Octopus help

[marinemini]

HI

I been toying with the idea of keeping an octopus but not really sure what to buy so if any one can help me with these questiones - very much appreciated

What equipment got told that reverse under gravel and live rock and power heads boxed in wold this work.

what species- stays small if poss.

can i keep them with corals or fish.

Thanks alot

 

[marinemini]

could some one please help

 

[OctoMonkey]

Undergravel just isnt big enough for an octopus, better use a cannister filter or a trickle tower with sump AND a good skimmer

best bet is a captive bred bimac from octopets.com but you will need a minimum of 50 gals

no to corals and fish, orals may sting them and fish will get eaten...

 

[trikais_sam]

I really wouldn't suggest using a undergravel filter with any octopus, because they may choose to live under it. I found the best way of filtering a tank was with the use of a fluval#4 submersible, and using a glass hood that is modified to connect a canister filter to,(by cutting a small hole in the plastic backing and siliconing pvc piping to the hole, at the end of the pipe i use a sponge prefilter, then doing the same on the other side except with a spraybar to feed the water back in.) If you are using a drilled tank there are great plastic screens that are marketed by life guard that work great. After all of this I duct tape the hood on the top of the tank. Have never had an octopus excape from a tank, well worth the added effort.
Besides that the only fish I have ever kept with the octopus are mollies because they can be acclimated to the salt content and survive for a time until the time comes that the octopus have decided that they were to become a meal...hunting instinct. As far as anything else in there, well usually keep serpent stars in any tank that I use a sand bottom in, and have kept a few corals in the tank as well without a lot of problems, ..ex. suncorals, gorgorians... Hope this helps you a little bit.
P.S. the first octopus that I kept I had for almost 18 months, a vulgaris, seemed to only like to eat silver mollies, the blacks and oranges he seemed to leave alone, unless they got to close to his home base.

 

[randy8876]

I just set a up an octo tank, but I'm having trouble locating an octo, but I'll tell you how I set up my tank.

I have an acrylic tank with drilled overflows. Use window screen held by plastic zip ties over the screens for the overflows to insure that the octo doesn't slip through. My mid tank pump suction pumps through 4 canister filters, my surface overflow goes to a large wet dry filter and skimmer.

The top of the tank on the back portion I siliconed in place a scrap piece of plexiglass. I drilled five 3/4"holes in the top of that for the water to return via 1/2" pvc. Four of the holes work as powerheads, the water can be aimed whateve way I want. The fifth hole pumps clean water underneath the sand and helps keep the sand clean.

I made the reverse flow undergravel filter myself. I took pvc and made a grid to fit the bottom of the tank. Then I connected the two long sides together with several short pieces of pvc for support and flow dispersion. All the short pieces have holes drilled in them much like septic system drainage pipes. This grid I siliconed in the bottom of the tank so it can't be moved. The eggcrate and window screen filter part has extra silicone and lots of sowing with fishing line. I siliconed that to the pipe grid, and then heavily siliconed around all the edges to ensure nothing could slide down there.

I'll get some pics for you later, but I have to take off to the beach for a bit.

 

[randy8876]

Here's the bottom. I'm not sure if you can see it, but the grid underneath is all glued in place.

 

[randy8876]

Here's the top. Just a scrap piece of acrylic siliconed in place with holes drilled for the pvc returns.