hi guys, i have a 10g, that i have had set up for about a month now, all it has in it is hermits and live rock. i want to get an octopus and put it in there, i know it will eat my hermits, i dont care much, but i wanna know any recommendations and the requirements for keeping them in this small of a tank. thanks austin
mini octopus
- Thread starter surfdawake
- Start date
Respectfully...
Please don't buy this octopus.
Here are a couple of reasons:
1. Octopi are skilled climbers and very dexterous. They can climb through any openings as big as their eye. (I've seen it happen at the LFS). You must keep a tight lid on the tank or he will escape.
2. Octopi have a habit of inking whenever they are startled (door slam, bump their tank, move in front of it too fast). When they ink, you will not have enough filtration to be able to handle this organic in the water (unless you have a 500 gallon sump below your 10gallon
)
The Animal will ink, you won't be home one of the times it happens and he will die.
3. If we stop buying these animals and our LFS stops ordering these animals, then this may decrease the demand for them, thus, reducing the number of these animals which are caught only todie needlessly in someones tank because they thought having an Octopus would be "cool" ( Im not necessarily talking about you, man 8) )
Hey man, I am not tell you you can't have one. And if it seems like I am patronizing you, I apologize, but I would just hate for this animal to die in your tank (or on your floor) . They are VERY cool animals though. And I would LOVE to have a 500 gallon with a Blue Ring in it and all the equipment to keep it alive. But in the end, it is probably better to just go visit one of our great marine aquariums and leave them to the experts.
just my .02...
thanks
Please don't buy this octopus.
Here are a couple of reasons:
1. Octopi are skilled climbers and very dexterous. They can climb through any openings as big as their eye. (I've seen it happen at the LFS). You must keep a tight lid on the tank or he will escape.
2. Octopi have a habit of inking whenever they are startled (door slam, bump their tank, move in front of it too fast). When they ink, you will not have enough filtration to be able to handle this organic in the water (unless you have a 500 gallon sump below your 10gallon
)The Animal will ink, you won't be home one of the times it happens and he will die.
3. If we stop buying these animals and our LFS stops ordering these animals, then this may decrease the demand for them, thus, reducing the number of these animals which are caught only todie needlessly in someones tank because they thought having an Octopus would be "cool" ( Im not necessarily talking about you, man 8) )
Hey man, I am not tell you you can't have one. And if it seems like I am patronizing you, I apologize, but I would just hate for this animal to die in your tank (or on your floor) . They are VERY cool animals though. And I would LOVE to have a 500 gallon with a Blue Ring in it and all the equipment to keep it alive. But in the end, it is probably better to just go visit one of our great marine aquariums and leave them to the experts.
just my .02...
thanks
Octopuses (yes, that's the correct grammar) are not good choices for a ten gallon tank. Here's a great article on their husbandry:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... invert.htm
Having said that, a 500 gallon sump is not required to keep them, far from it. The hardiest species, Octopus bimaculatus, can be housed in a tank as small as 30 gallons.
Inking will not kill the animal if you have sufficient chemical filtration to quickly filter out the ink. This means a good skimmer and activated carbon. If you are there when the octopus inks, a large quick water change will help as well, and the carbon will of course need to be changed. Interestingly enough, the ink is not toxic to corals, fish, or the octopus itself. It kills by mechanically coating the gill surface and asphyxiating the octopus. You have to REALLY stress an octopus in order to get it to ink as well, or keep it in terrible water conditions.
If you're very determined to get one, get one from www.fishsupply.com They are located here on the west coast, the native habitat of O. bimac, and can positively ID them. Bimacs are far and away the hardiest as far as octos go (there are many very, very fragile octos, as Dewman pointed out, including the very lethal blue-ringed octopuses), and they are a good candidate for captive breeding. A while back flyingfishexpress.com was offering CB bimac babies.
