2 Spot octopus

[m0nkie]

Hey guys. A few friends went lobster catching last night and came back with an Octopus.. pretty big. head is size of a large fist. He was about to become BBQ, I felt bad for him so I put him in my empty 100gal.

I turned down the temperature to 70.

-How often should I feed him?

-He's now kept alone in a 100gal designed for eel. It is pretty much escape proof. Can he lift a 5lb acrylic cover?

-I was told to design toys for them to keep them from being bored? shrimp in coke bottle type of thing.. any other ideas?

thanks!

video
http://vid29.photobucket.com/albums/...psons3ypzo.mp4

 

[Maritimer]

Where I work on weekends, they've got a young Pacific octo - she gets her food delivered in anything from capped PVC pipes to the oversized "Lego" blocks for toddlers - even Mr. Potato-head's tushie, where you'd normally store his extra eyes and noses.

Good luck with this handsome fellow!

~Bruce

 

[jalisco]

Nice save! Octopus is the one thing I never order or let people at my table order when we have sushi. I've met a few people who said they would never have an octo again because they have such a short lifespan and you get sooo attached to them.
I'd still like to have one though.
Good luck and keep us posted with tons of pics.

 

[corvettecrimson]

Nice of you to save him, great that you had a tank to accommodate him.

 

[jalisco]

Updates or more pics? Feeding?

 

[m0nkie]

The octopus is doing well. I was debating on keeping him or not. But I placed him in a 4ft deep vertical tank. It's eel proof so it should be octo proof. But trying to get him out seems impossible now. He inked when I tried fishing for him so no more of that.. doing an emergency 100 gallon WC was not cool..

He's getting more social now. Comes explore the tank at night. He has a cave in the sandbed and he brought all the shells around.

He eats large market frozen shrimp. I toss 1 in a day. However, being 4ft deep, i can't fish out the shells. He wraps around the shell and melts the meat inside, leaving a perfect shell. I try to catch crabs at the local beach and feed him.

Currently designing a feeder on rope. Something with a cap so the octo can screw open and feast, but not big enough for whole shells to fall out

Last week he got caught in the Gyre.. It took him a few hours to figure out. He pulled apart the Gyre side magnets and pulled the propellers out, freeing himself.. now he stays away from the pumps.. lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sloiKlu40jk

his little cave

 

[chimmike]

man, that is SO COOL

 

[BIGCYCS805]

Very nice you gotta post a video of it one day eating

 

[m0nkie]

I'll try. He's still afraid of me. I'm sure trying to catch him didn't help. Maybe after some feeding he will learn his food source..

 

[BIGCYCS805]

I think its a trip how he put the shells around his cave octo decorating lol

 

[jalisco]

Makes me want one.

If you can find any pottery like this he'll go in and let you lift him right out.

 

[jalisco]

I think its a trip how he put the shells around his cave octo decorating lol

I see that with giant pacifics' off the coast of northern Cal. Huge death beds around their cave opening. I wonder if it is like bears clawing trees in that the higher and deeper the claw marks lets a passing bear know how big and strong this bear is without actually having to square off. If octos display not only their kills but also things they find it might be to show passing octos that this cave is inhabited by a bad a$$.

 

[m0nkie]

I'm going to set up some go pros so i can video this.. the octopus is not shy at all... all this time I thought it was scared of me..

today i saw my Gyre pump broken into pieces again.. while fixing it, the octopus swam up to my hand, which is very unusual.. I haven't fed it for 2 days so I grabbed a frozen shrimp. The octopus reached out of the tank, grabbed the shrimp in my hand and swap down.. scared me good

my friends who owned octopus before said they were able to train the octopus to pull a rope which is attached to a bell when hungry.. I hope this guy didn't just learn a broken powerhead = food...

 

[jalisco]

While fishing for lobster your friends caught an octopus, trained it to ring a bell for food and then decided to eat it?

 

[m0nkie]

lol no. different groups of people. I know 2 octopus owners around my city. but those octopus are babies. it's pretty cool watching them crawl around the rocks with fish around. This guy is aggressively trying to get food.. waiting at the tank opening, couple tentacles outside, but not climbing out. Anything it grips stays gripped until it lets go.

 

[jalisco]

Ahh, that makes more sense. I was thinking you hang out with heartless world class animal trainers.

 

[m0nkie]

octopus eggs!

 

[Jayreefer]

Cool on the eggs, but sorry your octo is so late in life.

If any make it I would totally buy one from you, lol.

 

[gordonj1]

How big are the eggs? We've been breeding octopuses for our research. You might be able to raise them, it can be a ton of work though depending if they are benthic or pelagic. She may still eat even though she is going into senescence.

 

[m0nkie]

eggs are about 1-2mm long.

she laid a whole bunch more today.. twice the original amount