Octo dying...maybe dead already

[ryan_paskadi]

So I picked up a Caribbean reef octopus from a friend. While I was acclimating him and he got out of the bucket and crawled across my kitchen floor. My wife likes to spray for bugs (alot). I quickly picked him up, rinsed him off in spare salt water I had got from his original tank, and then I put him back into acclimation. He was ****ed but ok. I put him in the tank eventually and he was still ok for several hours. Looking out of his hole and ducking away when I walked by. I think the chemical exposure has finally gotten to him. He is balled up on the sand bed not moving (dead). His skin still has chromatophores firing rapidly. The bug toxin is a nuerotoxin and he should be paralyzed but alive. Is this the case? Is there hope?

 

[Animal Mother]

Sounds bad.

The chromatophores can change for a while after death. Any exposure to bug killer is going to be super bad. Inverts are inverts, bugs or not. Plus the stress from being relocated.

I would just turn off the lights and hope for the best. If it looks like it is tensed up it may live. They tend to just turn into a wad off goo (like an oyster) when they die.

Sorry.

 

[Animal Mother]

Might I suggest you use a critter keeper (plastic bug cage) if you get another octopus. This will keep them contained in the bucket during acclimation. I've used this method many times and it hasn't failed me yet. I tried the bucket alone before. All you gotta do is turn your back for a second... like a 3 year old it's in trouble.

Then just remove the critter keeper and place it in the tank, snap the lid open and let the octopus climb out on its own so instead of it thinking "ESCAPE!!!" it's thinking "Explore!".

 

[ryan_paskadi]

unfortunantly the octopus died, but thank you for your advice and I will surely not let this happen again.