Octopus pricing

[Fish doctor]

I' am thinking of getting a octopus in the future. My question is what is the average price that's charged for them?

 

[gpx1200]

pricing varys quite a bit, i recently bought 2 a. aculeatus for $30 each asking price was $39 for 1, i have seen the same and simalar species between $49-89. then of course you have to pay for overnight shipping unless you can pic one up localy wich i recomend if posible as octos don't ship well, it doesn't take much ink in the bag to sufocate them. i drove 71/2hrs to avoid shipping mine
the best way to get your moneys worth is to do alot of reserch and learn to identify what species your looking at so you can be shure your geting a young animal that has some time left since their life span is only about a year you don't want to get an adult with only a few months to live(sadly this is prety comon). what makes this tricky is an adult dwarf is the same size as a babby aculetus except the dwarf only has a few months left to live and is mostly nocturnal wich isn't much fun unless you up at 3 am alot and like the way your tank looks under red lights.
when i was at ny aquitcs they had 4 octos and all looked to be the same species mostly juvinile to young adult, i was told he always uses the same suplyer so theirs a good chance you'd get an aculetus if you orderd from him, i would ask for the smallest one they have. the 2 that i bought are bolth doing well and i see them bolth allmost every day wich is great becouse some peapole go months without seeing their octos.
some peapole have a problem with the short life span but after keeping corals for 15yrs i have spen't alot more money on short lived corals that wer not nearly as cool a pet as my octos

 

[Fish doctor]

What do you feed your octopus.

 

[gpx1200]

live grass shrimp,nassarius snails,fidler crabs and frozen half shelled calms have all been eaten so far. i leave a bunch of snails and a few shrimp in the tanks for eating whenever they want and i feed either a shrimp,clam or fidler crab every other day or so from tongs.

 

[Fish doctor]

Thanks for your help. I have just one last question, where are you getting your fiddler crabs and other food items?

 

[AlexS95]

I've seen anywhere from $25 for an O. merc to $1,000 for a GPO. Expect to pay around $50-$80 for the most part.

 

[gpx1200]

i gat the fidlers for $3doz here
http://www.mariculturetechnology.com/baitfish.htm
they have grass shrimp as well but the ones i got from them wer very small and expensive to ship so ill be geting them localy from now on,the fidlers are cheep to ship becouse they ship them dry
the nessarius obligata snails i buy in bulk orders that i split with a friend they cost about $30 for 100

 

[Fish doctor]

Thanks for the info,that's just what I needed to know.

 

[madean]

I have had several of these many, many years ago and gave up on them because of the short lifespan. They used to be pretty common at some of the lfs by me. But like an earlier poster said, they are usually collected as adults or towards the end of their lifespan (which is not long). They hardly ever came out and became social. I did however have a bali octopi that lived for almost 9 months. He was actually pretty cool and became really active and social. He was about 7" or so from leg to leg spread out.
I gave up on having a small octopi in a small tank because of how much work it was for such little time with the animal.