Octopus Disease

[fishgk]

One of my octopuses died today, and when I disected him, I noticed that his hearts were in unusual condition. They were very enlarged and glossy black in color. I was wondering what may have caused his hearts to take on this state. I am thinking parasites...to see if this is the case I saved the hearts and am going to disect them tomorrow. Has anyone else ever experienced this? If so, what causes an octopus to aquire this problem?

 

[CrazyLionfish]

Disecting a pet octopus, sounds crazy! Good luck with the heart dissection and figuring out what it is.

 

[fishgk]

thanks....well, after disection i have concluded that the hearts were enlarged due to old age, and that he died of natural causes. i didn't find anything in the heart or the surrounding tissue...no protozoans or anything....i'm always sad to see them go, but it's nice to be able to learn about them from it.