Wonderpus - LFS giveaway

[Animal Mother]

I am now the care provider for a teeny-tiny Wonderpus. The owner's son at a LFS here in Arlington felt so badly about ordering this animal that after conversing with me for a few days, he decided to GIVE it to me.

I don't have a nice camera to use anymore, and my cell doesn't take very good pics but I will try to document this attempt at ceph keeping as well as possible.

It has been eating ghost shrimp. It's missing two arms.

Mantle is maybe 1.5 inches. Arms are about 5 inches. Can't believe how tiny it is...

Wish us luck!

 

[skywindsurfer]

I wish you the best of luck, and I am very jealous. Not that I desire to keep one myself, but the expeirence of raising one must be amazing. I just got to see my first one in real life the other day at a LFS in Dallas. I'd love to see some pictures of yours. Anyways good luck.

 

[rryyddeerr]

good job talking the shop owner out of ordering any more. uh, and try to find a camera. we would all really like to experience this vicariously through you.

 

[Thales]

Fantastic. Feed it a lot. The small ones seem to be either robust or weak. Its really weird.

 

[mucktopus]

is it a male or female?

 

[Neogonodactylus]

Ghost shrimp are not the best food for it. TRy getting some feeder shrimp or very small crabs.

Roy

 

[Animal Mother]

is it a male or female?

The wife says from here on out it's a "He".

I'll try to figure that out. I was at work most of the day and didn't get to observe it much.

 

[Animal Mother]

When I got home from work last night our new friend was hanging out in a hole in the side of a rock. The lights had been off since he was introduced to the tank around 3:40pm. I turned the lights on at 8:45pm. After the lights came on it slowly made its way underneath the rock through a small hole and remained hidden for some time.

I returned to take a peek at about midnight and it was on the glass slowly cruising around, some arms on the glass, some arms extended into the water column gracefully swaying and acting like I would expect it to.

The twist on the ends of the arms makes me nervous but that seems to be the way these particular kind carry them anyway right? Not so much corkscrewed as just curled tips.

 

[Animal Mother]

Correction on size. Mantle plus eye stalks is about 1.5 inches or 3 centimeters, mantle alone is about 1 inch. May be 10" arm span.

In other observations, my water is hazy. Digging itself quite hole underneath that rock I assume. I've seen him stretch his arms out a bit this morning, but otherwise it has remained inside its new den.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Hey Animal Mother, was the fish store that you received this octopus from Pet-O-Rama? Not that I want to try and get one, just looking for alternate sources for octopus. The store I get them from is kind of pricey.

 

[DWhatley]

Holding my breath Dale. I am a little worried that the kids (in addition to the adults) will be upset if this one does not do well.

 

[Animal Mother]

True Percula. I don't know if they will be ordering anymore after this experience. They are one of the more expensive stores in the metroplex too. I go there to look at really nice stuff, but I rarely spend money there. $2000 for Rhinopias...

D! So far, so good! But yes, we will be sorely disappointed if anything unfortunate happens. The kids have been hounding me about getting a 'pus for a few months now. I finally got it and they only got to see it for a few minutes (still in the bag) before they went home. Hopefully it's still around in 2 weeks. Otherwise, my wife is just as enthralled by this new critter as I am.

Jennifer told me when I got home that she hadn't seen it out all day. Shortly after turning out the lights for the evening it was out on the back glass. It retreated immediately because I startled it. It came back out in the open a few minutes later and played around in front of the camera for about 20 minutes. I'll get that uploaded tomorrow. All appears to be well. Now I just wanna see it eat and make sure that aspect is good to go. Several prawns running around in the tank so it can feed freely.

 

[Animal Mother]

[video=facebook;453083469918]Video

 

[DWhatley]

Other than making me seasick , nice video of its movements.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Very beautiful. I much prefer blues and greens to reds for viewing animals at night. I think it looks more realistic and asthetically pleasing. Best of luck with your new octopus. Do you have any pictures of the entire tank?