A
Anonymous
Guest
Yeah!
A
Anonymous
Guest
:lol: :lol:
No!
My tank is a custom acrylic 50 gallon with a single 1" drilled overflow. I can't remember the exact dimensions but it is only about 15" tall, so it has a lot of surface area. Much more back-to-front distance than the typical tank this size. Octos like surface area.
The filtration consists of live rock (around 30 lbs), a filter sock to catch the overflow drain water, an ES series EuroReef skimmer, and a large bag of activated carbon fed by the skimmer output. The return pump is a Quiet One 6000 (1600 gph) that I dialed way back to cut down on noise. Filtration is one of the big considerations with octos, as you know. You want to provide a high level of oxygenation, and filter the water as aggressively as possible. You cannot 'overskim' or use too much carbon on an octo tank. I clean out the skimmer cup every other day and change the carbon biweekly. If he inks (once so far) I change it immediately. It is also very important to consider what you put in the actual display tank. Stinging anemones, exposed powerhead intakes, closed loops and the like are all BAD for octos. I find it best to just use a sump tank and accomplish all the filtration there.
RO/DI water is a must. I use Instant Ocean and do a biweekly 5 gallon change. While doing this I siphon the thin layer of crushed coral substrate. I top off with a dilute solution of Kalkwasser to keep the pH high. The temp is at about 70F right now. The octo lives in water between 55-75F in nature, and I'm trying to keep it as low as possible without stressing the other tropical critters in the tank.
"He" is a captive-bred Octopus bimaculoides from www.octopets.com. Far and away the tamest octo I have had so far. It helps to provide an octo with lots of hiding places. You won't see them for the first week or so, but later on they will feel much more secure and cruise around the tank much more frequently. O.bimaculoides likes to come out and hunt in the mid to late evening. Crabs, fish, snails, clams, etc. will all be eaten. Right now I have a large lawnmower blenny in with him that is able to avoid capture but I need to move it soon. He doesn't mess with echinoderms, so I have a large brittle star and small urchin that eat scraps and algae. There is also a nice population of bristle worms that polishes off any leftover crab. Buying live crabs for food gets expensive! Easy way to get them to switch frozen food is to place a small amount of crab or shrimp meat in an empty snail shell of the approriate size. They will come over and suck it out.
Whoo. That's all I can think of now. Questions?[/i]
No!
My tank is a custom acrylic 50 gallon with a single 1" drilled overflow. I can't remember the exact dimensions but it is only about 15" tall, so it has a lot of surface area. Much more back-to-front distance than the typical tank this size. Octos like surface area.
The filtration consists of live rock (around 30 lbs), a filter sock to catch the overflow drain water, an ES series EuroReef skimmer, and a large bag of activated carbon fed by the skimmer output. The return pump is a Quiet One 6000 (1600 gph) that I dialed way back to cut down on noise. Filtration is one of the big considerations with octos, as you know. You want to provide a high level of oxygenation, and filter the water as aggressively as possible. You cannot 'overskim' or use too much carbon on an octo tank. I clean out the skimmer cup every other day and change the carbon biweekly. If he inks (once so far) I change it immediately. It is also very important to consider what you put in the actual display tank. Stinging anemones, exposed powerhead intakes, closed loops and the like are all BAD for octos. I find it best to just use a sump tank and accomplish all the filtration there.
RO/DI water is a must. I use Instant Ocean and do a biweekly 5 gallon change. While doing this I siphon the thin layer of crushed coral substrate. I top off with a dilute solution of Kalkwasser to keep the pH high. The temp is at about 70F right now. The octo lives in water between 55-75F in nature, and I'm trying to keep it as low as possible without stressing the other tropical critters in the tank.
"He" is a captive-bred Octopus bimaculoides from www.octopets.com. Far and away the tamest octo I have had so far. It helps to provide an octo with lots of hiding places. You won't see them for the first week or so, but later on they will feel much more secure and cruise around the tank much more frequently. O.bimaculoides likes to come out and hunt in the mid to late evening. Crabs, fish, snails, clams, etc. will all be eaten. Right now I have a large lawnmower blenny in with him that is able to avoid capture but I need to move it soon. He doesn't mess with echinoderms, so I have a large brittle star and small urchin that eat scraps and algae. There is also a nice population of bristle worms that polishes off any leftover crab. Buying live crabs for food gets expensive! Easy way to get them to switch frozen food is to place a small amount of crab or shrimp meat in an empty snail shell of the approriate size. They will come over and suck it out.
Whoo. That's all I can think of now. Questions?[/i]
A
Anonymous
Guest
Lighting?
How is the tank covered?
How is the tank covered?
how is the overflow done? i would agree the best option is doing everything in the sump and just let the return(s) create the flows as needed. but i thought the typical overflow is also a hazard for the octo.
do you have netting or special baffle designs to keep it out? what kind of chiller do you have on it? if one at all (i would think you'd need one though).
has it been re-aquascaping without permission? 8O or do you have everything tied down? pic?
do you have netting or special baffle designs to keep it out? what kind of chiller do you have on it? if one at all (i would think you'd need one though).
has it been re-aquascaping without permission? 8O or do you have everything tied down? pic?
