I was looking to get a small octopus for my 12g nano tank. My question is, do I need to get anything special to keep one and what is your opinion on keeping one in a small aquarium? My tank is currently running a 14-29g biocube protein skimmer, sump, temp 80-82, about 400gph. Chems: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5-10. I have the sump sealed so nothing can get in or out. I am frequent with my water changes. I am planning to either get magnets or a latch to hold down the lid on top. If you have done something similar let me know as I am open to new ideas. Any info on this would be helpful. Thank You.
12g Octopus tank.. need help
- Thread starter mhale1100
- Start date
Can't do it in a 12, you should have at least a 15-20 gallon for a dwarf and you want a much bigger deal of a protien skimmer. Even then the only one's you'll be able to keep are dwarf octo's which are notoriously nocturnal and anti-social. You really want to go with a 55 minimum for most octopuses that will interact with you, etc.
WTyson
New member
you might be able to get away with keeping a mercratoris in that tank, i though i wouldn't recommend it. how big is your sump, and what is the total water volume of the whole setup? If the tank you have it in is a standard tank, you might want to see if you can upgrade the tank to a 20 gal or 25 high and then you could certainly keep one the the dewarfs, and still use your current sump (you would probably need a better skimmer though).
As far a the flow is concerned, 400gph in 12 gallons seems a lot to me, is it an SPS tank?
As far a the flow is concerned, 400gph in 12 gallons seems a lot to me, is it an SPS tank?
A 12 gallon is plenty of space for a dwarf octopus. I myself had a caribbean dwarf octo, named Odysseus, in a 10 gallon tank and he had 2 damsels, a flame scallop , and a shrimp as his tank mates. He did perfectly fine. as long as you know what your doing with your water parameters a 12 gal tank is fine. as for the people who previously posted, have you ever even had an octopus?
CuttleKid
New member
What the heck are you talking about!!!!! A dwarf needs at least a 20 gallon and to keep a dwarf octopus with damsels is asking for trouble. Damsels are extremely aggressive so either the octopus would get killed or vice versa. Im not trying to judge but i think you should get more experience with octos and dont insinuate that other people havent kept an octopus just because you disagree about their minimum tank size.
a dwarf does not need 20 gallons as long as you are experienced and know how to maintain your water parameters. and as for you, maybe you should try keeping a dwarf with damsels and stop insulting my experience with octos. mine loves the damsels in his tank. and by the way, it was a question ' have any of you ever even had an octo?', maybe you should learn how to read, cuttle kid.
bluespotocto
New member
I have kept 5 octos and the minimum tank size for 1 dwarf is 10 gallons, with no tank mates. 20 would be good for tank mate. If you want more info on octos go to tonmo(the octopus news magazine online).
http://www.tonmo.com/forums/content.php
http://www.tonmo.com/forums/content.php
crazylegs
New member
I had a young cuttlefish, S. Officinalis, killed by a striped damsel. Came home in time to witness the brutal end. They were in a 60gal tank. Both were about two inches. I doubt a chromis would have done the same. I'll never risk keeping a ceph with fish again. I felt horrible!
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
I don't understand how aquarists can be so certain about the minimum size of a tank for an octopus unless they tried keeping them in small tanks and killed a lot of animals. Much of my octopus research is on dwarfs and pygmies (O. bocki, O. wolfi, O. mercatoris, O. micropyrus, Abdopus abaculas, Hapalochlaena lunulata, and the like) and they are always kept in 10 gal or smaller all glass tanks with canister filtration. In fact, my standard observation tanks are 2.5 gal plus another half gallon in the canister. The octopus do well in these systems as long as we are careful to remove uneaten pieces of prey and pay attention to water quality. For a pygmy, the space available in a 5 gal is not much different than for an adult O. rubescens in a 100 gal. Because the pygmies don't roam about, they are probably less stressed.
Roy
Roy
+1
A collector friend/colleague from the Florida Keys sent me an octopus as a "surprise" several years ago. The only available tank I had set up at the time was a 12 gallon nanocube in my office. The octo was in a clam shell, holding it closed. It would open the shell a little, and peep out with one eye. Turned out it had about a dozen large stalked eggs in there. I kept it for quite a while in that tank, no problems. Once the eggs hatched, the octopus died. I wasn't able to find/recover the young. This octopus was fine in my small tank, though I would normally have prepared a larger tank if I had planned on keeping one.
Anyone have some idea what kind of dwarf octopus this was? I'm guessing O mercatoris because of few, relatively large eggs.
A collector friend/colleague from the Florida Keys sent me an octopus as a "surprise" several years ago. The only available tank I had set up at the time was a 12 gallon nanocube in my office. The octo was in a clam shell, holding it closed. It would open the shell a little, and peep out with one eye. Turned out it had about a dozen large stalked eggs in there. I kept it for quite a while in that tank, no problems. Once the eggs hatched, the octopus died. I wasn't able to find/recover the young. This octopus was fine in my small tank, though I would normally have prepared a larger tank if I had planned on keeping one.
Anyone have some idea what kind of dwarf octopus this was? I'm guessing O mercatoris because of few, relatively large eggs.
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