Also read the article by Rob, and check out "The Cephalopod Page" (do a google search for it). One thing I think Rob forgot to mention in his article is that octos absolutely need RO/DI water. I would wait until you have a good grasp on keeping fish and corals, if you haven't already, before kepping something as challenging as an octopus. Good luck if you do.
Matt
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... invert.htm
Having said that, a 500 gallon sump is not required to keep them, far from it. The hardiest species, Octopus bimaculatus, can be housed in a tank as small as 30 gallons.
Inking will not kill the animal if you have sufficient chemical filtration to quickly filter out the ink. This means a good skimmer and activated carbon. If you are there when the octopus inks, a large quick water change will help as well, and the carbon will of course need to be changed. Interestingly enough, the ink is not toxic to corals, fish, or the octopus itself. It kills by mechanically coating the gill surface and asphyxiating the octopus. You have to REALLY stress an octopus in order to get it to ink as well, or keep it in terrible water conditions.
If you're very determined to get one, get one from www.fishsupply.com They are located here on the west coast, the native habitat of O. bimac, and can positively ID them. Bimacs are far and away the hardiest as far as octos go (there are many very, very fragile octos, as Dewman pointed out, including the very lethal blue-ringed octopuses), and they are a good candidate for captive breeding. A while back flyingfishexpress.com was offering CB bimac babies.
Also read the article by Rob, and check out "The Cephalopod Page" (do a google search for it). One thing I think Rob forgot to mention in his article is that octos absolutely need RO/DI water. I would wait until you have a good grasp on keeping fish and corals, if you haven't already, before kepping something as challenging as an octopus. Good luck if you do.
Matt
If you are interested in octopi:
http://www.tonmo.com/index.php
http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisp ... forumid=38
http://www.tonmo.com/index.php
http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisp ... forumid=38
Matt,
I was only trying to stop a helpless animal from needless suffering.
From what was written, I assumed he wanted to put this thing in his ten gallon tank. By telling somone that it is hard to get the octopus (proper grammer now ) to ink, that is assuming that all animals are alike. In my experiences with having helped someone care for their octopus, we found that it was rather easy to startle the animal for the first few months. The octopus We cared for, was housed in a 55 gallon with plenty of rockwork to hide in, and a specially constructed "house" where the animal could hole-up and be totally enclosed.
As for the habit of escape, which they are very good at, an acrylic top was latched in place. A 6 inch flap of acrylic was all that would move without unlatching the entire top. That piece was also fitted with acrylic latches, which you could move into place to keep the flap from opening.
He constructed a 40 gallon sump with bulkhead intake and outlet, and a 2 stage mechanical filtration system. A Berlin in-sump skimmer was also added.
One afternoon, he came home from work and sat down to feed the octopus. He noticed the water was tea colored but... no octopus... He used a flashlight to look all through the rockwork. Nothing there... he tapped on the glass and finally started to break down the rockwork to find the animal. But first he heard a rattle under the tank in the cabinet. He opened the doors to find the octopus sitting in the sump clinging to the skimmer, with one of it's legs caught in the Rio Pump,and it ws barely clinging to life it was so weak.
He couldn't imagine HOW the animal got through the screen over the inlet to the sump. He looked and looked. After it was recovered, and the water was changed. He returned it to the tank. The next day he was reading on the couch when he casually glanced over at the tank. He caught it just in time to see the octopus inserting its legs and then it's head right through the grate over the intake to the sump.
Turns out that (evidently) an octopus needs only to be able to get it's beak through a hole in order to fit through it. The animal can literally squeeze it's body down like a sack of jelly and fit through any hole as long as it can pull it's beak through as well. The grate was a regular intake grate. This was quickly covered with a finer grate material.
Sorry this was so long, but you see... this guy was so ready to have this animal. He took all the precautions and had a big enough tank and was home most of the time and cared for it in every way he thought he could, and the animal still ended up getting hurt.
Maybe this guy was just unlucky, maybe he needed to read up more on the animals he intended to keep.
