Dwarf Carribeans?

[nanoreefboy]

Anyone have experience with Dwarf Carribean Octopi? I can get them in regularly at my LFS and just wanted to know if anyone had any experience. Thanks.

[Gonodactylus]

While they are typically sold as Octopus joubini, most are in fact O. mercatorus (sp?) and come from the Gulf Coast. This is prime breeding season and chances are if you get a female, she will quickly lay eggs. I have several brooding right now. This species is nocturnal and fairly secretive, so don't expect to see much. On the other hand, they are pretty tough and survive in small tanks.

Roy

[OctoMonkey]

Hi Roy,
do you ever post pics of your brooding octos?

"mercatoris", according to cephbase.

Colin

[cephalopoder]

Hi Roy
It's always nice to see you stoping by in the ceph forum. I just caught your film the Fastet Claw in the West and I have to say it is most excellent!
What species is that black and white striped spearer you snare out of its hole? Such a intense animal! I think the film says its from Hawaii.
It looks similar to the striped spearer that gets spooked out of its hole by a mimic in the film Roger and John did for national geographic.
chris

[Gonodactylus]

"Fastest Claw" was my favorite film to make. I am currently working with BBC to update some of the material on fighting. The yellow and brown striped stomatopod captured in Hawaii is the common Lysiosquillina maculata. It occurs from Hawaii and French Polynesia to Africa and is the largest of all stomatopods reaching a maximum length of 40 cm. It is monogamous and the burrow that I pulled the male from in Hawaii in Fastest Claw was still there last time I checked three years ago. We know they can live at least 20 years and perhaps longer. L. maculata, along with a couple of very similar Lysiosquillids occur in Norther Sulawesi. It was probably L. maculata.

Roy

[cephalopoder]

Man wouldn't I like to get my hands on one of those. I bet they would be a awesome species for a large tank! Thanks for the info Roy!
chris

[Gonodactylus]

I recently lost one that I had for six years. There are some nutritional problems that can lead to deformed raptorial appendages, but generally they do well in a tank. They do molt frequently (every couple of months) and must be kept in a burrow. Large adults actually can't secrete enough mucus to build a burrow, so the ideal tank situation is about 4 feet of pvc running along the bottom of the tank or under the plenum with pieces about the length of the animals leading at about 75 degrees to the surface. I kept one in a tank that was 30 x 30 and only 4 inches wide. I used a 3 inch piece of pvc bent into a U and with about a quarter of the side planed off I smeared the inside of the burrow with silicon cement, then packed it with sand. When dry, I washed out the sand and cemented the cut-away burrow to the side of the tank, then filled the tank with sand to the level of the openings. The burrow looked very realistic and with black plasting against the glass, the animal was happy inside. I then gradually increased the sand level in the tank so that eventuall the last two or three inches were sand/mucus constructed by the resident. The tank was ganged to a 200 gal system and worked well. One of these days I'm going to collect a pair and put them into one of these setups so I can observe who cares for the eggs, etc.

Roy

p.s. Sorry this wasn't about octopus, but I have actually used this same tank for sand burrowing horridus (sp?).

[cephalopoder]

I don't mind any mantis info in this forum at all Roy.
I have the same plans for a sand dwelling octo tank in the future. My current system has a L shaped piece running under the plenum that the mimic used for its home sometimes when it was smaller. In the mimic article you and I wrote sections for that James put together you can see a pic of him comming out of the tube. It is too big for the tube now. My idea for a tank would be to use the same plenum set up I have now for 3/4 of the tank then have the other quarter filled with fine sand or a layer of mud with fine sand on top. I would then run a length of 2" wide pvc under the sand with a elbow leading to the surface. This way the tank would be set up for both sand and non sand dwelling species. Some times you never know what you gwet when you order so it would be a good way to be ready for the unknown.
chris