SHEPHERD, ROSS, & AVILA: PIUSBANDRY OF THE COCONUT OCTOPUS 
241 
ing in the identification of appropriate sites and individual specimens. In this area, A. marginatus 
is relatively easy to identify underwater, even at night, due to the conspicuous opalescence along 
the suction-cups, as well as their typical behavior of hiding within bivalve shells, small cans, bot¬ 
tles or broken coconut shells (Fig. 1). 
Our first attempts at collecting coconut octopuses occurred during the shallow-water compo¬ 
nent on the Academy’s Philippine Biodiversity Expedition in late May 2011, funded by William 
Randolph and Margaret Hearst. Smaller sizes were preferentially chosen for ease of transport and 
longevity, as small specimens were presumed to be the youngest specimens. All animals were col¬ 
lected in clear plastic bags or rigid plastic jars with mesh lids. Whenever possible, each octopus 
was collected with its den in order to reduce stress and give the specimens cover and stmcture dur¬ 
ing the transport. In these cases, octopus dens consisted of small bivalve shells, cans or bottles. Fol¬ 
lowing collection, specimens were returned to our field station by banka (approximately 30 minute 
transit time) and immediately staged in holding containers placed in shallow water just offshore of 
our field station. The next morning the animals were removed from the ocean and transported to 
Manila (approximately 120 minutes by car) where they were prepared and exported to the Stein- 
hart Aquarium. 
The second collecting trip occurred at the end of a Steinhart Aquarium led expedition focused 
on developing our coral conservation efforts in the Philippines. We were joined on this trip by biol¬ 
ogists from the SECORE Foundation (Bremen, Germany), The Florida Aquarium (Tampa, Florida, 
USA) and Moody Gardens 
(Galveston, Texas, USA). Florida 
Aquarium and Moody Gardens 
staff assisted in the collecting, 
transport and documentation of 
these efforts and we are very 
grateful for their contributions. 
Our methods closely resembled 
the initial collecting trip, except 
for two major differences. First, 
as an attempt to eliminate death 
by “rigor” during collection (see 
results and discussion), we 
decided to use only rigid plastic 
jars rather than clear plastic bags 
(Fig. 3). Second, to increase 
longevity and reduce the size of 
our transport container, we 
focused our collecting efforts on 
extremely small specimens (<2 
cm ML). 
Square-sided plastic jugs 
constructed of FDA-approved 
PVC were purchased from TAP 
Plastics (Easy Grip Plastic Jugs, www.tapplastics.com, USA). The uniform size and cube-like 
shape of these containers facilitated packing in Styrofoam aquarium shipping boxes, while the plas¬ 
tic protected the octopuses during the collecting dive (40-60 minute bottom time), transport back 
to the field station (30 minute boat ride) and transport to the shipping facility (2-3 hour car ride). 
Figure 3. Clear, food-safe plastie jars with tight fitting serew top lids were 
used for eolleeting, staging and both short and long-distanee transports with a 
high degree of sueeess (100% survival). Photo by Erie Hovland. 