The point is, Octopuses (correct?) Can be tricky to keep. They are not for the beginner and I just thought it was better to steer a beginner clear of such a challenging animal rather than have to hear about the consequences later and then say to myself... why didn't I speak up??
Can I get an Amen?
Sorry if my first post sounded authoritarian...
I was only trying to stop a helpless animal from needless suffering.
From what was written, I assumed he wanted to put this thing in his ten gallon tank. By telling somone that it is hard to get the octopus (proper grammer now
) to ink, that is assuming that all animals are alike. In my experiences with having helped someone care for their octopus, we found that it was rather easy to startle the animal for the first few months. The octopus We cared for, was housed in a 55 gallon with plenty of rockwork to hide in, and a specially constructed "house" where the animal could hole-up and be totally enclosed.As for the habit of escape, which they are very good at, an acrylic top was latched in place. A 6 inch flap of acrylic was all that would move without unlatching the entire top. That piece was also fitted with acrylic latches, which you could move into place to keep the flap from opening.
He constructed a 40 gallon sump with bulkhead intake and outlet, and a 2 stage mechanical filtration system. A Berlin in-sump skimmer was also added.
One afternoon, he came home from work and sat down to feed the octopus. He noticed the water was tea colored but... no octopus... He used a flashlight to look all through the rockwork. Nothing there... he tapped on the glass and finally started to break down the rockwork to find the animal. But first he heard a rattle under the tank in the cabinet. He opened the doors to find the octopus sitting in the sump clinging to the skimmer, with one of it's legs caught in the Rio Pump,and it ws barely clinging to life it was so weak.
He couldn't imagine HOW the animal got through the screen over the inlet to the sump. He looked and looked. After it was recovered, and the water was changed. He returned it to the tank. The next day he was reading on the couch when he casually glanced over at the tank. He caught it just in time to see the octopus inserting its legs and then it's head right through the grate over the intake to the sump.
Turns out that (evidently) an octopus needs only to be able to get it's beak through a hole in order to fit through it. The animal can literally squeeze it's body down like a sack of jelly and fit through any hole as long as it can pull it's beak through as well. The grate was a regular intake grate. This was quickly covered with a finer grate material.
Sorry this was so long, but you see... this guy was so ready to have this animal. He took all the precautions and had a big enough tank and was home most of the time and cared for it in every way he thought he could, and the animal still ended up getting hurt.
Maybe this guy was just unlucky, maybe he needed to read up more on the animals he intended to keep.
The point is, Octopuses (correct?) Can be tricky to keep. They are not for the beginner and I just thought it was better to steer a beginner clear of such a challenging animal rather than have to hear about the consequences later and then say to myself... why didn't I speak up??
Can I get an Amen?
Sorry if my first post sounded authoritarian...
No need to apologize at all, Dewman. Everyone's opinions are welcome, and I'm pretty sure we share the same intent here.
If you read some of my previous posts, you'll see that I strongly discourage people from keeping difficult animals as well. However, if someone is determined to keep one I feel it necessary to provide them with as much information as possible to keep it successfully.
As you pointed out, (and I didn't !), octos are VERY adept escape artists, and it's necessary to have an escape-proof (and powerhead-less) tank. Rob covers the methods for this in his article.
Rob also goes over why "octopuses" or "octopodes" is the correct plural of "octopus" in his article, if you're interested.
If you read some of my previous posts, you'll see that I strongly discourage people from keeping difficult animals as well. However, if someone is determined to keep one I feel it necessary to provide them with as much information as possible to keep it successfully.
As you pointed out, (and I didn't !), octos are VERY adept escape artists, and it's necessary to have an escape-proof (and powerhead-less) tank. Rob covers the methods for this in his article.
Rob also goes over why "octopuses" or "octopodes" is the correct plural of "octopus" in his article, if you're interested.
Along with what Matt said, octos can have no traces of copper in there tank. Another reason why RO/DI is so important. Even if you have five year old "dead" rock but was in a tank that had copper used it will kill your octo.
