Wonderpus journal - Scott

[Boogeyman]

Day # 12

We’re almost at the 2 week mark! Well I just finished cleaning the sump sponge filter, I just swished it around in 3 gallons of bleach. lol just kidding. 3 gallons of aquarium water that I took out. The return section of my sump is back at the original water level, it was getting dangerously close to the pump itself, couple more days the pump might have ran with no water. The sponge wasn’t terribly dirty but a lot of stuff did come out. I’ll keep an eye on it for sure, I also poured 4 cap fulls of microbacter (bacteria in a bottle) just in case.

I also fed the shrimp today I actually forgot that I had to feed them lol. Just put some flakes in the box and they are eating, I also fed the octo today. I took a picture right after so I could post it here. The octo is doing very well!! His typical routine is wandering the tank, he does occasionally explore areas of the tank where he has found food in the past. Then he goes back to his tunnel network under the rocks, the tunnels are so small its hard to imagine he fits in them.

Not to go off topic but I had a few visitors at my apartment yesterday and let me say having an octopus is a great conversation piece lol.

I have yet to clean the skimmer, I have to take the whole thing out in order to remove the collection cup, I called the company who makes my skimmer to confirm that it is removable. I’ll do that tomorrow. The sponge filter was more of a priority.

Not sure if I mentioned, I will also be doing water tests every couple of days to make sure everything is still in good order. I managed to lower the salinity to where it should be at, I mentioned in a past post that it was a tad high. I replaced the 3 gallons of aquarium water with RO water.

As of right now the wonderpus is under his rock, I’ll be heading to bed soon, I’ll post a pic below.

 

[GPO87]

Thanks for all the pictures! I'm really enjoying following along with your wonderpus adventure!

 

[sedna]

Wow, really detailed journal entries, excellent work!!! Also, good job ejecting the damsels- no good comes from those bastards

I’ve only had one wunderpus in my experience, years ago- he wasn’t in good shape & the LFS has me take him- so I’m not much help for species specific information. You can return to your regular photoperiod now. If he tends to be crepuscular or nocturnal, you’ll only see him at the darker times of the day, anyway. Yep, if you froze the crabs right away, you can use them. I just whack their claws off if I feed them live. He’ll only eat what he can, so don’t worry about cramming the tank full of shrimp!

I’d say you’re off to a good start!

 

[gjbarord]

Great stuff!!!

FYI, wunderpus should readily accept frozen food chopped to reasonable size. It's much easier than relying on live food all the time. Of course, live food is good enrichment every now and then.

Keep up the posts!

Greg

 

[Boogeyman]

Day # 21

I suppose my posts will be weekly from now on, or every couple of days

Some updates! The octo is out every day when I get home, I’ve been feeding him 2 saltwater shrimp a day, they are small, about half the size of a peppermint shrimp. One when I get home, one when I go to bed.
He is a pretty smart fella, he knows his food is in the acclimation box lol. Of course he can see it though. I recently went out and bought 100 shrimp, as soon as I put them in the box, the octo reached into the box through the small holes and took one out for himself. Honestly didn’t think he’d be able to get one out, I know he can reach in there, but the shrimp are bigger then the holes, he’s only done this once. I hadn’t fed him all day, I guess he was helping himself lol.

The disappointing news was that 2/3 of the 100 shrimp were dead by the Time I got back to my apartment. I called the lfs and just got 200 saltwater shrimp for free you have no idea how annoying it was taking out each dead shrimp one at a time. There are still some laying on the sand, I’m going to leave them in. It’s good for the biological media, I’ll just have to do a water change if the water tests are a tad high. I’m acclimating the 200 shrimp as we speak.

speaking of water changes, I just did a water test yesterday and nitrates were between 20-40 ppm. So I did a 25 gallon water change. The dead shrimp in the sand happened afterwards so I imagine I will have to do one again soon. I also cleaned the sponge filter in the sump in aquarium water. Still have not cleaned the skimmer, that’s the plan this weekend.

As of right now the octo is not out, I imagine when all those dead shrimp were floating around he had himself a buffet. Ugh lol.

I still dose with microbacter, whenever there’s potential for big bio loads. Like the shrimp incident. I also just purchased purple up, which encourages coralline algae growth. Started dosing yesterday.

Do you guys remember the two or three peppermint shrimp the octo could never find and catch? I released them into the tank about 2 weeks ago I believe. We’ll they are still there I’ve witnessed the octo trying to hunt them multiple times, he knows where they hide, but they are too quick. Not going to lie they are getting bigger.

As for the clean up crew I purchased a few weeks ago they are all still alive, the octo has not eaten the hermit crabs, or snails. Not to go off topic but I mentioned a while back that my salinity was a tad high, it is now 1.025, back on track.

Also thanks for the feedback guys!!! I really appreciate it (: believe me, I read and take your advice!

I just bought a big ass shell I’m going to put in there, maybe he’ll crawl inside of it. Anyways I haven’t taken too many pics lately but I’ll post some below.

 

[DWhatley]

I have had a peppermint shrimp out live several (larger) octos. Interestingly, only one seems to survive if I put in a pair. It is almost like it takes one getting eaten for the other to be more cautious.

 

[sedna]

Excellent! Fun update- I’m glad it’s sll going well!!!

 

[tonmo]

I'm so glad this is going so well. Great to have a successful journal with these guys!

I was on the phone a couple of weeks ago with US Mysids, really good guy and he's been selling shrimp for a long time. I asked him about small orders (like 100-200) and he was amenable to that; although he usually sells larger volumes (to folks like MBL, and other aquariums). If you place an order, tell 'em TONMO sent you

 

[sedna]

I'm so glad this is going so well. Great to have a successful journal with these guys!

I was on the phone a couple of weeks ago with US Mysids, really good guy and he's been selling shrimp for a long time. I asked him about small orders (like 100-200) and he was amenable to that; although he usually sells larger volumes (to folks like MBL, and other aquariums). If you place an order, tell 'em TONMO sent you

I’m gonna check them out!!!

 

[tonmo]

Yeah, they were at TONMOCON VI, giving out t-shirts, if you recall!

 

[sedna]

Yeah, they were at TONMOCON VI, giving out t-shirts, if you recall!

Julie still has those and wears them!

 

[Nancy]

Glad things are going.well with your Octo!

Nancy

 

[tonmo]

I suppose my posts will be weekly from now on, or every couple of days

times up!

 

[Boogeyman]

Hello everyone, this is an emergency posting. Something is going on with my wunderpus and I don’t know what. His mantle is clumpy, as in it looks like there are 3 clumps in his mantle , it is VERY uneven. He has a large scratch at the back of his mantle as well as 2 small circle bumps. Looks like 2 moles. Protruding at the back. What is going on? Is he sick? What do I do. I just did a water change 2 days ago. Cleaned the skimmer and replaced filter sock. He is VERY white in color. Someone get back to me asap please. He moves around with 2 tentacles he does not move like he used to. when moving he body does not suction as he goes, it pulls himself with his legs. The last week, he has been in his den for days at a time. please help.

 

[Boogeyman]

@tonmo @Nancy