My O. Rubescens' new home

[AquaticEngineer]

Couldn't keep my little guy in a tupperware his whole life, lol.

I'm fairly certain he is an O. Rubescens, although there is a small chance he's a juvenile E. Dofleini. I caught him saturday night while collecting specimens for my large coldwater tank. We aslo caught a TON of Bay Pipefish and Tubesnouts.

I set up a small acrylic tank as a flow through system off of my main display and octo-proofed it last night. Currently has a very thin natural sand layer and a good pile of boulders in the middle made of 4-5 nice sized rocks sparsely covered with corynactis. This will be temporary until I get my 30 gallon 1" thick arcylic tank octo-proofed and setup inside the house. When thats up and running I'm going to go and take lots of pictures of the area I collected this guy from and duplicate that in his tank environment.

I tossed a handful of small live shrimp and a small shore crab in for him. He's still spooked and huddled in a corner but his color is back and he's breathing normally now that he's out of the tupperware prison,

[Kharn]

Very beautiful octopus =D I'm jealous ! I've always wanted to keep one but have never got around to really putting the effort in for them cause they need above avg care...

But they are so rewarding to have =D the most common ones you get here in australia in pet stores are ironically LETHAL......the blue ringed octopus.

I am not sure if your aware of the Cephlapods forum called TONMO but I do know that the people on there would be over joyed too see it, I say this only cause I notice that this is a very small section in here (reefcentral) for Cephlapods with new threads within the sub forum for Ceph's appearing once every few days/week.....

TONMO is a Ceph only forum!

Have you given your new Ceph friend a name yet ?

[AquaticEngineer]

Oh yeah, TONMO was the first place I posted

I havn't named him/her yet, still waiting until it gets comfortable in its new surroundings and starts to show its personality.

[Kharn]

Originally Posted by AquaticEngineer

Oh yeah, TONMO was the first place I posted

I havn't named him/her yet, still waiting until it gets comfortable in its new surroundings and starts to show its personality.

Smart moves on both things.

TONMO is the be all and end all for Ceph information and care.

And

Waiting for your new Ceph to be comfortable in its home (aka you know its gonna survive) is smart too, once you name a pet you start to get attached xD

[AquaticEngineer]

Originally Posted by Kharn

Smart moves on both things.

TONMO is the be all and end all for Ceph information and care.

And

Waiting for your new Ceph to be comfortable in its home (aka you know its gonna survive) is smart too, once you name a pet you start to get attached xD

Totally. The hardest part so far has been not poking around in the tank messing with the rocks, or looking for it with a flashlight.

I've had the lights off over its tank for the last day or so and just look in there when I'm feeding the big tank. I tossed a few more live shrimp, another tiny shore crab, a couple of small hermits, and a porcelin crab in there as well. So it should have plenty to eat should it choose to do so.

[Kharn]

Originally Posted by AquaticEngineer

Totally. The hardest part so far has been not poking around in the tank messing with the rocks, or looking for it with a flashlight.

I've had the lights off over its tank for the last day or so and just look in there when I'm feeding the big tank. I tossed a few more live shrimp, another tiny shore crab, a couple of small hermits, and a porcelin crab in there as well. So it should have plenty to eat should it choose to do so.

Yeah I can see where trying to not poke around the tank can be frustrating since its only after you put your octo in that you realize "this rock would be better here..." etc LOL ironic ehh ?

Well it certainly has plenty of food in the tank if it does feel like snacking, I hope all goes well with it because they really are so rewarding to keep!

[AquaticEngineer]

Video of my little guy as of 11/5/11

[AquaticEngineer]

Turns out its a Giant Pacific Octopus, he's growing up so fast.... :'(
http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/g...107_193534.mp4

[sslak]

Woah...what are you going to do with a 10ft octopus?!?

[AquaticEngineer]

Originally Posted by sslak

Woah...what are you going to do with a 10ft octopus?!?

I have a couple plans for him as he grows.

1) Sell him to a public aquarium or excentric aquarist. (He is for sale if anyone is interested pm me)

2) Let him rule my 200 gallon tank after I get all the animals out I don't want him to eat

3) Move him into a octopus proofed shipping container ( like what they ship live crab in) and plumb it into the existing system.

[gmate]

Seems rather evil to keep a Pacific Octopus in personal hobbyist aquaria. I'd definitely see if any local aquarium can take him. Nice find, though.

[AquaticEngineer]

Originally Posted by gmate

Seems rather evil to keep a Pacific Octopus in personal hobbyist aquaria. I'd definitely see if any local aquarium can take him. Nice find, though.

Would you consider it more or less evil than killing it by swallowing it alive? Or catching it and cutting its legs off? Thats the only other thing that these animals are collected for.

Since there is no minimum size restriction on the take of octopus for the commercial market I'm sure that more than a few baby GPO's have ended up on the table in a Korean restaurant in Seattle.

*COLDWATER MARINE AQUATICS * On a side not, I started out as a personal hobbyist but I'm now a commerical collector / wholesaler of live fish and invertebrates from the Northeast Pacific.

[AquaticEngineer]

Quick photo update, I had to get some new headshots of him since he's going up for auction

Juvenile Giant Pacific Coast Octopus on Aquabid

[Klownfish]

Nice picture

[chrisv]

well thats pretty freaking sweet.