got a hitchhicker octopus

maroun.c

New member
never planned on keeping one only cause i can't get any company to ship one till here so he jsut came on a mushroom rock he looks great and i spent all night looking at it. i posted in the reef discussion and was told not to put it in my tankn so it went to my Q tank after 5-6 hours acclimating him he just wandered a bit in the Q tank and then disappeared between the rocks. i did my best to close the tank but there are still area he can get out from. i'll do a search tomorrow to get info on how to care for him but as it is 1:30 am and i have to be at work in 6 hours can you please post any info you can come up with any tips you find i could benefit from are greatly appreciated. what do you feed yours do they hide all time or do they wander in the tank wen they get used to their new home? what do you feed them and how often? he's realy small and looks great and i hope he'll live in my 10 g Q tank. i was scared by the idea that it could be the blue ring octopus can you please post a pic of one so that i compare them? thanks for any help. here's a pic of it while i was acclimating it. still couildn't take any photo of him in the tank
 
Look at how he's trying to escape already! lol that's too cute.

I got some nice hitchhiker aptasia, I might be willing to trade ;)
 
Do a search on Blue Ring Octopus and you will get an idea of what they look like.

Marc
 
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Here ya go, does not make a good pet.
DFugitt_RajaAmpat-G1_036.jpg
octopus_bluering_02.jpg
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octopus.jpg
 
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Thanks god it's not one of those yet they are so pretty. the sad part is that it's been 2 days that i can't find it in the tank, i'm still hoping it is hiding between the rocks but i feel it has gotten out of the tank. do they usually wander in the tank when the lights are on or do they just hide? i'll try putting some food when lights are off to see if he's hiding somewhere. i never imagined i'll get one by any chance that's why i had no tank sealed enough for one. however if i find it he'll have his own tank.
 
They will mostly hide in a new enviroment, but soon will come out. You can feed it shrimp, scallops, oysters and snails if youcan get ahold of some, also if not, you can thaw some froaen and try feeding pieces of it on a feeding stick or on the end of an airline tubing, just press it into the tubing and get it close to him he will take it. Most octos are nocturnal.......Good luck and keep us informed:D hope this helps
 
your hitchhiker sort of looks like my o. mercatoris. where did you get the mushroom rock from? Mercatoris comes from the florida/gulf of mexico area i think. I kept one for a while and she never tried to escape, and my tank was definitely not escape proof. She did hide quite a bit. She never came out in the light but if i shined a flashlight (put a red filter over it) into the tank after dark i could usually find her out hunting, but she definitely didnt like being watched. You can search the tank and be convinced the octopus is gone but i bet its just hiding really really well, thats what they are good at.
 
where did you get the mushroom rock from?
I got it from Singapore

I kept one for a while and she never tried to escape

how did you loose it? and how did you know it was a she? Anyway to sex them?

you are right yesterday i woke up at 3:00 and went to check on the tanks (i always do that to try to find hitchhickers in the display tank and i took a look at the Qtank where the octopus is and there it was it was mooving too fast between the rocks great looking however it was much darker brown than the original colour when i got it. when i got the camers it just hid and did not come out anymore. i'll try to take pics and post them to get an accurate Id.
did you feed yours at day or night time and what did you feed it?
my tnak is not completely sealed so I guess a small sealed tank is in order. can i keep seahorses with it or will the become dinner? soory too mmany questions but i'm new to otpopuses never read about them and here i am with one in my tank. really one amazing and lovely to watch critter
 
octo

octo

Wow a cool hitchhicker. I wish i can have a hitchhicker like that one day :rolleyes: . First search the specie so you can know how big will s/he get! Then you can understand if you can keep him w/ seahorses. Actuallyi would not recommend you keeping him w/ horses. I even would not recommend keeping horses so if you dont have seahorses, dont buy and make your tank a octo tank

Good Luck
Selim Ãâ€"œzadar
TURKEY
 
I know it was a she because she laid eggs, and since she was wild caught the eggs were fertile. I gave them away to cephalopoder and he was able to get one to hatch and stay alive, im not sure what ever happened to the baby since ive been away from this message board for a while. She died about a month after laying eggs which is normal. Most octopuses only live about a year. You can sex them but you need some expert knowledge. I fed mine about an hour after the lights went out. I would either feed it live hermit crabs or little pieces of thawed frozen shrimp from the grocery store. I just dropped the food outside of her cave and eventually she would come out and grab the food and bring it back into her cave to eat. She wasnt a very exciting octopus. My second one was much more bold and would hand feed anytime.
 
I don't have any seahorses, however since my octo seems to hide under daylight and that i won't be able to watch it i'm considering making a new 10-15 g sealed tank for it however i would like to add other things to watch at day time. as i was told it won't eat star fish i'll be getting 2-3 ones (any species you recommend) do you think a couple of damsels stand a chance or will it catch and eat them for sure? also i'm considering ordering another octopus however on the price list they only have one octopus called " octopus cephalopoda species" stil couldn't find any info on that one. i also still haven't managed to get a decent pic for my octo to get an accurate ID and know if he'll live with another one. any info or suggestions are a[[reciated as i am still in the planning part of this new tank.
 
