Can you keep an Octopus in a 55 gallon reef tank?

[jeromefong]

My daughter saw an octopus at the local fish store and decided that was the cool creature for our tank (I nixed the shark idea so this was next).

I was wondering how hard is an octopus to keep in a 55 gal tank? I was going to have a reef tank with corals, anemones and some other small fishes, is that still possible if we get an octopus? I don't have that much in the tank right now, just live rock, a clown fish, a blue tang and 2 cleaner shrimp. I was waiting for the tank to mature a little more before I added other things to it.

Any ideas what I could put in the tank with an octopus and what I cannot put in the tank with an octopus? What do I feed it?

thanks,

 

[delbeek]

Simply put ... no ... it will eat the fish and unless you can totally seal off the top with mesh or some other barrier ... it will not stay in the tank. The other drawback is that a small, tropical octopus has a natural life span of a year or less, so with no way of knowing how old the animal is when you buy it, it may last only a few days, weeks or months at best. And I haven't even mentioned inking ... as in what do you do if it inks and turns your whole tank black?

No, if you want to keep an octopus then a dedicated aquarium would be the only option.

Aloha!
JCD

 

[WRASSER]

About 125 or bigger will do just fine :wink: