My Octopus

[dbbga]

Altho my daughter's spider brought me to this forum, I on the other hand raise an 8 legged critter much different to all of yours.
This is a pic of my Octopus, Sam. she is a Bimac and is about 6 months old in this pic. Octos only live about 2 yaers in the wild and the purpose of raising them is to try an breed them in aquaria to help the depletion in the wolrd oceans. she is about 8"across in this pic and is hand feed live feeder fish, snails, clams, and shrimp.
Hope you enjoy my fav. critter ;P
We also have a Rotti, St Bernard, two birds, two ferrets and lots of fish tanks

 

[jper26]

Great pic how long have you been keeping saltwater?

 

[dbbga]

I have had SW tanks for over a year and FW for over 20+ years. Now I have both, I have and raise octopus,Lionfish, Oscars

 

[atavuss]

how did you manage to escape proof the aquarium?
inquiring minds want to know!
Ed

 

[dbbga]

Silicon, everything is either siliconed down or velcroed in place. Octos have no bones except for thier beak, anything it can go thru so can the octo so not one opening

 

[Immortal_sin]

thanks for posting! I am fascinated by Octopus, Octopi, Octopusses?!!!
I'm sure I'll never be able to have one, so I will live vicariously through others
I have heard they are GREAT escape artists though, sounds like you're on top of that!
How smart are they? Can they be trained to recognize sounds, vibrations, or whatnot? What is it like to hand feed one?
I have millions of questions, but I'll try and contain myself

 

[dbbga]

Immortal> Feel free to ask all the questions you wish!!! I love Octos!! The correct plural of Octos is Octopus, dosent matter how many the corrct grammar is octopus. Now, they are very smart!!! just like a dog Altho Sam, did not attach itself to me, it did however, attach itself to my 10yr old daughter:? I fed it and housed it but it really love my daughter!!! It would come out for her no mater what and follow her around the tank. She really had a special relationship with Sam. Unfortunately, Sam, wanted all the feeder fish in my 100gal Fw tank and escaped, not counting on the oxygen factor, by the time i got up, she was gone:8o I have ordered another octo and have made sure it cannot escape this time;P I should be rcvng it this week. Hopefully we will have it for a longer time frame:}

 

[BigSam]

You have Sam as a girl name.......you couldn't name it samathma or something

Sam,

 

[neveragain]

how much do these cost, and what size enclosure do they require when they are full grown?

i wanna set up some type of fish tank with something cool/different, and that seems like the perfect thing for me to get.

also, do you have any links to some good caresheets online?

 

[Sean]

where do you order them from im intrested to know

 

[Valael]

How big of a deal is inking? I always heard that they have a tendency to ink when something big happens outside of their tank, often killing themselves.



I've always had a love for Octopus (And absolutely everything else in the ocean) and wanted to get a salt water set up badly, but it's just far too expensive for me at the moment.

 

[dbbga]

First off www.Tonmo.com is a great place to learn about Ceph's!!
Second, you should have awell established saltwater tank of at east 6 months before putting a octo in it. Also, octos are species only, meaning everything else is a food source. They also have to have the water much colder than a normal tank, I have a chiller on mine. Im not trying to discourage anyone from geting into Cheps but it is alot to take on and is a big expense$$$$, that said, they are great. I have waited all my life to have one and it was a major learning exp.

The reason for the name Sam was that it went either way, you cannot sex an octo until it is about a year old, then you have to remove it from the tank and having a few freinds help with the tentacles then you have to inspect one of the tent. for a pad, which is the determining factor of a male.
Also the life span in the wild for an octopus is only 18-24 months, and in aquaria is shorter. When the mother lays eggs she stops eaing to completely take care of the eggs. Once they hatch, she is too weak to even search out food and dies or becomes a meal for a pred. It is a short life but they are fascinating. Please Check out www.Tonmo.com and do your research before you decide to get one, then if you still want one it will be a life changing exp.

 

[xBurntBytheSunx]

"i wanna set up some type of fish tank with something cool/different, and that seems like the perfect thing for me to get"

dude where are you going to have room to put your blondi if you get an octopus?

