Death of a friend.

[Asterix]

Well, Something horrible happend to my octopus. It died yesterday by my hand. Since last thursday its health had started to decline, It was not accepting several types of food. It seemed to have shrunken in size, Its mantle also had some type of strange growth on it. I tried everything, And on sunday, I could not take it anymore...The poor thing could barely move, It was being swept around in the current trying to breath...At this point it was twice as small as its normal size...I did the most humane thing I could think of...I put it in a bag of water...And then placed it in the freezer....Later when the water had froze, My GF and I took the ice block outside and burried it, Instead of filling the hole back up with dirt, I used quick-crete and wrote "goodbye friend" with a stick. This was the most human-like pet I have ever kept...I will try again someday when my confidence has built back up...I would like to think it wasnt my fault, But there is no way of knowing...The only water quality problem was Nitrates at <5 with a sailfert test kit.


-David-

 

[cephalopoder]

Sorry to hear about your loss astrix.
Was this a captive baby bimac? Or wild caught. Was it a large octo? Did you use ro/di water? I read so many posts I have a hard time remembering each posters set up and situation. Low salinity can cause this, copper, some introduced chemical,temp, ph swings at night and a tank not being cycled long enough. As for the funny growth?
I try and keep a log of every thing I do to each tank, this way should some thing start to go wrong I can look back and see what might have happend.
I have run into problems with bad batches of salt and the only way of knowing this was from keeping a log. Don't get discouraged though. We all make mistakes when starting out. I know I did lol.
chris

 

[goodman770]

David,

VERY sorry to hear about this. It's unfortunate, but It happens. Not sure if this would help...but I do keep a journal of both the Ocot and reef tank. Once a week I update it with all the pertinant info.
Best of luck...and try again...

Bill