Hungry Octopus

[reef fool]

I went to my favorite LFS today and witnessed an octopus eating a turbo snail. Pretty cool. Notice the pile of snail shells on the bottom.

 

[reef fool]

Here's another one

 

[gregzbobo]

Cool.

 

[davidsmith]

is it hard to keep a octpus and what type of tank u need

 

[reef fool]

One with a lid!! This little dude has crawled from one tank to another in the LFS over the last month. He even went into a tank medicated with copper and is still alive and well. He was in the coral display tank and ate a couple of clams before the owner caught him. "NOT IN MY HOUSE!" the wife just said!!!

 

[hnf2k]

the lid has to be fastened down. they also will eat any other fish or anything in the tank. they are very smart creatures and have been able twist the tops off of bottles.

 

[causeidm]

anyone know how big of a tank a pygmie octopus needs?

 

[gregzbobo]

If you don't want a lid and still want an octopus, put astroturf around the top of the tank. Saw it on the Discovery Channel. It works.

 

[j21kickster]

about the size of a softball and can fit through a hole the size of a plum

 

[j21kickster]

oh yes- they dont live verry long - in your tank or in nature and eat nonstop- they are relativle easy to care for- but IMO they are not worth the money- cool though

 

[scubadoo]

Several years ago I had an octupus in a 55. They are amazing creatures and fun to watch. I looked in the tank one day and the little sucker had moved pieces of coral around and built a cave-like dwelling. This seemed to make him content and happy. I kept it for a month or so and gave it back to the LFS. It was a great experience, and I was probably lucky he did not find a way out of the tank. Maybe I had a dumb one

 

[piscesblue]

I had the same experience with my Pygmy, he re-arranged the tank to his liking, but never hurt any of the corals. He left my fish alone, but loved to feast on emerald crabs. It was funny to watch him pull snails off of the glass and chuck'em around the tank or try to get hermit crabs out of their shells. I put a cleaner shrimp in the tank with him and he'd get soooo frustrated when he couldn't catch it. I didn't even try sealing my tank considering he could squeeze thru an opening the diameter of air line tubing, so I'd catch him chillin out on top of my lightstrip at night. I decided to get rid of him when he learned a new game, "pull-the-heater-off-the-wall-and-whack-it-against-the-glass-until-I-came-running". I'm surprised he never shattered the heater, frying himself and his tankmates. His name was Sparky and I still miss the little devil.