Octopus Any advice?
- Thread starter mr.bill
- Start date
chevron tang
Member
They are cool little creatures but are really not entertaining. They only come out at night when they hunt and they are master escape artists. Make sure you have an extremely tight lid on your tank or even stack bricks on top.
volitan
Member
They are messy eaters, so you'll need a protein skimmer. They don't require any certain degree of lighting, so that's easy. They do escape well so make sure you have a tight lid on your tank. They are extremely intelligent, so they need things to keep them occupied. Try putting different colored (bright colors) coffee mugs in your tank. They seem to like to hide in them, and when not hiding in them, they like to mimick their colors. Hope this helps
kung fu
Member
Give this a shot...one of the best pages I've seen out there for cephalopods...both scientific/institutional and hobbyist!
<a href="http://is.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/" target="_blank">http://is.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/</a>
Peace...
PS: As to the short lifespan...they only live about two years or so in the wild really, so not necessarily due to captive environments
<a href="http://is.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/" target="_blank">http://is.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/</a>
Peace...
PS: As to the short lifespan...they only live about two years or so in the wild really, so not necessarily due to captive environments
matting
New Member
don't get discourage by some of these posts. if you really want to get one, i say go for it. if you are exerienced and know how to maintain good water parameters, they are not much more difficult to keep than fish. i personally have had a dwarf octopus in a 29 gal for about a 2 months now. i'm no expert, but i can tell you what my experience has been on the topics brought up by some of the others:
1) definitately escape artists, make sure your tank is sealed. i've had no escapes so far.
2) feeding - my dwarf is not a messy eater, i feed it mostly blue leg hermits and ghost shrimp, and all that's left of them are the hermit shells. i usually just put a few in at a time, and they slowly "disappear" over the next few days. i suppose the larger species may leave a mess. i've also gotten it to take pieces of krill off a stick. although it will try to eat anything smaller than it, it doesn't bother my bicolor angel which is much larger, the octopus i have has a head that is a little smaller than a golf ball.
3) nocturnal behavior - this may be the biggest draw back to owning an octopus. if you have enough live rock and hiding places, you may never see it during the day or when there is light going into the aquarium. i work a lot of evening shifts, so i usually see mine when i get home around midnight. when they are out, they are very fun to watch, especially to when they hunt.
4) inking - this definitately is a potential problem, but i think very easily prevented. from my experience as a diver, this seems to be a last resort tactic, and is only used when really threatened. having said that, make sure that it has a lot of places to hide completely, do not harass it and also make sure that there are no natural predators for tankmates like eels, large wrasses or triggerfish. you can also reduce the pollution potential of an inking by getting a smaller specimen since the amount of ink they can release is related to their size. my octopus released ink when i first placed him in the tank, but it was literally only a drop and completely dissipated in a few seconds.
5) hiding places - i think you have to have enough lr and hiding places so that the octopus can completely disappear from sight. i think it is cruel to deprive it of this merely so that you can see it all the time, since their natural defense is to hide.
i'm sure someone will argue against me, but that's just my $.02. i rarely post anything, but i see a lot of discouraging things about octopi posted, and i would hate for anyone to decide against getting one because they think they are extremely difficult to keep.
1) definitately escape artists, make sure your tank is sealed. i've had no escapes so far.
2) feeding - my dwarf is not a messy eater, i feed it mostly blue leg hermits and ghost shrimp, and all that's left of them are the hermit shells. i usually just put a few in at a time, and they slowly "disappear" over the next few days. i suppose the larger species may leave a mess. i've also gotten it to take pieces of krill off a stick. although it will try to eat anything smaller than it, it doesn't bother my bicolor angel which is much larger, the octopus i have has a head that is a little smaller than a golf ball.
3) nocturnal behavior - this may be the biggest draw back to owning an octopus. if you have enough live rock and hiding places, you may never see it during the day or when there is light going into the aquarium. i work a lot of evening shifts, so i usually see mine when i get home around midnight. when they are out, they are very fun to watch, especially to when they hunt.
4) inking - this definitately is a potential problem, but i think very easily prevented. from my experience as a diver, this seems to be a last resort tactic, and is only used when really threatened. having said that, make sure that it has a lot of places to hide completely, do not harass it and also make sure that there are no natural predators for tankmates like eels, large wrasses or triggerfish. you can also reduce the pollution potential of an inking by getting a smaller specimen since the amount of ink they can release is related to their size. my octopus released ink when i first placed him in the tank, but it was literally only a drop and completely dissipated in a few seconds.
