Blue Ring Octopus

[Birdy916]

So I was just cleaning out his tank, and seeing that they only live a short time, and Ive had him for a while now so he is probably nearing the end of his lifespan, so I thought Id share a couple pics.....

Lol, its not very easy to get pics of this creature, it is very secretive...

This is one of the 10 deadliest animals on the planet, probably close to the top of that list too, but they have such small beaks/mouths that this little guy would have a hard time getting thru my callouses....

All you Australians can back me up, if one of these bites you, you got about 3-4 minutes to get help.
The venom paralizes your breathing and other senses, but dissapates within 24hrs.
Its the paralized breathing that kills, so if you were to get on a ventilator in those 1st 4 minutes, and the doctor knows not to pull the plug on your temporary vegatative state, youll be fine in a couple days...

Anyways, heres a crappy pic of my octopus....

 

[JerseyWendy]

HOLY SMOKES!!! How long have you had him??? He is GORGEOUS!!! How did you manage for him not to escape? Octopus are phenomenal escape artists.

What have you been feeding him???

Please, tell us (ME) more.

 

[Birdy916]

Ive had it almost a year now, I feed it cleaner shrimps and the shop I go to/got it from saves all their hitchhiker crabs and mantis shrimps for me...

He is in a divided tank, but can squeeze himself anywhere inside the entire sytstem, had to put screens in the inlets of my pumps.

I have a lid that I made some locks for, he cant get out...

He(?) is really slowed down and probably on its last legs....errr- tentacles...

 

[JerseyWendy]

Is he near your refugium/sump???

OMG, you give him Mantis shrimp??? BAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!!! Mantis can do quite the damage to ones appendages if not careful. :54: How big is your system? Got any FTS????

 

[MikeyTN]

Wowzer....those are very deadly....I suppose you must keep those by themselves....must watch your every move while cleaning the tank....they are beautiful though! I was watching on animal planet or somewhere talking about them doing research about them.

 

[Birdy916]

that entire system is only about 70g.(ill try to find a pic of it..)
Its 2 tanks, consisting of 9 divided/conected sections, with a sump under it all.
The octopus can literally squeeze itself into anywhere in the system.
Its only limitation is its beak, which is so small I have never seen it, so I can only assume it can get into some pretty tight spots....

Even a large clown mantis cant defend itself against this little octo.
Its body is about the size of a small fig, and the arms probably give it about a 7 inch diameter...when stretched.

Mikey, i live directly behind my areas #1 emergency hospitol, but I still bet Id be in BIG trouble if it ever got ahold of me...
eta- no, I hardly ever see it except when I feed it, and then its only for a few seconds.... VERY secretive animal...

 

[Freespin]

That's so cool! I had a story about these when I was a kid =)

 

[Birdy916]

this the best pic of it I could find.... from when I first set it up
Thats a 50g on top, split into 3 sections, the lower tank is about 15g split into 6 sections, the sump rounds it off to around 70g...
Yes, I built the entire thing, that was an old stand I tore apart and rebuilt, and I divided the tanks...

 

[Birdy916]

You like reeftanks??
I got lotsa pics from mine(tore it down last sumer...)
I had a 300, a 125...

How about angler/frog fish??
I successfully bred my anglers last year, I think Im the only person in the USA to do so....

Once this octopus goes, no more fishtanks for a while....

I always go for the more exotic creatures that are more challenging to keep...

 

[Mike17]

I recall seeing these as a kid. Used to spend time poking around rock pools, and would occasionally seeing octopuses. Being a kid, I'd poke at them, and you knew pretty quickly if you'd found the blue-ringed variety- the blue rings flash when they're cranky or frightened. Deaths used to happen occasionally, possibly because people were trying to collect octopus for bait, they're the number one jewfish bait. Later on you could buy octopus quite readily so people stopped looking for them.

As for mantis shrimp, I lived in the tropical north of Queensland for a couple of years (horrible climate, but fishing was great) and occasionally caught mantis shrimp in my cast net (which I'd be looking for bait from, or prawns for eating once the season started). Beautiful creatures, but quite scary

 

[Birdy916]

its my dream to live somewhere where the GBR is my fishtank....

 

[MarciaLove]

Thats so cool i always loved these guys but they are so expensive!

 

[MikeyTN]

Marcia,

They sell this type of octopus?

Birdy916,

I don't ever wanna see you on that show"Deadly Obsessions".....

 

[Birdy916]

Thats so cool i always loved these guys but they are so expensive!

Actually, it was $35....


I paid 3x that amount for this...



pp

 

[MikeyTN]

Peacock Mantis are quite pretty. Are you keeping those in a acrylic tank?

 

[Birdy916]

here, Ill blow this thread up with some cool pics of my old tanks...
Somewhere I got another memory card that I cant find right now that has most of my reeftank pics...

These are pics of various tanks that Ive had over the last few years, there is no chronological order or any order to them.
I kept saltwater since about 1989 when I was 12ish... that hobby has come a LOOOOONG way since then...
Enjoy...

Mamma frogfish/anglerfish


Daddy frogfish


mamma with eggmass attached to her side(just visible as the whitish eggs)


Babies hatching


Up close


Green Wolf Eel


trio of flame hawkfish


plate coral, one of my favorites


my favorite Scoly


decorator crab

 

[Birdy916]

flamehawk trying to figure out how to eat a shrimp thats bigger than itself


Tomato Clowns wre my favorite kind, and they lived in that frogspawn


lawnmower blenny


long-tentacle plate coral


purple reef lobster and emerald crab


some corals


more corals


carpet anemones

 

[Birdy916]

I got another memory card that of course I cant find, it has all the pics of my 300g all grown out with some amazing sps and lps coral formations, and soft polyps would grow so thick Id have to scrape them off the glass every couple of days....

I gotta locate that card....

 

[JerseyWendy]

Super freaking awesome!!!! :32::32:

"Almost" makes me miss my SPS tank."

But you have/had WAY cooler fish than I ever did.

That carpet anemone is out of this world!!!!

 

[MikeyTN]

I love the long tentacle plate coral, one of my favorite! Were you able to successfully raise the angler fry??? Were you raising phytoplankton anf such to feed them or do they eat something else??? I had a pair of onyx picasso mix that laid eggs often but I didn't have all that luxury in raising them. Your pictures makes me miss my tank as my favorites were the LPS and zooanthids. Some SPS such as montipora as I had all different colors. I had so much of them I had to break huge pieces to trade for other stuff....