is she dead now?

Rudiger

New member
Hi. Since mother octo laid her eggs she sits in the opening of her shell and watches the room but never comes out. But right now she has come out and is sitting on the tank wall. She is ghost white and all her arms are curled up, she also seems to be breathing heavy. Is this the sign that she is finally at her end? Well, ill see tomorrow morning.

pat
 
Sorry to say pat, the cling to the wall is the last hurrah. I usually stick them in a ziplock of water and put them in the freezer at this point.
She probably wont be around tomorrow.
chris
 
She died. Its all over. My tank is now cephless.

I ripped out all the gravel and added a sand bed. Tomorrow I am adding a few more piece of live rock and 5 pounds of live sand to seed my sand bed. Now ill have to let the tank cycle. Im hoping to get a bimaculoides in a month or whenever the tank finished recycling.

Question: How much life should I keep in the tank between now and the next ceph? How many damsels = a bimac? What else can I use besides damsels? I hate buying fish from the LFS, theirs are not too healthy. Thanks

pat
 
Whatever you do, don't put damsels in there! I had to completely disassemble my tank to get my 6 blue damsels out before my cuttlefish and bimac arrived. It took me two hours to do it. Get something less aggressive and easier to catch. You could always put shrimp in there or mollies to serve as food for the octo when it arrives. Just make sure that the shrimp don't have any claws.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
I woulldn't worry too much about the claws. Cephs are designed to eat things with claws and it is their favorite food. I have seen little octos wrestle crayfish twice their size with no problems. The only time I have declawed any thing is when I think the ceph is loosing its eye sight.
You can cycle your tank by just adding a piece of raw shrimp to the tank. I use fritz zyme #9 t help cycle my tanks and it works good.
By the way. Jack just sent me some pics . It looks like he has some nice little bimaculoides right now in stock. Here a a pic he sent to share with you.
 
looks like a great octo. Id love to get it now but my order of 10 lbs of live rock and 5 lbs of live sand (from fishsupply) will be arriving tomorrow. Ill have to check my levels for a little while after I put that in, but im hoping it will cycle quickly since I already have an established bacteria conony on my existing LR and in my filter.

pat
 
Dead Octo...

Dead Octo...

Pat,
My Octo did the same thing. It sucks. I'm in the process of recycling my tank to try again in a couple weeks as well. I havn't made up my mind about Fish Supply again though. They gave me "less than good" service and fish.
It is just WAY too cool of a creature not to try again.
Good Luck...

Bill
 
What was wrong with you fishsupply order? I thought in a earlier post you said you were very happy? The fact that your octo laid eggs and died is not a problem with fish supply. Ordering any octo between the months of september trough march risks getting a gravid female of most octo species. To me getting a gravid female is a blessing, But I can inderstand your dissapointment in hope of getting a litte longer life out of your first octopus. Cephalopods live very short lives in gerneral though compaired to other marine animals.
chris
 
Yea, I was originaly happy because everything was alive. I don't want to rant here, but the octo was the wrong species and pregnant. I had it for a week before it laid eggs and spent the remainder of it's existance in a cave. A Powder Blue tang I got was VERY, very thin and never really had a chance despite eating because of a disease that showed up 1 day after getting it. 5 days after ordering it took a phone call by me for them to tell me they were waiting on 2 corals to come in that they didn't think would ever come in. Lastly, I wrote them to tell them about all this and they got back to me after 10 days. I still have yet to hear from them after an email to them 10 days ago as a follow up. It was just not a good experience. Overall, it was a $250 order, and I explained that I ordered from them on this boards recomendation. I realize experiences range and I'm not condeming them, but I won't be using them again. I did write to them asking for at least to replace one of the fish and I would pay the shipping. Again, that was 10 days ago and still no word.
Chris, I would like to say thanks for all the help before and during my Octo experience...and I will get another one within a month or so.
 
