does anyone have an octopus

jon321

jon321

Member
-silicone the heater suction cups to the inside of the tank...they like to rip those things off the side and puttz around with them

-dont bother with macro algaes as octopus just rip them to shreds anyways, but at the same time, my octo atleast, would stop feeding if nitrates went over 5-10, so i did a 10% water change every other day, in a 20g tank mind you, so not a BIG deal.
-have a small tank setup for live foods, ghost shrimp mostly, DONT feed live feeders as if they were ever treated with copper for disease your octo will die if it eats them, but your octo should be eating frozen foods from the hand within a month.
-LOTS if live rock, the more hiding places the more often you will see the lil guy.
-DONT worry about inking, its not NEARLY as bad as people say, i had a 20g tank with NO skimmer or carbon, only live rock, live sand and a powerhead and just waited till my next waterchange. mine inked about every two weeks or so.
-buy a new digital camera!!!! :jumping:
hope that helps a little!
Jon
 
bbb

bbb

Member
How big of a tank do you need to keep them? Can you keep anything in the tank with them?
 
cartman101

cartman101

Active Member
I dont wanna crash the party but i hope you know that octos are really hard to keep and that they hardly/almost never live past 2 years in the home aquarium (not your fault, just the octos lifespan). Have fun though and i would love to see some pictures!!!!!!!!!!! :joy:
 
mbrands

mbrands

Member
Originally Posted by Cartman101
i hope you know that octos are really hard to keep
From the research I've done so far that isn't necessarily correct. They do require more work (water changes, live food, etc) than a standard tank, but if you know that going in and are willing to do it, then why not. Right?
Jon321 - Since you have dubbed yourself and "octopus expert", can I seek more advice?
1. What temperature did you keep your octo's tank at? Fortunately, I live in Arizona so I still don't have my heaters turned on for my reef tank. I don't have the octo tank up and running yet, but if I assume it would be around 75 would you even bother with a heater? The research I've done indicates most bimacs prefer temperatures in the low to mid 70s anyway.
2. Are you familiar with "white shrimp" as a food source? I read on another site that ghost shrimp aren't ideal as they aren't a natural food source (they aren't marine shrimp). White shrimp on the other hand can be kept in a 10 gallon tank, are natural marine shrimp and are USDA disease and pathogen-free certified (at least from this vendor).
3. Did you opt to not use a skimmer or could you not for other reasons (too costly, wouldn't fit on tank, etc)? Did you do such frequent water changes since you weren't skimming or just to be safe? I haven't read of anyone else doing them so frequently.
4. Once you transitioned to a frozen food diet, what did you use?
5. I read that a bimac's natural environment is quite sunny as they are from the coastline of southern California and the Baja peninsula. What kind of lighting did you use? I was thinking of using actinics, then pc so that there would be a transition into full lighting instead of scaring/startling him. Any suggestions?
6. Finally, the $10,000 question, how long was the lifespan of your octo? I know they naturally don't have a long life expectance, so I'm curious.
Thank you for all your help!!

Mike
 
mbrands

mbrands

Member
Most of the information I've come across over websites and printed literature indicates a 20 is an acceptable size for a bimac . . . just make sure you are getting a bimac.
 
