• 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.

Sushi and Sashimi - BioCube as grow out tank?

Sushi has started building up a nice little den with some shells, and I've caught him cruising around the tank a few times. Sashimi is still a bit more bashful, but I'm hopeful - I added more shells/rubble to his tank.
 
Ok... still not eating with any regularity - plenty of crabs still alive in their tanks. I've added dividers to block most of the light, and done two more water changes. Temps are ~74 degrees.

There WAS some stray voltage in the tank (I unplugged my grounding probe, and then forgot to plug it back in after doing a cleaning), which I just noticed last night. Hopefully that helps - Sashimi seemed to be out and about this morning. No signs of Sushi.
 
Again, still no regular eating. Several crabs remain uneaten in the tanks.

Do you think the temp could be too low?
 
74 should not be a problem. The natural temp at this time of the year is colder (too cold for many this year unfortunately). We (we being TONMO members there may be unfound studies to be discovered) don't have any clear data on the effect of temperature ranges for Caribbean species. The general go-by is slightly cooler is safer than slightly warmer to achieve longevity. That being said, I don't know of any study to support it for Caribbean animals and I think the Pacific examples are antecdotal (which does not mean I suggest discounting it) more than scientific. I have expressed the wonder if keeping the tanks (as I do) slightly cooler might even bring about brooding in females that would normally brood in the winter months, the cooler temperatures triggering the biologic change. The thought may well be without merit though as octopuses will brood year round but higher numbers seem to brood in the winter. The higher count of young in the spring may have more to do with the availability of food than anything to do with temperatures.
 
Very interesting.

One of the clerks at the store I bought them suggested they might be a dwarf species, rather than Briareus - unfortunately, they are never out and out, so I can't get a look/pic.
 
Take a look through some of the mercatoris journals (Forums->Journals and Photos->List of Our Octopuses 2008, 2009 and 2010 provide links back to the journals). GHolland has the best collection of photos starting with Varys and forward linked to her children and grandchildren. There are additional photos in Trapper and her offspring posts that may help ID them as mercs. Briareus will grow arms close to 10x the mantle length, merc's arms are quite short and only about 1.5x mantle length. Mercs arms reach proportions early but very young briareus octos are much harder to identify using arm length as a criteria as it takes awhile for the extended length to be noted (the webbing is present fairly early, as are the green fluorescent dots). If you are seeing arms thrown over the head with one or two placed either between the eyes or encircling one eye as it peaks out, these are two very characteristic poses for the mercs. If you shine a light on a briareus, you should see green fluorescing spots all over the body and arms.

If you determine these are mercs, then all the suggestions to separate them can be thrown out the window :oops:. Both could be housed in one 20 gallon cube and keeping them together may produce a more active pair of animals. If you decide to introduce them, you will need to watch them carefully much of the night to be sure they don't fight seriously. There are two differences in your pair than the ones we have successfully kept it that they are not equally sized and have not been living together. I would completely disrupt the tank if you combine them so that neither has an established home. If you can come up with some Giant Purple Barnacle shells, these seem to be a preferred home for mercs (even though this barnacle is not native to FL). My females have all taken these as a residence inspite of the fact that I can see them at any time by peaking in the barnacle shell.

Unfortunately, unlike the briareus, mercs don't come out during the daylight (at least not for long) until they are about a week from the end of their lives. The do very well under red light (even fairly bright red light if it is left on 24/7).
 
Ooooh yeah - looks um... spot on a match for Trapper. They both exhibit the same poses, and are incredibly reclusive. No activity if there is ANY light - been able to spot them at night using my dive lights with red filters.

H'm... going to have to do more research on Mercs. I think I will put them in a shared tank and see what happens. That brooding behavior is also pretty similar to how they're acting.

Pretty impossible to take pics, else I'd post some. They spend all their time huddled up - though Sashimi did take shrimp from a feeding stick today, and Sushi has a pile of hermit shells outside her home now.
 
I highly recommend putting the giant purple barnacles (they make artificial ones too but the natural ones are cheap if you can find them) in the set up and disrupting the current design if you put them together(so they both have to find a new home and neither has territorial rights established). If you face the barnacles so that you can easily observe the contents and give them small LR and/or shells, you should at least be able to observe them most of the time with a red light. They may or may not move in immediately if you disrupt the tank but mine have taken over the barnacles after two weeks (if not sooner). Usually the barnacles are easy to find on eBay but only an artificial group is showing this week (they say aquarium safe but I am not sure if I trust that from looking at the photo).

I leave my red light on 24/7 and all mine have adjusted to it. The red light is miserable for photos but great for observation.
 

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