5) hiding places - i think you have to have enough lr and hiding places so that the octopus can completely disappear from sight. i think it is cruel to deprive it of this merely so that you can see it all the time, since their natural defense is to hide.
i'm sure someone will argue against me, but that's just my $.02. i rarely post anything, but i see a lot of discouraging things about octopi posted, and i would hate for anyone to decide against getting one because they think they are extremely difficult to keep.
kris walker
Active Member
"i think it is cruel to deprive it of [shelter] merely so that you can see it all the time, since their natural defense is to hide"
Because I've seen dramatic evidence of how intelligent these creatures really are, I think it is cruel to keep them confined in a tank. For only that reason, I would never attempt to put one in an aquarium, no matter what size it is.
Everyone's different about where we draw the line in our mind regarding what is cruel to keep confined in an aquarium and what is not. Some draw the line at humans--anything's okay to keep caged up except for us. Others draw the line at tangs (or close to them). I draw the line at octopus. While I'm at it, I would also never put in a tank sharks, marine mammals, etc. But remember, this is just my 0.02.
kris
Because I've seen dramatic evidence of how intelligent these creatures really are, I think it is cruel to keep them confined in a tank. For only that reason, I would never attempt to put one in an aquarium, no matter what size it is.
Everyone's different about where we draw the line in our mind regarding what is cruel to keep confined in an aquarium and what is not. Some draw the line at humans--anything's okay to keep caged up except for us. Others draw the line at tangs (or close to them). I draw the line at octopus. While I'm at it, I would also never put in a tank sharks, marine mammals, etc. But remember, this is just my 0.02.
kris
piscesblue
Member
I'm with matting. I had a wonderful experience with my dwarf octopus, Sparky. I also work until late at night and Sparky would be out waiting for me when I got home. When he saw me, he would send waves of color through his body, excited because he was about to be fed. He ate all of my snails, my emerald crab, harassed my hermits and threw temper-tantrums when he couldn't catch my cleaner shrimp. He was scared of my yellow tang and left it alone, but I feel it is cruel to the fish to keep it in a tank with an 8 legged monster. Octopods live 1-1/2 years in the wild or in captivity so I advise you find a young one. It is impossible to tell how old they are when full grown and if female, might be pregnant. When the female lays it's eggs, she will guard them and refuse to eat until she dies. I had a hang-on filter and skimmer, making it impossible to seal my tank to prevent escape, but Sparky wouldn't venture far. He would hangout on top of my tank, leaving salty evaporation marks as evidence. I advise you provide toys like fishing bobbers and floating thermometers to keep your friend entertained. I had to get rid of sparky when I decided to add more delicate corals and invest larger amounts of money into the tank. When upset, Sparky would pull the glass heater off of the wall and whack it against the side of the aquarium, making me worry that it would break, frying my entire tank. Good luck and make sure you buy fiddler crabs for a treat often. Watching an octopus hunt it's natural prey and allowing it to behave normally, is very kewl thing!
marinetank
New Member
I have a small octopus now in my tank and it is by far the most interesting creature I've had in there and I've had pufferfishes, mantis shrimps, tangs, a seahorse and a moorish idol to name a couple.
Like the previous post it is amazing to watch the octopus change colors and shapes. It can literally pulse with colors like waves going across its body! Its camoflauge ability is also really awesome as well as many times I could not find it only to realize it was right in front of me!
The only downside right now is that all the other tankmates are considered expendable because the octopus will catch and eat most of them sooner or later. I just replenish the tank with shrimps, crabs, small damsels and other small creatures for him to eat every week or so.
As a precaution the top of my tank is totally sealed off but I have yet to see the octopus try to escape let alone even stick a tentacle out of the water. It seems pretty content where it is.
I overall find my octopus easy to keep and fascinating to watch.
"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
Like the previous post it is amazing to watch the octopus change colors and shapes. It can literally pulse with colors like waves going across its body! Its camoflauge ability is also really awesome as well as many times I could not find it only to realize it was right in front of me!
The only downside right now is that all the other tankmates are considered expendable because the octopus will catch and eat most of them sooner or later. I just replenish the tank with shrimps, crabs, small damsels and other small creatures for him to eat every week or so.
As a precaution the top of my tank is totally sealed off but I have yet to see the octopus try to escape let alone even stick a tentacle out of the water. It seems pretty content where it is.
I overall find my octopus easy to keep and fascinating to watch.
"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."