 

[The_Phantom]

I was watching some show on some learning chanel about Octopus, and it was sooo fascinating !!! This researchers had a room full of Octopus in tanks, and at one end of the room, was a tank, with crabs, the octopuss supper.

One day they noticed some crabs were missing so they decided to stay the night and see what had happened. What they saw astonished them;

The octopuss literally crawled out of its tank, onto the floor, across the room, up the table, and into the tank of the crabs, where it feasted at its leisure, then back across the room to its own tank !!!!

It seems they are smarter than you'd think !! Excellent vision too.

I also found this article of interest; its quite old but interesting

AS REPORTED in the “Sunday Times” of Johannesburg, almost every morning Dr. Arthur Wright of Durban dons mask, snorkel and flippers and dives into the sea.

One day he set up a most unusual friendship with an octopus, whom he called Okkie. His own description follows, as quoted in the “Sunday Times”:

“I came across Okkie one late summer afternoon about four years ago. He was lazing outside his rock home. My first thought was to bring him back alive for the Durban Oceanarium. ._._.

“Okkie immediately began waving his tentacles, as if in greeting, then to my great surprise he reached for a newly-cleaned arabica shell and extended it in my direction with one of those incredible feelers of his. I was delighted. And of course, completely disarmed. I decided to leave Okkie where he was.

“During the days that followed I thought quite a lot about Okkie. So I called again. Sure enough, I got the same happy greeting. And the same gift of a shell. The next time I passed by, Okkie was more generous. There were two shells. Over the months I built up quite a large collection from Okkie.

“Then one day I happened along and, to my sorrow, there was no Okkie. I called back several times. But still no Okkie. I felt very sad. What could have happened to him? Maybe he had grown too large for his home. Maybe some predator had taken him. Or maybe he, too, had been fired with adventure, seeking new waterways. Who can say? I only know I was conscious of a great loss.”

 

[The_Phantom]

Another article of interest:

The octopus may have a sinister look about it, but according to the magazine African Wildlife, it is nothing of the kind. Although an octopus will defend itself if deliberately attacked, it is in fact shy and inoffensive. Moreover, it is quite adept at working out problems. Scientists once tempted two octopuses with a lobster enclosed in a glass jar. Each soon learned to remove the stopper. The magazine further tells how one pet octopus made sure it got its dinner: “It was usually fed before the family’s evening meal. On the occasions they forgot to feed their pet before they sat down to eat, it would latch all eight tentacles on to the glass and change colour rapidly to attract attention. And if that didn’t work, it would pick up a pebble from the bottom of the tank and insistently tap the glass until it was fed.”

 

[LaRiz]

I remember once reading an article, I think in Discover magazine, regarding the octopus. It said that the octopus is evolving along the same lines as humans did and are doing.
There's a book to check out. This thread actually reminded me to go out and buy it. It's called THE
OCTOPUS AND THE ORANGUTAN. I recall it's about the behavior and intellegence in animals.
It may be worth checking out.
john

 

[The_Phantom]

wait a minute, Octopi are spineless.

Evolving eh?? Has anyone actually witnessed that??

Have you seen the movie Galaxy quest ? The Thermians look like Octopussies!

 

[Code Monkey]

Originally posted by Spider_savior
wait a minute, Octopi are spineless.

Is there a point to this rather obvious observation?

Evolving eh?? Has anyone actually witnessed that??

Micro-evolution has been observed many, many times in real time in human history and further is well evidenced by the fossil record. We've been over this many times. If you don't wish to believe that millions of micro-evolution events, which are observable, quantifiable, and proveable, add up to macro-evolution, go right ahead and stick to that delusion because I have no desire to see this thread go that direction. The bottom line is that evolution at some scale is as undeniable a scientific fact as you need oxygen to live.

The cephalopods are one of the most highly evolved life forms on the planet with or without spines.

 

[The_Phantom]

Ok thanks Codemonkey! I was just wondering. Not trying to start an argument, belieeeve me.

and to my pointless observation, this is a not so spinless wonders forum, but and octopus has no spine. Oh nevermind. ><