octopus tank

[jpaner]

I have a small octopus that came in on some florida rock. I have been keeping him in a 10 gal for the last week with about 4 lbs of rock and is doing well. I feed him daily krill, crab, or smelt. I'm looking for some ideas on a simple setup that will last me about 2months. I would like to stay with a 10g for now as he is very small (dime size) and I would loose him in something much larger (I have a 50g that will be free in a month or so) . I'm looking for some suggestions as far as a cover. I now they can get out of almost anything. I have a reptile cover on now, but I'm pretty sure he could squeeze through.


john

 

[cephalopoder]

hmmm octo survied shipping in your live rock?
That's a first. If its from florida sounds like you got a baby O. briareus or O.mercatoris. You could put some fiberglass window screen on top the tank cover or use plexiglass. A lot of the back posts will have some ideas. Is there a way you could post a pic of your octopus?

 

[jpaner]

He is actually doing very well and is about 50-75% larger in the last 10 days. I'm using a screen top with pretty small holes and keeping the water only 3/4 full. So far there has not been a problem.

I decided on making a top out of acrylic with small holes drilled in it. I would them silicone this to the top of a 20 or 30 gal. In the center I'm going to have a 6"x8" access hole that screws in with plastic thumb screws. I think it will work pretty well. I am also going to build a small protein skimmer that fits inside the tank and has the scum cup on top.

I am very pleased with they way it has been going.

John

 

[Pandora]

Wow, you're really lucky that you got a gift like *that* on your live rock... I would have loved that... but maybe even luckier that you found it before you let that guy out to wreak havoc in your main tank?

For my purposes, I cut up a lot of filter plates (it looks like plastic screen) and crazy glued it to various potential openings of various intake tubes, holes in the top of the tank, etc. I'm new to keeping them but hear paranoia is definitely a good thing with these little guys, who can squeeze through just about anything since the beak is really the only hard part of their bodies. I put in lots of holey LR in addition to a small PVC elbow for him to hide in. He's living in my modified refugium right now, and he comes out all the time to take food from my hand even though I've only had him one week. Occasionally he even hunts when the lights are on and is given live guppies or shrimp. As he grows bigger, I am planning a 30 gallon tank setup for him, which might include blacklights or infrared option at night. Might want to check the following page, it helped me out a lot:

http://www.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/

Here's some photos of him (also need help from others with ID):

 

[plankton]

Pandora,

I'd like to keep a octopus in my sump/refugium but my SPS tank typically runs at about 80 deg F, so not quite ideal for a cold/temperate water invert. Ohh well. Time to setup a separate species tank anyway...

What temp do you keep you octopus as and what is the species?

Scott

 

[Pandora]

plankton,

Hi... first off, I am far from a ceph expert, you'd be far better asking the more regular members of this board.

As for my tank setup right now with him in the refugium, it is far from ideal in my opinion; I am only keeping him there until I can get him into the 30 gallon, being built up as we speak. I don't want him in there yet because he is very small and there will be a lot of LR in there; also I want to make sure all the openings he might squeeze through are entirely sealed. There's the lighting and size issue, too, I'm told, but because of his small size now, I don't want to lose him.

I believe O. vulgaris is a temperate species from what I've read, but mine is an as yet un-IDed octo. There are also tropical species which come on the market from time to time, and octopus ID is always a little iffy depending on how confident you are in your source. My octo is in the same temp as my reef in the meantime, but he seems to be behaving fine; I am planning to drop the temp of the new tank by a few degrees slowly over time, but tropical temp (78-80) was also what he was being kept at at the LFS, and I didn't want to shock him.

 

[OctoMonkey]

Hey Pandora,
I appreciate that the pics are a bit blurry but it does look quite a lot like my most recent octopus. Its the colour I am looking at and the length/shape of the arms...

have you spotted eyespots?

If you look back some posts you may see some other pics of mine, looksimilar?

 

[Pandora]

Hi Octo, he does look a lot like your little guy, except maybe not as dark all the time. What species is yours? What exactly are eyespots?

 

[plankton]

The California mudflat octopus or two-spot octopus or O.bimaculoides has a blue'ish eye spot under each eye.

Boy, that sure is a cute bimac. Hard to believe that little guy (or gal) grows to more than 36 inches long in nature (in 18 months).

Pandora: I guess I could go with a more temporate or tropical species like vulgaris. Let me know if when you identify your invert since you it appears to be happy in your tropical refugium. 8^)

Scott

 

[Pandora]

OK, will do! Thanks...

I'm hoping that he turns out not to be vulgaris... last thing I need is something that grows to the size of a poncho and eats my cat in the middle of the night.. (j/k!)

 

[OctoMonkey]

hey, did you know they can suck your brain out through your nose??
em, well, not quite.....

I think that my baby octo may be either a bimac or filosus, prob wont know unril its bigger tho....
C