[Octopus]: Unidentified Flying Octopus & Baby Cuttlefish

[tonmo]

I'm sorry @Hahmlet -- tough outcomes in a tough hobby. I've never seen a bristle worm myself but I know they are awful for tanks.

What's your approach from here? You do such a great job documenting your experiences and analyzing your ecosystem -- do you think a full recycling of the tank is required before proceeding?

 

[Hahmlet]

I'm sorry @Hahmlet -- tough outcomes in a tough hobby. I've never seen a bristle worm myself but I know they are awful for tanks.

What's your approach from here? You do such a great job documenting your experiences and analyzing your ecosystem -- do you think a full recycling of the tank is required before proceeding?

Thanks! It's tiring but I'm learning more and more. I am still aiming to make a suitable tank for cephs to live happily.

I'm 50/50 on the bristle worms. Based on my research the general consensus seems to be that they are fine unless they grow too big. Mine seem to be the smaller type that do not grow too big. The only bad thing I read is that they may prey on fish that are already on their way out, and also burrow into the skeletons of corals that are on the sand.

I'm going to leave them for now and monitor them. If I need them under control, I can probably hire some wrasse, or crab that eat them. In the mean time I'm going to work on stabilizing my phosphate levels.

 

[tonmo]

Makes sense. Here's a thread about worms and traps - many threads on here about bristle worms and other worms -- found through our Search feature:

Worms in octopus tank

Hi I have three tank 50 gallons each individual filtration system with a bimac males (3, one per tank) I found some worms, I attach a picture ,one died the other is ok, one more is eating less. I give to eat fiddle crabs, mercenaria clams and sometimes gosht shrimp. My question is is any...

tonmo.com

 

[Hahmlet]

Makes sense. Here's a thread about worms and traps - many threads on here about bristle worms and other worms -- found through our Search feature:

Worms in octopus tank

Hi I have three tank 50 gallons each individual filtration system with a bimac males (3, one per tank) I found some worms, I attach a picture ,one died the other is ok, one more is eating less. I give to eat fiddle crabs, mercenaria clams and sometimes gosht shrimp. My question is is any...

tonmo.com

Thanks will take a look!

 

[Hahmlet]

It has been awhile since I posted, but I have been busy!
I am actually keeping 4 different cephalopod species together right now. But before that, I had bristle worms in my sand and flatworms on my euphyllia corals, so I had gotten 2 Clown Gobies, a Circled Dragonet, a Yellow Coris Wrasse, and a Solar Fairy Wrasse. Yeah I haven't seen a bristle worm or flatworm in days. So you can imagine my bio-load is kinda high. Feeding 3 times a day, my Nitrates were at 25 PPM before water changes, and 20 PPM after. Phosphates at 0.35 PPM before and 0.27 PPM after. I've cut down on feeding for the past week now.

I cranked up my light, and lowered the flow a little bit, and my cuttlefish seem to be doing better. This leads me to believe that high light is not detrimental for them, however the lower flow seems to be much better for cuttlefish.

Unidentified Octopus Day 45 - 19 November 2023

• 6 Oct, I got an octopus from the LFS because they told me it was a Day Octopus. She definitely ain't. Once I saw her properly stretched out, I could tell she was already a fully grown female.
• She's diurnal, so my best guess is that she's an Algae Octopus.
• She is super chill and does not care about the other cephalopods or fish in the tank at all.
• She does not accept clam, loves shrimp. She used to eat 1/3 of a shrimp every day, but I lessened this to every other day now.

You can see the Flamboyant and Sepia Bandensis do not look happy with the Octopus's appearance.

Metasepia Pfefferi Cuttlefish Day 37 - 19 November 2023
Sepia Bandensis Cuttlefish Day 33 - 19 November 2023

• 14 Oct, I got myself a Flamboyant Cuttlefish.
• Super skittish, but will not budge from the front of the tank. Get's into defensive stance whenever I walk pass or put my nose on the glass.
• He is very slow compared to Sepia Bandensis, when it comes to swimming or attacking prey. By the time he starts reaching his arms out slowly to grab a shrimp, a Sepia Bandensis will hover over and rob him.

• The Sepia Bandensis are only bothered by the octopus and nothing else. However, the Flamboyant does not like it when a Sepia Bandensis gets too close, and will get in a defensive stance. If the Sepia Bandensis does not go away, after sometime he will eventually chill out.
• 18 Oct, I got 3 Sepia Bandensis, and they mostly hide in the caves like in the first video.
• Sepia Bandensis are much better swimmers, with better eyesight, compared to Flamboyants.
• I definitely have 1 male, who is the smallest one, and a female who is much bigger. I'm not sure of the other big one. Her size tells me she's a girl, but I often see it displaying some form of intimidation only with the smaller male. They will both stretch out their arms in a stiff manner, and hover side by side gently pushing each other away.
• The smaller male is quite aggressive and will often start this display against other Sepia Bandensis instead of going for the shrimp infront of it.
• Since about 2 weeks ago, the Sepia Bandensis are no longer hiding in caves and reacting to me and my hand a lot, they know it's the hand that feeds. They wait around in the front of the tank and follow me around.

• You can see the male in action bothering the other two in this video here. But this time it seemed a lot more aggressive, even latching on to the sides of the females.
• On this night, there was a lot of ink squirting. I am unsure why but it seemed like the male was bothering everyone, even the Flamboyant.
• I didn't think much of it, and went to sleep. The next day morning, I found the Flamboyant floating around on the top of the tank when the flow was the strongest. I noticed that it had a lot of wounds on one side, and no longer had fins on that side.
• I placed it in the breeder box with the Bobtail Squid, and then it seemed better, so I let it out when the flow was weaker. Immediately the male Sepia Bandensis attacked it and latched on to its side. I used a net to shoo it away.
• Then for the first time I saw the male mate with one of the females, wrapping their arms together for about 20 seconds it felt, then they let go and just stood there.
• It made me think that this was possibly the reason why the male Sepia Bandensis started attacking the Flamboyant.
• The Flamboyant did not make it, and just passed away today.