I had just the opposite experience with them Bill. My curent octo in my tank is from them. I had orignally ordered two from them, and they replaced one of the ones that died in shipping the next day! Unfortunately, that guy died a few days later. :( Make sure you tell them you are a reefcentral.com member and speak to Jack about species.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
Thanks Mike, and I'm glad yours turned out well. Like I said, I wasn't condeming them because a lot of people have had good experiences. But, after making and order and $60 (plus shipping) of that order die within the first week for reasons out of my control with a total lack of service...I have to question it. I even asked the guy (Andy) in my letter...given this situation...would you order from this company again?
Ok, I will shut up now. Good luck with the Octo's everyone.
 
Bill
There is no vender in existance that can supply you with a cephalopod and tell if it is gravid or not. You have no way of knowing these things till they lay eggs. As far as ordering a a certin species, if you read alot of the back posts I say time and time again you never know what you are going to get when you order cephalopods. Jack 90% of the times get O.bimaculoides. He is selling what he gets in from his wholesalers. His wholesales do not give names to octopus species. Nor do any wholesales. He only knows how to ID a bimac, from me helping to teach him. I will make sure when I rewrite the octo care page for fishsupply I put in a disclaimer for available species. Believe me I felt the same way when I got my first octo from him. I got something other than a bimac. I was upset and called him. Thats how I got to be good friends with Jack. I was sent a very rare O.macropus species. After I realised what I has I was very grateful lol. Now I can't wait to get that species again lol.
Since that time he has gotten me some of the most exotic octopuses in existance and I have had excellent results with every one. Yesterday I got 4 small stumpy spined cuttlefish( Sepia.bandensis ) sent to me from Jack. I located them myself at a wholesalers warehouse, called Jack the same day, he called his driver who was on the road, sent him there, bought them for me then fed-exed them to me the same day. Now that is service!!!!!Cuttlefish are very hard to ship. Every one came alive and was eating minutes after being in the tank. Now I have 4 beautiful little cuttlefish. I don't think there is a vender who can top that.
I am sorry you had bad luck with Jack. I will call him personally and see whats going on.
chris
 
Chris, I think you have the same cuttlefish that I have! i have noticed my guy using two of his arms to walk a bit, but he also swims about. You must break your silence and take some pictures of these guys! Is that wholesaler still offering the cuttles? How much were they? You can e-mail me privately at work at mile_ceritelli@tac-americas.com if you don't want this stuff all over the boards. Please let me know!

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
Hey chris,
good catch......

keep us up to date on their progress please.....

my update.....

my cuttles spawned several times over 5 days or so but on the last day he ate her face, em...... didnt stop him mating either, dont know what went wrong there? So i now just have one male, he is about maybe 7" now.....

they spawned small eh? i was surprised but i sat and watched them quite a few times.

How sociable are your new cuttles????

all the best
Colin
 
Wow Colin, I am sorry to hear that! Id ask ceph-list about what could have possibly caused that. Maybe he was just a rough kisser:D
This is only my second day of having these guys.
They seem to interact with each other ok. No fighting so far. I got four in hopes of getting a pair to breed. I think it would be awesome to have some captive breed pygmy cuttles that could live in a tropical tank. Talk about a dream ceph lol.
 
Chris, i spoke to richard Stride last this week and neither of us have had a thing from cephlist in weeks????/ have you???
 
No I have not, I was just wonering that myself.
James could be away. I think he had a trip planned come to think of it. Or maybe, no one has posted to the list for a while.
 
I stand corrected...

I stand corrected...

Hey guys,
I thought I would share my good fortune to have Jack from Fish Supply call me personaly to find out more information on the challanges I had with my order. We had a nice informed talk about the fish business and what may have gone wrong. He couldn't be a nicer guy and we came to a fair agreement on rectifying everything. So, I will be ordering from them in the future and will be part of the many people who seem to be happy with their service and fish.
Bill
 
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