....i haven't kept an octo for awhile now but here's the deal. My second to last octo was great, had him at least 6 months, very active (about 2 years ago) well a twin spot wrasse I had in there started messing with him when he grew bigger. So I finally caught the wrasse, and gave him away. Well the octo was kinda damaged, like 3 or 4 tentacles were like half gone. Then he just disappeared. I have a 110 gallon w/ alot of LR. I knew his hiding spot under one of the rocks. Anyway I never found his body out my tank and the rock formations are to big to go hunting in my tank for him. Water quality was cool......so big mystery. Then a few months later I bought another octo and never saw him again after day one. Again no body out the tank. I've noticed the bristle worms seemed to ambush a chocolate chip star the other day and did him in and they try to do the same to turbo snails i think. I wouldn't think an octo would allow itself to be eaten by bristle worms but that's the only possibility i can think of.....whadaya think?
Bristle worms ambushing Octos?
- Thread starter vapester
- Start date
OctoMonkey
New member
well, it is possible, but the size of the octo and the sizes of the b/worms are all relvant.. any more info?
...well both octos were around 10 inches from ends of tentacles. I don't know the names of the species, but I think they are of the more common imported type, bimac looking but without the 2 spots. I've never checked my tank in night w/ red light but i've never seen any b-worms longer than 5 inches. I'm thinking if the 1st one did die because of injuries, which seemed unlikely because it still seemed jubilant, the second one, may have died because it had eggs when I bought it. And I do feel bad about this, and definitely would never do that again. Do most octo species die after tending to their eggs. I had blue-ring once that died after its eggs hatched, but i'm not sure if that applies to all or most octos. I also had a cuddler who died after it released it "blue-balls". So maybe that was it. What do ya think?
Also, i'm getting over an ich outbreak in that same tank and am going to go fishless for awhile to insure it's demise. I'll probably try a bimac from octoworld soon. Are octos affected by ich at all?
Also, i'm getting over an ich outbreak in that same tank and am going to go fishless for awhile to insure it's demise. I'll probably try a bimac from octoworld soon. Are octos affected by ich at all?
DrMilhouse
New member
so you've been keeping your octo in the same 110 that you're keeping fish in?
therealacarolla
In Memoriam
I'm surprised the octo didn't catch and eat those fish! What temperature you keeping the tank, I'd say that is your problem if over 70 which is what most of the fish prefer. either way you should think of a dedicated tank for your octo.
....yeah I was. I don't have an octo right now. I also have a 55 gallon but it's for my Mantis. The octo and fish got along fine....except for the twin spot wrasse. At first it was cool, but I was feeding them alot I guess cuz it started getting pretty big and then saw the octo as food. It sucked. But I finally caught his punkarse when hiding under the sand and took him to my LFS. But for the first 5 months even they were cool, or at least the Twin Spot was still intimidated by the octo. The other fish were a kinda large Sailfin, small Mediterranean Blue Tang and a punk yellow damsel. It is a 110 so they were all cool. Besidedes those same fish had seen stranger. I kept a cuddler in there for at least 5 months till it died naturally (let his sac out). Though he did kill a few things. Anyhow i'm going fishless for awhile to kill off a darn ich outbreak. Man, i've had that tank up for 3+ years and never had an ich problem till recently cuz I think my heater was dying out, and the temp was around 70 for awhile, which also wouldn't work w/ fish like you say. I dunno, the octo was happy in the water conditions for a long time....very active and dancing all the time. I've never tried an actual Bimac b4 though and that's what i'll probably try when I do get an octo again...maybe in a month or so. Are they pretty sensitive to higher temps?
