Octopus at Safari Stan

[jaa1456]

That's actually a pretty long time. Did it escape or did it die of natural causes?

It died in the tank of natural causes.

 

[jaa1456]

I have seen this blue ring octo at aqua hut a month or so ago. They were selling him for $65. Scary stuff, there is no antivenom available, so if you get stung you are in trouble.

I don't think that is a true blue ring octo. THere is a mimic blue ring that they sell that is non venomous. Any true Blue ring I have ever seen for sale are always over 500 a piece.

 

[Imbarrie]

I have seen this blue ring octo at aqua hut a month or so ago. They were selling him for $65. Scary stuff, there is no antivenom available, so if you get stung you are in trouble.

Were they also recommending cone snails for a clean up crew?

 

[Long-Island-Mike]

Scary Stuff, I didnt want to walk my daughter past it.
As for it being real or not, I am not sure. It did say caution, highly venomous on the tank though.

 

[ryangrieder]

I use to have a dwarf pacific octopus for about 5 months. I had him in a 29g with a glass canopy pretty much duct taped everywhere lol. I had a bio wheel hang on filter for filtration, 2 t5 bulbs both geismann pure actinic, black sand, one piece of live rock, a long cylinder tube i took off one of those gravel vacs and a gurber baby food bottle with lid still on. It was an amazing experience. The octopus would come out at night primarily to feed. I use to feed it emrald crabs, cray fish and raw shrimp. He loved it. I was able to take the baby food glass jar and put the emerald crab in it and the octopus would figure out to twist the lid off and grab the emerald crab. He would change colors all the time. We were able to tape a piece of colored paper to fill up the side of the tank and if he crawled on that side of the glass he would change that color.

Sadly, he disappeared for about half a month. I could not find him anywhere. Took the rock out and shined a flashlight into the holes and all. I looked all over and gave up. I let the ank run for two months empty without touching the set up. The tank eventually was broken down. I took the rock out of the tank to clean it and after I did I left it in the garage. The next morning I came outside and looked at my rock and saw in one of the holes I saw him hiding in one of the holes. Sadly, he was dead. I felt like s***! my poor buddy was hiding real deep in the rock and did not come out for over 2 months but sadly I did not know. That sucked...

 

[tentacles]

I don't think that is a true blue ring octo. THere is a mimic blue ring that they sell that is non venomous. Any true Blue ring I have ever seen for sale are always over 500 a piece.

Whether or not it is a true blue ring, it's still a slippery slope to put an animal like that in a store where the general public can see it and assume that it is a safe specimen to keep. I really fail to understand why they are imported, and why stores stock them.

 

[adamt]

Were they also recommending cone snails for a clean up crew?

My lfs sold me a cone snail lol it came in on a piece of rock we couldnt id it at the time so he told me to take it for like $2 it ate an emerald crab as soon as i put it in the tank. After I saw this go down I looked it up id'd it and removed it... the scary thing is i picked it up and put it in the tank by hand!

 

[Thales]

There is no 'mimic blue ring' octopus.

It is unclear if all Hapalochlaena (there are IIRC 6 described species and several undescribed species) are venomous which means they should all be treated as if they are venomous.

They regularly sell in LFS for under 100 dollars and are often available because they are easy to collect in intertidal zones.

I think selling them is a bad idea for many reasons - not just the possibility of envenomation, but also because they generally don't show the blue rings unless they are agitated.