jon321

jon321

Member
BBB:
Tank size varies from 10g to 150g+ depending on the species, with 20g-30g being the norm. Starfish, brittle stars, pencil urchins are basically the only ALWAYS workers, chromis, large snails can work sometimes, and spiney urchins can work, but some octopus damage themselves "exploring". Corals, macro algae, sponges, etc are recommended by some and not by others, mine ripped all my macro to sheds...
Cartman 101:
Octopus difficulty is HIGHLY exaggerated, they need perfect water quality, no doubt there, but so do THOUSANDS of fish, corals, other inverts that we see at our lfs every day. Besides, dont we ALL strive for perfect water conditions for our pets as it is? thats why we dont cycle with damsels. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 8.x pH, proper SG and temp, nitrate low as possible and aquire a healthy specimen and youll be fine. And yes, the lifespan of octopus is between 6 months and 2 years FROM BIRTH, in the wild and in the aquarium.
mbrands:
1) I kept it at 75, about room temp in my house. I did have a heater to make sure it was stable. Im sure the extra 5 degrees shortened the octos life slightly. As long as your under 80 the octo will be fine.
2) Im from Canada so I had no access to these, infact I had to make an hour trip to even get live ghost shrimp. The shrimp are ONLY to initiate feeding and as a stimulus once in a while, they shouldnt makeup the bulk of the diet. Besides, they make too much waste with antenna and shells laying all over!
3) I didnt use a skimmer due to cost, availability of small skimmers, inability to mod/build, and I was using an eclipse hood (can easily be made COMPLETELY tight with some plastic and duct tape). I did frequent water changes because my octopus stopped eating if nitrates went over 5! And to be safe because it inked frequently and I was ONLY running live rock, life sand, and a powerhead. No carbon, no skimmer. Besides, it was only a 20g, even at 10% bidaily water changes I was using less salt than my 77g aggressive at about 25% a month! It is just a convenient, quick, and effective way to keep perfect water quality.
4) I used silversides, krill, and grocery store shrimp, scallop, and sole fillets. By far krill was taken the best and is what should be used for weining. DONT feed live feeder fish, or any live fish for that matter, if they were ever treated with copper (likely) they will have residues in their body that could hurt or kill your octo.
5) I used dual 18watt NO daylight. It had no problem comming out in full light, and climbed around on the front glass for most of the daylight hours. Although they do take a few weeks to lose their shyness. I wouldnt worry about what lighting, my friend had the octo before me in his 180g reef tank with MH and compact lighting and the octo was active...ate his cleaner shrimp, hermits, snails, and attacked a algae eating blenny!
6) Full time from purchase, about 5-6 months, laid eggs and died. It was a almost certainly a bimac which came in as a hitchhiker on live rock, although Im thinking it escaped the LFS tank and fell into the lr vats.
7) It was a almost certainly a bimac, although if I was going to do it again, I would go with a 29g tank. Some recommend as high as 55g MINIMUM for a bimac, others say as low as 10g is fine. When small they are about the size of a grape, mabe 1" "head", mine didnt get anywhere near their max recorded size, but to mabe 2" head, 6" arms. Arms are about 1/2 the thickness of a pencil at their thickest point. The 29g tank would allow for more dilution, more room, more live rock and sand.
I think that is about it. I can post pictures and even videos later. I have about 150 pics and like 20mins of live tv quality video of mine.
hope that helps! and if you have any other questions just ask. Im sure youve seen TONMO right?
Jon
 
sankysyuck

sankysyuck

Member
Originally Posted by Cartman101
I dont wanna crash the party but i hope you know that octos are really hard to keep and that they hardly/almost never live past 2 years in the home aquarium (not your fault, just the octos lifespan). Have fun though and i would love to see some pictures!!!!!!!!!!! :joy:
Yea I'd like to know where you got that information because it's completely inaccurate.
The bimac species sold today in the aquarium industry have proven to be very hardy. My school had recieved a grant last year on the study of Octopus bimaculoides and the results proved the opposite to your claim. The results showed that this species could inhibit water with nitrates over 200 and be almost totally unaffected. Beleive it or not we bred this octopus in that water and we got a fairly low mortality rate compared to most octopuses. The Octopus bimac. needs at least 15 gallons, which is a very inexpensive tank, and we actually did not run a protein skimmer on most of out tanks. Another thing we did was keep one in a small "critter cage" inside of a larger tank and even when it outgrew it it still thrived.
My octopus recentlly died at about the age of 2 years old, the maximum lifespan.
I also find the need for a sturdy cover overrated. None of the octopuses that we had escaped or tried to escape, we only had an average lid on each tank, with various small openings with no escapees. Obviously you don't want to fill the tank to the brim, but i wouldnt get too concerned on each tiny opening on the tank. An idea that I had with some of the tanks was to wrap bricks in alluminum foil and place them on diffrent sides of the tank. The alluminum foil is just to make it look neater, theres nothing special about it.
Anyways, hope this was helpful!
 
jon321

jon321

Member
I dont know about the over 200 nitrate thing, or the not escaping, its all quite possible.
But I KNOW mine would not eat if nitrates went over around 5-10. This could be attributed to trace amounts of ammonia or nitrite, loss of trace or minor elements in the salt water, etc though.
About the escaping thing, it is probably over exaggerated, but why take the chance? Especially when you might have waited months for your LFS to get in a octopus and paid a good chunk of change for that octo. Might aswell make it as escape proof as humanly possible, if for no other reason than piece of mind.
Jon
 
mbrands

mbrands

Member
Originally Posted by SankysYuck
Yea I'd like to know where you got that information because it's completely inaccurate.
SankysYuck - I don't think Cartman101 meant any offense by his/her posting. I think it was just a fair warning which passed along some myths about keeping an octopus.
Thank you for the information! I think hearing from someone who has actually kept one is the best advice available!!
Jon - Thanks again for the information and answering all my questions!
To both of you, if you don't mind could I get your email addresses? I'm sure questions will come up in the future, especially once the octo is in the tank, and I'd like to be able to contact you directly versus hoping you see a thread I start here.
Thanks again,
Mike
mbrands@cox.net
 
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