Wunderpus Photogenicus ?

[dleo4590]

How big was the crab? Did you remove the pinchers before you offered it to the octopus? When you fed the crab to the octopus, did you just leave it in the tank or actually present it to the octo?

It's a standard sized female fiddler so 1-1.5" across. At first I just put it in to let it hunt or allow it to go after it itself but it showed no sign so last night I took forceps and offered it but it did not suction on to it at all. I then took it out and put the live feeder fish in and it grabbed one of the "marine feeders" as it was swimming through it's dangling arms. I don't remove the claws of fiddlers since all the other cephs don't have any issues and aggressively snatch the crab from the the top of the shell and if I offer it to them I make sure they can grab onto it from the top to quickly bite and paralyze it and the only reason I don't remove the male fiddler's claws, if it is a male I'm feeding, is because that holds a lot of meat inside the claw. However, this one does seem to be actively going for anything but I'm thinking of going and trying to get some small live shrimp or emerald crabs later. (I attached pics of the crabs and the what's left from feeding the baby CROs which are smaller than the Mimic.)

 

[pkilian]

Yeah it sounds like you are doing everything right. Perhaps this particular octo isn't interested in crabs or just wanted to eat the fish because it was new and different.

I don't get worried about my animals not eating until they have gone more than 3-4 successive days without food. Your animal may be full or still a bit stressed out from a new tank. I would try feeding other things but don't stop offering them a crab every few days to see if they take it. I've had the most success gently rubbing the crab against any exposed suckers to try and entice the octopus to take the crab.

How often are you attempting to feed?

 

[pkilian]

The eating arm tips thing could be related to hunger but more likely could be related to stress due to shipment and tank acclimation, or the animal could have some sort of disease or bacterial degradation, but that is less likely than them eating the arms from stress.

When I have an animal losing arm tips the first thing I look towards is water chemistry. If it's a new animal I usually don't worry too much unless I see the condition getting worse every day. Have you had any drastic swings in water chemistry in the past few days?

 

[dleo4590]

Yeah it sounds like you are doing everything right. Perhaps this particular octo isn't interested in crabs or just wanted to eat the fish because it was new and different.

I don't get worried about my animals not eating until they have gone more than 3-4 successive days without food. Your animal may be full or still a bit stressed out from a new tank. I would try feeding other things but don't stop offering them a crab every few days to see if they take it. I've had the most success gently rubbing the crab against any exposed suckers to try and entice the octopus to take the crab.

How often are you attempting to feed?

I put it the crab the day we got it because I don't know when the last time it ate and since they have a high metabolism I didn't want to wait too long but it has three fish of different sizes in with it currently. I am planning on going to look for other things for it. Might even possibly offer some small clams that's a source we have not yet tried or offered.

 

[pkilian]

That sounds like a good plan. How are the fish interacting with the octopus? Do you commonly see the animal all curled up in a den or are they moving around the tank normally? Maybe the fish are picking at the mantle of the octo and that is what is causing the stress you are seeing? I don't typically house my octopuses with other critters because they often get picked on.

 

[dleo4590]

The eating arm tips thing could be related to hunger but more likely could be related to stress due to shipment and tank acclimation, or the animal could have some sort of disease or bacterial degradation, but that is less likely than them eating the arms from stress.

When I have an animal losing arm tips the first thing I look towards is water chemistry. If it's a new animal I usually don't worry too much unless I see the condition getting worse every day. Have you had any drastic swings in water chemistry in the past few days?

I am planning on testing water parameters today but have not so I don't know yet if it's in correlation.

 

[dleo4590]

That sounds like a good plan. How are the fish interacting with the octopus? Do you commonly see the animal all curled up in a den or are they moving around the tank normally? Maybe the fish are picking at the mantle of the octo and that is what is causing the stress you are seeing? I don't typically house my octopuses with other critters because they often get picked on.

Well it is more active with us than it was at the shop but I put a big hollow barnacle in with it like the CROs but it has not tried to hide or conceal itself yet. I was actually planning on rigging the bottom of the fish fry box it's in so I could put a thin layer of substrate to help it feel more natural. I think our plan now is when it's bigger to let it out into Turq's 125 gallon tank that we've reef aquascaped. We are currently in the process of converting our other 125 gallon freshwater into saltwater so when the CROs are big enough we can divide it in half with an acrylic sheet rigged with many small holes to keep water flow and filtration constant. The smaller fish don't seem to mind but the bigger ones seem to stay on opposite ends. I think if the mimic were actively pursuing it'd be different but he kind of just lets them come to him.

 

[pkilian]

That sounds like a good plan! It seems like you've done all you can to mitigate stress for the animal, so I would be patient and observant and just see how things pan out in the next few days. I would spend less time poking around in their enclosure and only interact with the animal once/day to try and offer food.

I'm guessing they are just a bit stressed out from all the environment changes in the past few weeks, and they will likely settle into a normal routine after a few more days in your setup.

Keep us updated!

 

[dleo4590]

That sounds like a good plan! It seems like you've done all you can to mitigate stress for the animal, so I would be patient and observant and just see how things pan out in the next few days. I would spend less time poking around in their enclosure and only interact with the animal once/day to try and offer food.

I'm guessing they are just a bit stressed out from all the environment changes in the past few weeks, and they will likely settle into a normal routine after a few more days in your setup.

Keep us updated!

Thanks as an animal lover and care taker I give or try to give all my animals, not just cephs, the best I can! So it's great to hear that from others too.

 

[pkilian]

Yeah I would remove those fish from the octopuses enclosure. I forgot that you had it in the fish fry box and not in the main tank itself. The octopus doesn't really have a place they can go to escape from the fish, and the fish will take bites at the octopuses mantle and prevent it from being comfortable in its space.

I would leave the octo in their box alone, and only offer food either via a stick feed, so you can remove the prey if they don't eat it, or add a crab or fish for a few hours, and then remove it afterwards for the night if it goes uneaten during those couple hours.