how big do they get and do they adapt to the aquarium very well I know their deadly not interested in keeping them just curious
blue rings again
- Thread starter Absint Reefer
- Start date
I know their poisonous but it's only if they bite you with their beak
OctoMonkey
New member
carson, try reading some of the back posts on BROs, they are quite informative if heated 
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
Maximum size of H. lunulata is a mantle length of about 5 cm. Usually adults get to 3-4 cm.
There is considerable debate whether the beak actually has to break the skin for venom (TTX) to enter the system. I can tell you from personal experience that Blue-ring venom can penetrate the skin without their being a break in it. Fortunately for me, the dose was very small and the effects were localized.
Roy
There is considerable debate whether the beak actually has to break the skin for venom (TTX) to enter the system. I can tell you from personal experience that Blue-ring venom can penetrate the skin without their being a break in it. Fortunately for me, the dose was very small and the effects were localized.
Roy
man that's small how would you feed something that small
Also Dr. Roy could you please tell me your experience on getting bitten like where, when, how, and what did it feel like sorry but I'm really curious
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
I wasn't bitten. The TTX was in the water that the animal was shipped and died in. The primary effect was slight to moderate parathesias in the hand and arm that came in contact with the water. I was stupid enough to fish the dead blue-ring out of the bag of water without using gloves.
Roy
Roy
Been there, done that, regretted it.
Been there, done that, regretted it.
I worked in a LFS in early 90's. I was obsessed with octopi. My long awaited dream came true one day when my request to a supplier who had a reputation for the near impossible sent me my first blue ring. He cost me $9. I put him in a well established 55g. reef setup with no regard for the other inhabitants. Within several weeks it had consumed every ornamental, benefical or otherwise inhabiting crab and shrimp in the system. I didn't care, he was fat and happy and so was I (happy, not fat). After that I supplemented his staple of saltwater mollies with a weekly supply of small crabs and other crustaceans from the "sludge" in the bottoms of the boxes and buckets of LR we would get. I knew well his potential, but feared him little. He was very active (mostly early and late in the day) but as soon as the hood for the aquarium was opened he would head for his hide out, an abandon shell that had once housed a good sized hermit crab (one of his first victims). This allowed me tank maintenence time and kept us from coming to odds. I had that one for over two years and he never got much bigger than the quarter sized head that he had when I got him. One day he didn't come out to eat and I found him in the enterance to his beloved shell, dead. I presume this was from old age as their life expectancy is only around 4 years. Over the next few years I kept many other strange animals and built up quite a stock in the tank until one day that same supplier called and told me he was sending me a suprise with our next shipment. That suprise (which he charged me $36 for) was three more blus rings. Common sense kept me from offering them at the store so I took all three home. One was in bad shape on arrival and died during acclimation. The other two I put into the main system but kept in their shipping containers while I frantically began setting up a second tank. I worked late into the night but was unable to finish the setup because I needed some plumbing supplies and additional salt. The next morning I checked the tank before heading out to get what I needed and was amazed that both shipping containers were empty, thus proving to me that octopi can fit through anything their beaks are smaller than. The vent holes in the containers were less than 1/8" in dia.! I found them quickly enough. They were locked in a life and death struggle as the larger of the two was trying to conren the smaller one. They racer over the rocks, in and out of crevices and finally did battle under a rock shelf. The larger one enguled the smaller ones head in his matle, there was much tentacle thrashing and finally the bigger one moved on leaving the dead loser behind. In reflection I was amazed that he did not eat it. He then set up house much like the previous one had. Eating first all of my crabs and shrimp, then supplementing his diet of mollies and weekly crabs/shrimp with all of my other tank fish! The only animal he was never able to capture was a porcelin crab that lived on a good sized carpet anomone. He tried, constantly! And that was his demise after about a year and a half of trying. One day my housemate called me to tell me that she had seen him try to get that crab again and when he did the carpet got him. She said it touched the anomone and when it did it was all over. That it struggled to get free for a few seconds and then went still. Then the carpet, aided by the crab, ate him. In reflection I have always regretted having kept them. Not only do I feel that I shortened their life span and limited the expansion of their species but I also regret all the fish (and not just for the money) that I sacrficed to them. I have a couple of pics that I scanned of the two that did battle but the file size exceeds the 50K limit. If someone can tell me how to make them smaller I'll post them.
Been there, done that, regretted it.
