Octopus in a nano...?

[idonteatfish]

well i had a blue ring 2 or 3 years ago in my 15 gallon. i put a really fine screen over the top where so there place was no way to escape.
i never did aything special for it except feed it 2 fiddler crabs every 3 days or so.
that was when i lived alone and didnt care days!!

 

[Anonymous]

Can you add more information to help round out the "info base", please? Tank size, maintenance schedule, all that? Thanks in advance!

 

[UnderGrad]

Did that octopus ever eat those crabs?

 

[wombat1]

idonteatfish,
How long did it live? Blue rings are notoriously shy and fragile, how was yours? Most of them perish during shipping on the long flight from Australia, so it's pretty lucky (if you want to call it that) that you could get a healthy one.

Arlan,
I don't think it's eaten yet. I'll give it a week before worrying.

 

[idonteatfish]

wombat,

i had the br nearly 7 or 8 months until i gave it to a very responsible friend of mine and died a few months later. the funny thing is that i read it lives up to eight months but when i recieved it it was full grown already.

my br ate live fiddler crabs and crabs only. it ate every single scarlet hermites and a porciline crab. you would have to keep the crabs in a seperate tank cuz the br would kill the crabs even when its full.
i was really lucky because mine usually hung out on the rocks always searching each little crevive with each of its eight arms and not to mention the intense colors and camaflouge. truely the most fascinating
creature i ever kept.

 

[Bleeding Blue]

idonteatfish,

It actually makes sense that it lived longer in captivity than it is reported to in the wild. I have found that all the octopus that I have kept live longer in captivity than they are reported to in the wild. I think it has to do with the fact that they do not spend any energy evading predators or on reproduction. I am sure that there is gamete production, but since there is no actually mating, there is no gamete development. Not that I really know anything, this has just been my experience.

Mike

 

[Bleeding Blue]

Here is Matt and I's little bimac. We are such proud parents. I snapped these shots while he was eating a couple of hermit crabs so he wasn't so shy. Again, this is not a nano, but I think some sort of flow thru system off of some bigger tank, (or a well filtered nano) is probably the way to go anyhow. This is what I have had success with. Anyhow, where else would I post these pics.

 

[Bleeding Blue]

And a couple more.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh..how cute! He looks just like his daddies. :lol:

 

[wombat1]

Very cool shots Mike. You can easily see his color change from shot to shot. The white spots in front of his eyes fade to red, etc. It's not a lighting effect, he actually "flashes" when he eats. Also note the pappillae around his mantle and eyes, the fleshy protuberances and "horns" that stick out. He can shrink these so his skin is perfectly smooth at will.

 

[Bleeding Blue]

Cold, slimy, and has lots of arms. I think it looks more like Matt than me.

Next time I take pics, I will try and use different backrounds so it will change color more.

 

[brandon4291]

If I ever got a hold of a system that could house that octopus I would really never leave the house, and I mean worse than it is now. These octopuses or 'pi however it goes are the neatest thing for SW in my opinion. I now officially like octopuses more than well-growing SPS, these little cephs are my new favorite creature!

I still can't have one though, so Ill keep looking at you guys' pics for inspiration. Im saving up $$ for a new LED system thanks to everyone's input about Luxeon bulbs.

B

 

[tonmo]

We have several folks on TONMO.com who own / have owned blue rings. By and large, the advice is to pass them by and get a bimac instead. Still, some interesting stories have been told regarding their brilliance... They sound like very cool animals... as are the bimacs!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting your site! It's a helpful spot. (Correct me if I'm wrong )Tonmo is one of the mods over on reefcentral.com 's Cephalopod forum as well, which is very helpful for any practical questions about octos.

 

[tonmo]

Thanks, I'm glad you like my site! Actually, Colin Dunlop is a mod on my site (TONMO.com), and he also frequents reefcentral and references TONMO.com quite a bit from there.

Christopher Shaw is the moderator at ReefCentral, and does visit TONMO.com every so often.

-- tonmo

 

[Bleeding Blue]

tonmo,

Great tip. I took a brief look at your sight today, and it looks really neat. I look forward to finding out more about different peoples experience keeping cephs. I have been kicking around the idea of trying some cuttlefish, but I haven't gotten around to it. I want to be a little more informed before I start. I'd love some tips though.

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Oops, I thought you were Colin (Octomonkey ?), and I forgot he isn't even a mod on that forum, but a very regular and helpful poster. Those guys can answer all the practical questions like where the best place is to find a given species, etc.

 

[tonmo]

Right, OctoMonkey -- that's him. Good guy!

 

[Anonymous]

If I ever got a hold of a system that could house that octopus I would really never leave the house, and I mean worse than it is now. These octopuses or 'pi however it goes are the neatest thing for SW in my opinion. I now officially like octopuses more than well-growing SPS, these little cephs are my new favorite creature!

I still can't have one though, so Ill keep looking at you guys' pics for inspiration. Im saving up $$ for a new LED system thanks to everyone's input about Luxeon bulbs.

B

Brandon - I'm with you , these are the coolest thing you can keep in saltwater , next to a tank full of blue spot jawfish of course. I was looking at those oceanic 30 gallon cube tanks on sale at petsmart for 99 bucks last week. Would make a nice octo tank as the lid is pretty much sealed to start with - I think I'd want to get it drilled and add a sump for more stability / oxygenation but I guess you could screen it off pretty well.

The one thing that has kept me form doing an octo is .... heat .... it's just way too hot here in the summer to keep the house at 70 - 72 and conversely the water without a chiller or paying 300 bucks a month in electricity.