HELP! Sick Octo!

[jjensen6823]

Help! My Bimac is apparently sick. Two days ago, I noticed that he wasn't coming out much, and appeared to be breathing really hard. I fed him, and he took the food and seemed to eat it, so I kept an eye on him. The next morning, he was still breathing hard and not coming out of his PVC elbow, so I checked water quality. Ammonia was at or near 0, Salinity around 1.020, maybe 1.025. Everything looks ok. But I also noticed a small, white, pimple looking spot on his mantle. Last night, he was still breathing hard, and the spot was raised and maybe a little larger. Today, when I got home from church, we was laying on the bottom of the tank in a little ball with his tentacles up over his mantle. I thought he was dead, but he stuck to my finger and moved a little, so I think he is alive, but barely. And the spot is a lot larger, and looks like it goes down through the top layer of skin.

What is it? Bacterial infection? What do I do? I am working on a water change, but I am not sure what else to do? Help! I will try to get a picture posted after the water change.

Jim Jensen

 

[sohoal tang]

cyanide?

cyanide?

I heard years ago they catch them with cyanide and it takes
a few weeks to months for the dosage to kill them sometimes.....
?????


???

 

[OctoMonkey]

Sorry Jim it is too hard to say for sure, but poisoning is not out of the question...

I would do a 25% water change as soon as possible and get your salinity sorted out. It needs to be more exact. Aim for 1.024-1.026.

it would be worthwhile taking a sample of water to the LFS abd get them to check all parameters including copper.

what is the temperature?

Colin

 

[jjensen6823]

Dead Octo

Dead Octo

Well, my octo died shortly after my post. I doubt very much that it was Cyanide, since this was a tank raised bimac from FFE. And sorry about the salinity, I meant to type between 1.0200 and 1.0205. Should be higher? I checked ammonia again right after he died, and it was still at or extremely close to 0 (I have a tough time distinguishing between the colors on the scale sometimes). The white spot on his mantle had grown much larger and the surface layer of skin (the layer with pigment) around the white spot was peeling back, so I am guessing on an infection as the primary cause. Thanks for your offers of help. Maybe I'll try again sometime. Anyone know of any more sources for captive raised octos?

Jim

 

[CalvinC4S]

Sorry to hear the news. Was the tank ever treated with coper prior to the octo living in it?

 

[NHreefer]

Sounds like a tumor or infection, if the skin peeled away it would be almost toxic from a cancer or something. My guess would be a cancerous growth, but it happened fast, if they convert protein to mass really fast maybe they have accelerated/diseases. If they need three hearts to keep the pressure I wonder if one goes out of synch what happens. Is there an urchin in the tank? Maybe a spine of something snapped off inside him and he couldn't reject it. Who knows, my Bimac is still ok albeit HUGE now and honestly over the 5 or 6 months his water quality has varied greatly(my bad). Right now he is going through his I'm sick of the fricken scallops, he reels'em in, hten rejects them, I gotta vary his food.
Good luck and it doesn't sound like you did anything wrong.
My .02$
Chris

 

[cephalopoder]

Hi
Sorry to hear about your loss. I think your low salt level might have did it in. Cephs like salt. Full strength sea water is a must when keeping octopuses. The water conditions can vary greatly with a species like O.bimaculoides. It is a intertiidal species. Its used to water conditions that vary. A constant low salinity could weaken and kill your ceph. Salinity shuld be on the high ends at a target of 1.025. The 1.020 you had was too low.