One Spring tide Dad took my little brother and me to the tide pools. Walking along one particularly large pool normally well under water, my little bro (like 10+ years old so early 70's maybe) jumps in and pops up with an octopus, 3 feet wide when all spread out. Dad whips off his sweater and wraps up the poor octo. We sprint back to the car, race home (about 10 minutes), throw a trash can in the trunk, back to the beach, fill-er up, race back home. Transferred the water into another plastic trash can, dropped the octo in (yeah, out of the water for maybe 30 minutes so far - duh), ink everywhere. Back to the beach for more water and home for a quick water change. After things settled down a bit and we all dried off, we drove downtown and bought our first salt water tank (29G), with a carbon/floss air driven filter. We collected rocks for aquascape and crabs for food. The octoc survived 2 escape attempts over about a year - 3rd time was a charm so to speak (still feel bad about that). After we moved I set the tank up again with UG filter, bleached coral, natural light by the window. Word got out and the neighborhood kids would bring me stuff they found in the tide pools. One kid showed up with what I later realized was a juvenile Garibaldi (little did I know). Someone else donated a baby octo in a dixie cup ;-) Good Times!