Sepiolida Bobtail Squid Day 18 - 19 November 2023

• 2 Nov, I got myself 2 Bobtail Squid from an LFS who was selling them as Sepia Officinalis.
• I keep them in a breeder box with sand and been feeding them 2 ghost shrimp a day.
• They are so damn cute when they hunt.
• Love them to bits.

 

[tonmo]

wow, you have definitely been busy! Tanks look great. What are your next steps with the bobtails?

 

[Hahmlet]

wow, you have definitely been busy! Tanks look great. What are your next steps with the bobtails?

Thanks Tonmo!

I ordered 2 bigger breeder boxes with super fine sand to keep them in. 2, so that I can shift them over to one while I clean the other.

I noticed that only when I feed the bobtails, will the Sepia Bandensis try to attack the shrimp in the breeder box. I tested with a small fish as well, and they showed the same reaction, however not once have they tried to attack the bobtails. I feel like it should be safe.

I do want to move these guys into the main tank eventually, but I'll need to clear up some space on the sand for a sufficient territory for them as I also need to take into account the Strawberry Conches and Sand Sifting Stars that might bother the bobtails when they move across that area.

 

[Hahmlet]

The 2 cuttlefish girls are hanging out together in the cave, while the male is in another. The other one is right next to the visible girl, but she's well camouflaged.
One of them lay just one egg as seen in the video. I can't see any other eggs inside the cave.

 

[Hahmlet]

My cuttlefish girls are so chill now compared to before. Before they would ink and dart away at the slightest touch. Now they will come close to my hands or pincers when I'm doing something in the tank, likely because they think I might be feeding them. I can push them away gently and they don't seem to really mind. Here you can see they are targeting the shrimp in my bobtail squid box. The bobtail squid are not eating because of that.

I saw my male and female cuttlefish locking mouths in the cave and took out the camera. The start of the video shows is the moment right after they separated. They just stare at each other like that for awhile before going about their own business. Then I noticed the female was laying eggs! I saw an egg in it's arms, and it seemed to be attaching it to the underside of the cave. You might be able to see the cluster in the last 2 seconds of the video. Aside for the one single egg that was laid the next day after mating, I am only noticing this cluster 5 days after I spotted them mating. Do note that eggs could have been laid before that in an angle that I couldn't see, and they could have mated after that as well.

I walked up to the tank and this cuttlefish girl suddenly attacked the glass and started doing a glass walk. She walked about 20 inches across!

I now use black dividers to cover the bobtail squid box when I feed them at night, to prevent the cuttlefish from scaring them.

 

[Hahmlet]

My cuttlefish girls are so chill now compared to before. Before they would ink and dart away at the slightest touch. Now they will come close to my hands or pincers when I'm doing something in the tank, likely because they think I might be feeding them. I can push them away gently and they don't seem to really mind. Here you can see they are targeting the shrimp in my bobtail squid box. The bobtail squid are not eating because of that.

I saw my male and female cuttlefish locking mouths in the cave and took out the camera. The start of the video shows is the moment right after they separated. They just stare at each other like that for awhile before going about their own business. Then I noticed the female was laying eggs! I saw an egg in it's arms, and it seemed to be attaching it to the underside of the cave. You might be able to see the cluster in the last 2 seconds of the video. Aside for the one single egg that was laid the next day after mating, I am only noticing this cluster 5 days after I spotted them mating. Do note that eggs could have been laid before that in an angle that I couldn't see, and they could have mated after that as well.

I walked up to the tank and this cuttlefish girl suddenly attacked the glass and started doing a glass walk. She walked about 20 inches across!

I now use black dividers to cover the bobtail squid box when I feed them at night, to prevent the cuttlefish from scaring them.

Just putting this down on record as this information does not seem to be well recorded.
Based on my observation, Sepia Bandensis cuttlefish lay their eggs 5 days after mating.

 

[Hahmlet]

Sepia Bandensis Cuttlefish Day 44 - 30 November 2023

• My male cuttlefish passed away early Tuesday morning.
• I first found it mating on 18 Nov, and last on 23 Nov. It could have before or after that too.
• So my Sepia Bandensis male cuttlefish passed away approximately 10 days after its first mating.
• The male cuttlefish was really quite small so I thought he was young. But perhaps all my other Sepia Bandensis till now have been female, and he was the only male, and perhaps they are considerably smaller than the females.
• However, from day 1 he was always displaying and often more engrossed in displaying than eating. So he did eat much less than the females.
• Apart from that, I do remember that on one of the last few nights before he passed he only ate 1 shrimp. On another night, he actually didn't eat, and on one night he attacked a shrimp as swift and accurately as if he was perfectly healthy.
• So it was quite a surprise to find his lifeless body on Tuesday morning, but perhaps males are different.

This morning I witnessed my female cuttlefish laying eggs, and got it on video. This is in another cave, next to where the previous batch was laid. I am unsure if she is the same female or another female.
I noticed 2 eggs under the cave and both females in the cave. The other one was just chillin' in the corner. She was trying to lay the 3rd egg, however she took quite a few minutes, and seemed like she was trying to cough up the egg. After failing twice to attach the egg, this video captures the third attempt where she succeeds. It looked quite tiring even for just laying one egg.

 

[tonmo]

great capture!