The tank is lit by a 96W PC. I do have some mushrooms and GSPs in there for color. They have gotten pretty brown though because of the low temp. I'm thinking of yanking them.
The overflow is standard 1/4" teeth spacing. The standpipe has 1/4" holes drilled in it. He could get into it if he was really determined, but I doubt he will try. IME this species and O. rubescens are fairly reluctant to climb out of tanks or squeeze through tight gaps unless they get REALLY hungry. (Just as an example the O. rubescens I kept for awhile had a mantle the size of a golfball. Its cover was standard eggcrate, weighed down, which it never went through until I forgot to feed it for a weekend. Found it in an adjacent crab tank. :lol If one was intent on keeping a different species I suppose you could wrap the overflow in window screening, or at least the standpipe.
Another octo no-no...no cover! I have a pendant and an uncovered tank. It is acrylic so it has the small hole in the center. I covered the heater and other holes near the back, but the main one is open. He would have to crawl upside down for awhile to get out, so I decided to chance it. Again, this species is pretty reluctant to climb out of tanks for some reason. Very odd because they climb out of water in nature all the time. Dr. James Wood keeps this species in open topped tanks as well.
No chiller! It stays chilly enough here in the winter that I can get away with it. I just waited until it got cold enough so that my tank consistently stayed below 78 and ordered it. I don't really know yet what I will do in the summer next year. Hopefully moving to a chillier clime. He will be near the end of his natural lifespan by then anyway.
Hope this is informative! I will try to get some pics when I get home tonight.
The overflow is standard 1/4" teeth spacing. The standpipe has 1/4" holes drilled in it. He could get into it if he was really determined, but I doubt he will try. IME this species and O. rubescens are fairly reluctant to climb out of tanks or squeeze through tight gaps unless they get REALLY hungry. (Just as an example the O. rubescens I kept for awhile had a mantle the size of a golfball. Its cover was standard eggcrate, weighed down, which it never went through until I forgot to feed it for a weekend.
Found it in an adjacent crab tank. :lol If one was intent on keeping a different species I suppose you could wrap the overflow in window screening, or at least the standpipe.Another octo no-no...no cover! I have a pendant and an uncovered tank. It is acrylic so it has the small hole in the center. I covered the heater and other holes near the back, but the main one is open. He would have to crawl upside down for awhile to get out, so I decided to chance it. Again, this species is pretty reluctant to climb out of tanks for some reason. Very odd because they climb out of water in nature all the time. Dr. James Wood keeps this species in open topped tanks as well.
No chiller! It stays chilly enough here in the winter that I can get away with it. I just waited until it got cold enough so that my tank consistently stayed below 78 and ordered it. I don't really know yet what I will do in the summer next year. Hopefully moving to a chillier clime. He will be near the end of his natural lifespan by then anyway.
Hope this is informative! I will try to get some pics when I get home tonight.
My old O. briareus was in a recently cycled 29g, with an Emperor 280 power filter, and did fine. When she got bigger, I added a CPR backpack, and she instantly lost an arm to it. That was fun, trying to get her out of that. It was soon after that that she started refusing food. I wish they lived longer, because they are really fun animals to keep as pets, and I feel like they appreciate you, as an owner, much like a cat or a dog.
Octopuses do not like specific gravity changes, or metals, but other than that they can be kept in a pretty simple tank. Live rock, DSB. I used to use B-Ionic, also. Minimal water changes. (Don't scare your octopus or you'll be doing a water change!).
You want to stay away from real bright lights. Also, I used plastic windowscreen on everything, all powerheads, over the tank entirely (blocked a lot of light). And just some mushroom corals. Ran like a 6 hour photoperiod, so you can't do much else.
Octopuses do not like specific gravity changes, or metals, but other than that they can be kept in a pretty simple tank. Live rock, DSB. I used to use B-Ionic, also. Minimal water changes. (Don't scare your octopus or you'll be doing a water change!).
You want to stay away from real bright lights. Also, I used plastic windowscreen on everything, all powerheads, over the tank entirely (blocked a lot of light). And just some mushroom corals. Ran like a 6 hour photoperiod, so you can't do much else.
Also, just FYI to any cephalophiles in NYC, you can find small green crabs for sale as live bait. You used to be able to get them from a vending machine at Pier 40 in the summer. Easy to keep live in the sump, or a quarantine tank. Keep that tank OUT OF SIGHT of the octopus though, as it might try and go for a midnight snack sometime.
Capn":2pz4ddhz said:My old O. briareus was in a recently cycled 29g, with an Emperor 280 power filter, and did fine. When she got bigger, I added a CPR backpack, and she instantly lost an arm to it. That was fun, trying to get her out of that. It was soon after that that she started refusing food. I wish they lived longer, because they are really fun animals to keep as pets, and I feel like they appreciate you, as an owner, much like a cat or a dog.
