My boyfriend [32M] of 8 months tried to surprise me [30F] with a pet octopus. I freaked out at him, now he's not speaking to me.

I [30F] used to be a marine biologist who worked in an aquarium. But it's a very mentally, physically, and emotionally taxing job, and I burnt out after about five years. I work an office job now, which I like a lot better in about a million different ways. I sometimes miss taking care of the animals, but it was not worth all the other bull**** that came with it.
Cephalopods were my favorite animals to take care of, octopuses in particular.
My boyfriend [32F, dating for 8 months] was out of town visiting family for Christmas/New Years, but he came back on Thursday. We met that night at my apartment to exchange Christmas presents.
My present was big. When I unwrapped it, I was shocked. It was a fish tank. 50 gallons, apparently. Along with a couple hang-on-back filters, a heater, a light to go on top, two bags of sea salt, and some kitschy tank decorations. And that's it.
Then my boyfriend exclaimed, “Surprise! I got you an octopus!" I asked him what he meant, and he explained to me that he bought me an octopus as a Christmas present, and it was being express shipped overnight to my apartment!
As soon as he told me, I started to panic. I literally stood there going like, "I -- I -- I --" like I was a ****ing cartoon character. My boyfriend then said something like, "We better hurry up and put this tank together!" like it's a TV stand from IKEA and he ordered me a new flatscreen or something.
I just started rambling. I don't have any RO water, there's no protein skimmer, these filters aren't big enough, I don't have space for a tank this big, where are we going to mix fifty gallons of saltwater, the tank isn't cycled!! The tank isn't cycled!! That octopus is going to die once we put it in this tank!
I told him that he needs to cancel the order. He needs to call whoever he bought that octopus from and cancel it. My boyfriend said that he can't, he got confirmation that they already shipped it out.
At this point, I was starting to get hysterical. Someone needs to be at my place to pick up the package, it'll freeze outside if the delivery guy just leaves it by my front door! I don't have any food to feed the octopus! THE TANK ISN'T CYCLED!
My boyfriend was trying to calm me down, and I kept yelling at him, "What are we going to do? What are we going to do when it gets here?" And he said something like, "I dunno, I thought you'd be able to figure it out?"
I had to really dig deep inside myself to find that part of me that would keep me level headed in similar scary, time-sensitive situations from back in my aquarium days. My boyfriend just stood there awkwardly while I wracked my brain.
I suddenly realized I could take it to our local aquarium where I used to volunteer, way back when I was first trying be an aquarist. Most everyone I volunteered for was gone, but I still knew two people who worked there.
Neither phone number I still had in my cellphone for those two people worked anymore, but I was still friends with them on Facebook, so I PM'd both of them and prayed. My boyfriend was still standing around awkwardly, and I told him that if he wanted to leave, he could. So he did.
Fortunately, one of the aquarists I used to volunteer for (he’s the curator now!) responded within about an hour, and I explained the whole situation to him and asked if they could take the octopus. He said he wasn't sure, but to bring the octopus to the aquarium tomorrow after it shows up anyway. Worst case scenario, we might be able to move it into a new bag with clean water, throw in some new hand warmers, and overnight it back to where it came from.
I called into work and explained the whole situation to my boss and why I needed to stay home the next day, and because I am so very lucky, she was understandable and let me take Friday off.
Anyway! Long story short, the octopus showed up in the afternoon. I raced to the aquarium, met up with the other aquarist I used to volunteer for (the curator was in a meeting) and thank God, he said they had some space in quarantine for an octopus. So we open up the shipping box and pull out a bag with this...this utterly ****ing adorable little octopus. He was probably only a foot long arm tip to arm tip, he was all white with big eyes (probably because the poor thing was scared out of his mind). Not gonna lie, for a second there I was like, “...maybe I could get that tank up and running and then come back to get him†-- but that is not realistically feasible for me right now.
Then we passed him off to the quarantine team, and I apologized a bunch, and said thank you a bunch, and then went home and took a serious nap because I did not sleep well the night before.
So all this went down on Friday. It is now Tuesday. I have not heard from my boyfriend since Friday afternoon, when I texted him what I had done. He just texted back, “OK, that’s good to hear.†On Saturday, I tried calling him a couple times, but my phone calls just went straight to voicemail. I texted him again, this time apologizing for freaking out and yelling at him, but also adding that hey, you get why I was kinda justified in doing so, right? (Whiiiiich maybe wasn’t the best way to apologize :/) I don’t feel like I overreacted (or did I?) and I wasn’t necessarily mad about getting the octopus as a gift, just...scared? If we didn’t get it out of the water it was shipped in and into a cycled tank, it would die in a couple hours and that was a huge reason I left aquarium work. I couldn’t handle when animals would die. It would **** me up for days...I guess in some ways, it’s still kind of ****ing me up, a little bit.
So what do I do now?

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tl;dr: Boyfriend tried to surprise me with a pet octopus! Which I immediately turned over to proper caretakers because I am in no position to take care of one! And now my boyfriend isn't talking to me. I don't know what to do here?
EDIT: OMG this exploded. I gotta go to bed, y'all, but thanks for all the great advice and the, uh, gold, apparently? I probably won't have much time to respond to comments tomorrow, but I'll definitely be back with an update!


Source.

Your bf should kick your overly dramatic ass to the curb....

I actually read through the post comments apparently the octopus can die if the tank isn't properly set up first... which takes a few days. But otherwise yea she could have freaked out on him less and explained better why that's not a good thing lol

He was trying to be sweet and give you a few extra hands to put over your mouth