I worked in a LFS in early 90's. I was obsessed with octopi. My long awaited dream came true one day when my request to a supplier who had a reputation for the near impossible sent me my first blue ring. He cost me $9. I put him in a well established 55g. reef setup with no regard for the other inhabitants. Within several weeks it had consumed every ornamental, benefical or otherwise inhabiting crab and shrimp in the system. I didn't care, he was fat and happy and so was I (happy, not fat). After that I supplemented his staple of saltwater mollies with a weekly supply of small crabs and other crustaceans from the "sludge" in the bottoms of the boxes and buckets of LR we would get. I knew well his potential, but feared him little. He was very active (mostly early and late in the day) but as soon as the hood for the aquarium was opened he would head for his hide out, an abandon shell that had once housed a good sized hermit crab (one of his first victims). This allowed me tank maintenence time and kept us from coming to odds. I had that one for over two years and he never got much bigger than the quarter sized head that he had when I got him. One day he didn't come out to eat and I found him in the enterance to his beloved shell, dead. I presume this was from old age as their life expectancy is only around 4 years. Over the next few years I kept many other strange animals and built up quite a stock in the tank until one day that same supplier called and told me he was sending me a suprise with our next shipment. That suprise (which he charged me $36 for) was three more blus rings. Common sense kept me from offering them at the store so I took all three home. One was in bad shape on arrival and died during acclimation. The other two I put into the main system but kept in their shipping containers while I frantically began setting up a second tank. I worked late into the night but was unable to finish the setup because I needed some plumbing supplies and additional salt. The next morning I checked the tank before heading out to get what I needed and was amazed that both shipping containers were empty, thus proving to me that octopi can fit through anything their beaks are smaller than. The vent holes in the containers were less than 1/8" in dia.! I found them quickly enough. They were locked in a life and death struggle as the larger of the two was trying to conren the smaller one. They racer over the rocks, in and out of crevices and finally did battle under a rock shelf. The larger one enguled the smaller ones head in his matle, there was much tentacle thrashing and finally the bigger one moved on leaving the dead loser behind. In reflection I was amazed that he did not eat it. He then set up house much like the previous one had. Eating first all of my crabs and shrimp, then supplementing his diet of mollies and weekly crabs/shrimp with all of my other tank fish! The only animal he was never able to capture was a porcelin crab that lived on a good sized carpet anomone. He tried, constantly! And that was his demise after about a year and a half of trying. One day my housemate called me to tell me that she had seen him try to get that crab again and when he did the carpet got him. She said it touched the anomone and when it did it was all over. That it struggled to get free for a few seconds and then went still. Then the carpet, aided by the crab, ate him. In reflection I have always regretted having kept them. Not only do I feel that I shortened their life span and limited the expansion of their species but I also regret all the fish (and not just for the money) that I sacrficed to them. I have a couple of pics that I scanned of the two that did battle but the file size exceeds the 50K limit. If someone can tell me how to make them smaller I'll post them.
save your pic's as j pegs that should shrink the file size
they are so tiny I can't belive it
yes they are. These two were smaller than the first one I had. The larger of the two shown was only about the size of a quarter. That being said I never saw evidence that they needed to use their venom. Sure they killed and ate animals that were 2 or three times their size but they always seemed to fight them in titanic struggle type fashion. The venom, I understand is very quick acting and they seldom got a meal that didn't put up some kind of fight (except maybe the mollies). I saw one of them fight with an extremely large coral banded shrimp for what had to be two hours and he more or less chewed it open the way a praying mantis does rather than poisoning it and the devouring it the way a snake does. I also had a fire octopus that I caught in florida that would kill in much the same fashion, grab hold, cover with the mantle and imobilize with the tentacles, then just start eating. One thing I can say for the Blue ring is that you will never see a more beatiful or amizing color change artist. They have an amazing array of color changing ability and can do it in an instant. One thing that I seldom read or hear about that I've theorized from observation is that the color changing is taxing physically for them. I am aware of their poor oxygen exchange rate and am sure it is somehow related but when they were enticed into multiple color changes over the course of 10 minutes or so, they would retreat and hide for unusually long periods of time. They also very seldom swim unless under duress. They prefer to walk. All in all, they're an amazing animal. I rue having kept them but after spending today remembering what it was like to observe them I'm kinda glad I did.
do you have a pick of the fire octo
how did you seal the top of the tank so that tiny octo could'nt get out
Other than a closely fit glass hood, I didn't really in any case. With the Blue rings they never seemed to make the attempt to get out. With the big one, he would come up and sit on the prefilter, reach his arm out a cutout and take mollies and goldfish from the bowl that i kept on to of the hood but never showed any other desire to roam. I kept them in a reef tank and had pretty pristine water conditions so I attribute that and lack of offending fish to keeping them comfortably inside.
how often did you feed your bluering and how big do fire octo's get and are they venomous
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
Blue-rings display when stressed or excited. The withdrawal is not a function of metabolc demand. More likely the animal feels threatened and withdraws to a safer location.
We feed our blue-rings a daily diet of stomatopods. They can eat a prey item of about 1/4 their size daily.
Roy
We feed our blue-rings a daily diet of stomatopods. They can eat a prey item of about 1/4 their size daily.
Roy
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