway, I saw this guy and felt terrible for it so I bought it, brought it home, and did my best to figure out how to house it. I kept it in a bucket for a few hours as I played around with 10 gallon tanks, drilling holes in them for an ice probe and then cracking one of them by overtightening the bulkhead. The thread in the ID forum pretty much takes it from there, I'm now on my 3rd and 4th as I bought 2 at once and am about to set up a 90 to house them since they are not only still alive, but eating from my feeding stick.

My kids are a big part of my hobby as I have 4 daughters who love to feed things. They help me with just about everything as far as feeding is concerned and my 2 year old has fed the 2 octopuses in my house now and I'm sure the others will want to as well. Anyway, this is a great online community and the knowledge and help here is outstanding. There are so many sites out there that are just subpar because of the way some people act on there, but this site, like WAMAS, has its priorities straight!
 
this site, like WAMAS, has its priorities straight

Few here would disagree and Tony (TONMO) is quick to keep us in line should we stray :wink:. However, should you wish to share off topic info, we also have a supporters forum for additional social interaction and extended hobby interests (we sneak in a few family photos without aquariums depicted too). Tony works at getting advertising to help with the costs and all the staff is volunteer so the annual supporter's donation is exceptionally low.
 
Hi Dave,

Nice to meet you and welcome to TONMO.com!

I've been following your reports on your rescued octopuses. Thanks for keeping us posted. This is an interesting effort and you seem to be having success. It certainly is a better life you're providing for your octos.

Nancy
 
:welcome: to TONMO (or did I already say that in your other thread) Nice to hear from you!
 

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