gift horse

[moggyhill]

My son god bless him got me an early holiday present. Hi Mom I got you an octopus. After questioning him he said he got it from the local LFS. Down to the LFS I go to ask them what kind of octopus, etc, etc. The dumb ****'s tell me that they don't know but it must be out of Florida or they would have charged him more money for it. They told me to get goldfish and guppies to feed it. Not a chance. I went to my local bait store and came back with a dozen fidler crabs and a dozen shrimp. It was about the funniest thing I have seen in awhile. First Dot (the octopus) grabs about 6 crabs and starts eating them. Then he must have seen the shrimp because he dropped a couple of crabs and started in on the shrimp. It was great. I have set up a seperate 12 gallon nano for now for him with live rock, shells, and a couple of kids toys to play with.

 

[Thales]

Dot? Hmmm. Does it have blue spots?

 

[moggyhill]

no blue spots, I was playing with it this morning and it is about 6 inches across when spread out on my hand. It ate all of the blue legs, one shrimp, and about 3 crabs. I quess I will be buying it dinner sooner than I thought.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Slow down - or at least watch the nitrogen levels. Allowing the octopus to feed ad lib is asking for trouble. It will be much safer to feed it one or two prey a day. This size system is too small to sustain this much of an organic load.

Roy

 

[Energy]

You will need a bigger tank for that Octo. Not only will the amount of food-i.e-poop contaminate the system but the the octo will be to crowded in that small of confiment.

 

[moggyhill]

I have already moved Dot to a 55 gallon with extra filtration and a large protein skimmer.