You must also know that a Bimac will probably only live in your tank for about 1 to 1 1/2 year, this is in very good conditions. Blue rings live for less than that, along with the fact that they are in the top ten for deadliest toxin on the planet.
Dewman
I am not trying to be rude or start a fight but,
I would never put a blue ring in anything larger thank a 75g. They have been kept successfully
in a 12g. They are such a small species and you would never see the things and that could be dangerous if they got out and you did not know it. Another problem with blue rings is they only exhibit their blue ring appearance when stressed. So pretty much in our tanks they are constantly stressed. In a huge system just for blue rings I guess that could be a plus. They would probably never be stressed.
I would strongly suggest TONMO.com to anyone looking for more info.
JJ
_________________
Honda Deauville
_________________
alternative energy
You must also know that a Bimac will probably only live in your tank for about 1 to 1 1/2 year, this is in very good conditions. Blue rings live for less than that, along with the fact that they are in the top ten for deadliest toxin on the planet.
Dewman
I am not trying to be rude or start a fight but,
I would never put a blue ring in anything larger thank a 75g. They have been kept successfully
in a 12g. They are such a small species and you would never see the things and that could be dangerous if they got out and you did not know it. Another problem with blue rings is they only exhibit their blue ring appearance when stressed. So pretty much in our tanks they are constantly stressed. In a huge system just for blue rings I guess that could be a plus. They would probably never be stressed.
I would strongly suggest TONMO.com to anyone looking for more info.
JJ
_________________
Honda Deauville
_________________
alternative energy
Blue rings are really out of the question as pets. I can't believe it's still legal to purchase something more deadly than a cobra. Researchers are required to have two people who both know CPR in the room at any time to work with these nasty buggers, just in case a bite happens.
Reeffan, i totally agree with you.
Matt, you as well.
It was about two years ago that it was kept. Unfortunately the animal ended up dying. He was really the first person I had ever seen keep a Marine tank. That whole mess is what got me interested in reefing, and he is also the one who introoduced me to RDO about a year ago. I am sure that there have been great leaps in the amount of knowlege gained about proper care of Cephs since then.
Guys Thanks for not flaming me the first time I spoke what I really felt. It's nice to have a place where you can share your experiences without having to worry about being attacked the first time you open your mouth.
Matt, you as well.
It was about two years ago that it was kept. Unfortunately the animal ended up dying. He was really the first person I had ever seen keep a Marine tank. That whole mess is what got me interested in reefing, and he is also the one who introoduced me to RDO about a year ago. I am sure that there have been great leaps in the amount of knowlege gained about proper care of Cephs since then.
Guys Thanks for not flaming me the first time I spoke what I really felt. It's nice to have a place where you can share your experiences without having to worry about being attacked the first time you open your mouth.
Guys, I have to admit, I made a mistake.
I called steve and asked him about his Octopus. It was NOT in fact a Blue Ring Octopus.
So I am humbled before you... I did see it several times and I helped him build the tank cover for it.
But he laughed when I asked him about his Blue Ring... he told me that it was only a bluish color but was in fact not the deadly Blue Ring.
I guess I just showed how much I really knew about the thing huh...
Also he told me that Blue Rings do not have an Ink sac.
When he traveled to Chile, he said that there are many places to buy the Blue Ring all along the South American coast. He said that they are brought in by boaters from Australia and sold in glass jars.
He did say they were very EASY to aquire though...
I called steve and asked him about his Octopus. It was NOT in fact a Blue Ring Octopus.
So I am humbled before you... I did see it several times and I helped him build the tank cover for it.
But he laughed when I asked him about his Blue Ring... he told me that it was only a bluish color but was in fact not the deadly Blue Ring.
I guess I just showed how much I really knew about the thing huh...
Also he told me that Blue Rings do not have an Ink sac.
When he traveled to Chile, he said that there are many places to buy the Blue Ring all along the South American coast. He said that they are brought in by boaters from Australia and sold in glass jars.
He did say they were very EASY to aquire though...
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