Octopuses do not like specific gravity changes, or metals, but other than that they can be kept in a pretty simple tank. Live rock, DSB. I used to use B-Ionic, also. Minimal water changes. (Don't scare your octopus or you'll be doing a water change!).
You want to stay away from real bright lights. Also, I used plastic windowscreen on everything, all powerheads, over the tank entirely (blocked a lot of light). And just some mushroom corals. Ran like a 6 hour photoperiod, so you can't do much else.
In general I'd say you're right but O. bimaculoides is sort of a black sheep. Doesn't mind salinity changes or bright light at all. They're intertidal so I think it's all normal for them to deal with.
Matt_Wandell":1vu64c7t said:Capn":1vu64c7t said:My old O. briareus was in a recently cycled 29g, with an Emperor 280 power filter, and did fine. When she got bigger, I added a CPR backpack, and she instantly lost an arm to it. That was fun, trying to get her out of that. It was soon after that that she started refusing food. I wish they lived longer, because they are really fun animals to keep as pets, and I feel like they appreciate you, as an owner, much like a cat or a dog.
Octopuses do not like specific gravity changes, or metals, but other than that they can be kept in a pretty simple tank. Live rock, DSB. I used to use B-Ionic, also. Minimal water changes. (Don't scare your octopus or you'll be doing a water change!).
You want to stay away from real bright lights. Also, I used plastic windowscreen on everything, all powerheads, over the tank entirely (blocked a lot of light). And just some mushroom corals. Ran like a 6 hour photoperiod, so you can't do much else.
In general I'd say you're right but O. bimaculoides is sort of a black sheep. Doesn't mind salinity changes or bright light at all. They're intertidal so I think it's all normal for them to deal with.
I've heard good things about bimacs as pets. Or "common browns" which are also found in tidal areas in Florida. I think they are a similarly poised octopus ... that's mostly hungry for some shrimp.
My briareus became very playfull, when I tried to thaw shrimp-sickles, and would often take them from me before I could thaw them. It all gets much easier, once you don't need live food, to feed the octopus ... which is always hungry.
You can speed its lifespan up, by like 200%, by overfeeding.
Prolly same goes for cuttles. They have longer lifespans than octopuses, if you take good care of them.
Did you know there is a small arctic octpus that lives like 6-8 years? Longer than those GPO's in captivity (4-6)? That could be a valid pet, if you had a chiller.
Or .... ever see, the Mimic Octopus? Rarely seen in nature even, but that's one smart animal.
FYI ... I've also heard that blue rings make good pets .... but the whole idea of having something that venemous in my apartment .... knowing my luck ... I'll pass.
But if you ever wanted to kill your wife .... "WHY!? Why did she hafta get that freakin' octopus!"
Just .... hypothetically. Could be a good way to cover yer ass if yer a wiseguy. Right? Wink.
"She was just cleaning the tank ... and it got her!"
But if you ever wanted to kill your wife .... "WHY!? Why did she hafta get that freakin' octopus!"
Just .... hypothetically. Could be a good way to cover yer ass if yer a wiseguy. Right? Wink.
"She was just cleaning the tank ... and it got her!"
People keep full venom ratlesnakes as pets. The bite is less dangerous than a blue ring.
Wasn't there some breeder in Texas, who was gonna provide bimacs and other cephs to the public? There is a ceph-list too, I used to get the emails. If you can get on that list, you can ask nicely for sources for good cuttles. As mentioned though, a baby octopus is free in the right tidepool. Mostly scientists on that list, it might be closed now to hobbiests.
Start here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/tcp/
And say hello from me. Adam Woods. James Wood, no relation, is the man, IMO.
Arctic octopus: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/tcp/barctic.html
Never met James, but we've had lots of talks online. I sure would like one of those Arctics as a pet. Prolly, even with a proven set-up, I couldn't get one.
And breeding ... forget it. Raising baby bimacs is hard enough. If you could raise baby Arctics .... you might be able to make money selling octopuses though.
Wasn't there some breeder in Texas, who was gonna provide bimacs and other cephs to the public? There is a ceph-list too, I used to get the emails. If you can get on that list, you can ask nicely for sources for good cuttles. As mentioned though, a baby octopus is free in the right tidepool. Mostly scientists on that list, it might be closed now to hobbiests.
Start here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/tcp/
And say hello from me. Adam Woods. James Wood, no relation, is the man, IMO.
Arctic octopus: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/tcp/barctic.html
Never met James, but we've had lots of talks online. I sure would like one of those Arctics as a pet. Prolly, even with a proven set-up, I couldn't get one.
And breeding ... forget it. Raising baby bimacs is hard enough. If you could raise baby Arctics .... you might be able to make money selling octopuses though.
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