Maroun, if you will put fish, your octopus will hide much more then normal i guess. But inverts like... if you like corals you can put corals, dont put soo much rock to see him. Put small hermit crabs in the tank so you can watch him eating them. You can put starfish, sea urchins...

Maroun also dont you have a lfs? Why are you buying your fish from Singapure? You can also buy your stuff from Turkey too cuz Turkey is much more close to Leubnan, isnt it? Also from which site are you buying your fish and others?
 
I'd guess that that guy wouldnt eat a damsel but a damsel would scare it and he would hide even more. Starfish are fine, my second octopus liked to play with the starfish and urchins in my tank. You might have better luck seeing the octopus if instead of rocks in the new tank you just put in a bunch of pvc objects. A little pvc pipe will serve as an ideal home for the octopus and then you could know exactly where his hide out is and where to drop the food. Give him a few shells too, they like to use shells to block up the entrance to their cave, they act as little doors and it is very cute to watch the octopus close the door behind him when he enters his cave.
 
Put small hermit crabs in the tank so you can watch him eating them.

nice thing to watch yet i still have to wait for a month each time to get 1 hermit till here not to mention that it costs me 5 usd for each one he'll eat. there is a hitchhicker crab with him in the main tank and he has managed to stay alive so far.

Maroun also dont you have a lfs? Why are you buying your fish from Singapure? You can also buy your stuff from Turkey too cuz Turkey is much more close to Leubnan, isnt it? Also from which site are you buying your fish and others?

There is one lfs in the whole country here that deals with marine aquariums and they only get stuff once every 1-2 month and that's too limited that's (although they are well experienced and friendly) so i buy my fish from that lfs, in addition i got some corals from that lfs a bit more costy(8-13 usd for a hermit, ) but sure worth it for they get better stuff than what i get through MO. NO other MO company agrees to send stuff in small amounts to Lebanon except for this one in singapure a freshwater lfs deals with them and i recieve my stuff with his so i don't have to go to the airport to finish all the paperwork to introduce livestock. they're stocklist misses hard corals however they have a good variety of softies, i managed to get some good items the last months and my tank only needs 3-4 corals more to be full. As for turkey i don't know if any company there would ship till Lebanon, do you have good LFS there? do they have good skimmer and other equipment? a friend of mine might go to tukey soon and may be i'll convince him to get me stuff from there. can you please give me addresses or websites of some LFSs in turkey?
thanks for your help.
 
Hello Maroun! Im from Singapore and I think u have the same octopus as Im keeping. I was not as lucky as u, I had to buy the bugger. It didnt come as a hitchhiker. Still trying to identify it as I have got it for less than 3 days. Defintely a night bird as it only emerges after dark and yes mine gave me a scare too by hiding inside the live rock making me think it escaped....
 
Hi Centuyegg,
Unfortunately my luck didn't last that long for the octopus just disappeared after a few weeks don't know if it got out of the tank or if it died anyway the tank wasn't setup tp house one so it wasn't completely sealed.
any pics of your octo or your setup would be really appreciated as i am considering getting a new oneafter i set up a propper tank for it.
also lately i was trying to get some stuff from malaysia and some surrownding countries and i wasn't able to get any corals from there due to some new bans so next week i'll contact the lfs to ask them if they can get any corals from singapore for me, so i would really appreciate if you could tell me if tehre are any new laws or bans in your country that bans taking corals out to avoid loosing time waiting for things to arrive and jsut endup with sorry couldn't get your things out of the water or out of the country after 3 weeks of waiting as what happened with the malaysia dealers.
thanks for any help on the above question.
good luck with your new addition (what are you feeding it and is it feeding? waiting for some pics.
Maroun
 
Yup currently there is an operation to clear the market of corals....

Yup currently there is an operation to clear the market of corals....

Dont dismiss your octopus as gone yet.... u will be surprised where it springs out from... My feeling is that it is still hiding in your tank somewhere. Among the live rock or even in the sand.... One thing to note a 6 inch octopus can be hiding in a 2 inch hole....

Im still trying to get mine to get used to me and come out of the hole... Its eating but still hiding, only pops it head out once in a while... So taking a photo is hard man.....

With regards to the ban, yes apparently Hard Coral has been banned for import, export, trade in Singapore by the AVA (Agri-food and veterinary Authority of Singapore) under the cites agreement some time back.... but the ban was not tightly enforced... Then with the show "Finding Nemo" what happened was that the marine trade in spore literally exploded.... Yup Marine LFS were springing up all over the country and basically demand outstrip supply... Also alot of new LFS basically cashed in on the what we call "Nemo Fever" and started selling Clowns as Nemos and the moorish idol as Nemo's friend... Yup and also "starter kits" of 2 to 3 gallons for Marine. The result?? Lots of ignorant people buying and setting up nano tanks to rear Nemos for their children that are so enamoured by the show Finding Nemo.....

This craze went on until about month back AVA clamped down on the whole craze.... and started raiding LFS especially wholesalers... one wholesaler got raided everyday for a week and was fined SGD 20,000 Corals, live rock (Which has now been classified as coral) were confiscated.

Hence I think that u will not find it easy getting coral from our region for the time being.... Best to wait for a while....
 
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