Dwarf Octos

[LobsterOfJustice]

Hello,

I am very interested in keeping an octo, but dont have the room for a bimac. I have done the basic research about keeping octopuses but I would like some more specific information on some dwarf species. I noticed TBS sells a dwarf octo, does anyone have information on those? Thanks

 

[B Pierce]

I have never kept a pygme(dwarf) but I have heard that when you get a pygme octopus it usually only has a few months left till a natural death.

The TBS octo is a pygme carribean species; just treat it like a regular octo just be extra careful about escaping!

HTH,
Bill

 

[Gonodactylus]

Tampa Bay sells Octopus mercatoris. This is a small species that is hardy, but extremely secretive. Being nocturnal, you will only see it at night and will probably have to resort to using red light at that. They are most commonly found in live rock in the spring when the adults are likely to reproduce. Being a big egg species, this is one octopus that is fairly easy to breed since it does not have a planktonic paralarval stage. Hatchlings are large and begin feeding immediately. We have several juveniles that hatched about two months ago and are now about 1 cm mantle length. The first month we fed them nothing but large live brine shrimp which they caught at night. THey are now taking amphipods and ghost shrimp as well as brine shrimp. The juveniles are cannibalistic, so you have to isolate them at hatching.

Roy

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

How big is their maximum size? I have an extra 1.5, 2.5, and two 10 gallon aquariums laying around. If they are easy to breed I would be very interested. Could you give me some more information about breeding them. How can you tell the sexes apart? Should they live together permanantly or have "supervised visitations"?

 

[nini]

pygmy(dwarfs) need a home atleast 30 gallon at the smallest,and they dont live very long ither.
nini
try www.tonmo.com for more info
thanx

 

[Gonodactylus]

I've kept many species of pygmy octopus is systems much smaller than 30 gal. O. mercatoris, O. bocki, O. wolfi, H. lunulata, and three or four undescribed species have all done well in our small dedicated aquaria that average under 10 gal. It is not the size of the system as much as it is the quality and stability of water. Large tanks are more stable, but if the system is well cycled, has good filtration and circulation, you do frequent partial water changes and if you are extremely careful to remove excess food, a small aquarium can successfully house a pygmy.

Nini is correct that they will not live very long. For all of the species I listed above, an animal captured as an adult will probably last no more than 3 or 4 months. You can stretch that out a bit if you cut back on the food, but finding the right balance isn't easy.

Roy

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Alright, thank you.

I am a little turned off by their lifespan, but I think I will still give them a try. As far as filtration, I was thinking about adding it onto the 125 gallons in my reef system. This tank has a large skimmer and I run carbon on it. I would plumb it so that the drain from the octo tank pretty much goes right into the skimmer. Is this a good idea?

As far as breeding them, is it something I should try? I could keep a male and a female each in their own 10 gallon tank, and then give away all the fry but 2, then those are the two new ones. Every like 3 cycles of this I would just by another Octo so the gene pool wouldnt get all messed up (not sure if thats a concern). The only problem I can see with this is if it is very hard to sex them, or to actually get them to breed.

Would you reccomend buying a different species than mercatoris (still a small species), or buying from somewhere different than TBS?

Thank you for all the information!

 

[nini]

dont try breeding, that will be bad.
bimacs are the best breed,only w/ 50+ tanks

 

[Gonodactylus]

I'm not sure why you are being advised not to try to rear O. mercatoris, but I've done it serveral times and it is not difficult. I've also reared bimacs and they are actually more finicky than dwarfs.

If you can get a male and female or at least an adult inseminated female O. mercatoris, there is no reason not to try to raise them. O. mercatoris is one of the very few big egg dwarf species available. While they are nocturnal and secretive, if you really are interested in observing the reproductive cycle, they are a good place to start. When the eggs hatch, you can leave a few juveniles in the mother's tank since she will be dead in a week or two. Move others, a few to a tank, to small satellite systems. If you start out with four or five, you will probably end up with just one to a tank, but at least it will have had some good meals.

While some O. mercatoris seem to be breeding year round, the early spring in the Gulf is definitely the time when many brooding females can be had. If Tampa Bay can get you animals now, great, but it is definitely more difficult to find them now.

Roy

 

[B Pierce]

Roy is there anyway to ID a dwarf octopus species to being the large egg type?

Bill

 

[Gonodactylus]

Not easily.

Roy

 

[fishie Rich]

I have a question how do you guys keep your octopie from getting out of the tank

 

[Gonodactylus]

It really depends on the species. Some that are subtidal rarely will crawl above the water line, so keeping a lot of free-board in the tank does the trick. Other intertidal species don't seem to be inhibited by air and those require secure lids.

The tanks I have designed for my dwarf species work pretty well. I assemble a 2-4 gal all glass tank with the top of the walls all exactly the same height. The lid consists of a plate of glass slightly larger than the footprint of the tank. I then place a heavy weight on the lid to hold it in place. If the tank was properly constructed, no gap will occur. If I'm really paranoid about a particular animal, i take a strip of weatherstripping foam and stick it to the lid so that the foam creates a good seal all the way around.

Flitration is provided by a canister filter. I drill two holes, each 5/8', near the top of one wall. These are just the diameter of the tubing from the canister. Pushing the elbow connectors into a short piece of tubing inserted into the holes will tightly seal the hole. You could also use bulkhead fittings, but the tubing works for me. The only other precaution that I take is to place a piece of foam over the intake to keep the octpus from crawling into the tubing and making its way to the pump. A spray bar provides adequate areation and water movement. I make these systems from high quality window glass for photography.

Roy