The quest for my own Octo

[MacTiGGER]

Hey everyone,

I am a newbie to keeping a ceph. so in the last couple of weeks I have sure been doing my homework. I feel now that I am ready to start the process and am lucky to live near a couple of great store that you mentioned. Here are my findings:

The first store that I went to was fish2000 in Tustin, CA. From the minute I walked in I had a pushy salesman that tried to sell me everything under the sun and he was very persistant! Another salesman took me to the octopus tank and answered my questions that I had. I must admit that this guy was nice but uninformed, his co-worker seemed to know what he was talking about but was very rude getting the point across. They had 2 octopi, but they wont be seeing any of my money. btw the sticker on the tank said "Octopus $39.99" ...

The second store that I went to was called Seaside in HB. This is the store that runs fishsupply.com ... The older couple that runs the store were extremely helpful, took the time to answer questions and these people WILL see my money.

The third store I went to was Tongs in FV. The appearance when you walk in is very clean and the tanks were very clean. (Cleaner than Seaside). The only problem was I saw a couple of dead/very sick fish. Not one at seaside.

(sorry for the long message but I have weeks worth of questions to go through)

I got various answers to these questions depending on who I asked so I am asking you all. With a 37 Gallon tank:

1) Can and octopus and a sea urchin, sea anenome, spiny puffer, star fish, or jelly fish live together? These are all things I would be interested in adding to the tank (not all, but I am just wondering the compatibility).

2) Will an eclipse all in one tank system work for me if I added a protein skimmer?

3) is a power head required? Or just a bonus?

4) How much/What kind of diet do you recommend?

Thanks for listening and any input you may have, I want to get the tank running now so I can add the octopus around May.


-Tyler

 

[OctoMonkey]

Hi Tyler

Your going about it the right way!

Let me answer a couple of the questions as I have never used an eclipse, but i do strongly reccomend a skimmer!


1) Can an octopus and a sea urchin, sea anenome, spiny puffer, star fish, or jelly fish live together? These are all things I would be interested in adding to the tank (not all, but I am just wondering the compatibility).

The sea urchin and star fish will be okay but avoid the others. An anemone and jelly fish will sting the octo and a puffer will either try to eat it or vice versa! I did once remove a spiny diadem from an octo tank as it seemed to get jagged quite often!

3) is a power head required? Or just a bonus?

Its also worthwhile. An octo has three hearts and needs a lot of oxygen to live happily. So teh more surface aggitation and water movemant the better. Try to cover the intake with a sponge to stop wandering arms!

4) How much/What kind of diet do you recommend?

A healthy octopus will eat normally every 2nd or 3rd day and crustaceans is by far the best diet... crabs and shrimps.

The most difficult thing will be to get an octopus that is suited to captivity. many offered for sale are full grown adults with only a few weeks to live so it may be worth avoiding the 'Octopus $39.99' and get a species like Octopus bimaculoides (Bimac) from fishsupply. com that is better suited and young ones are available so you can have the maximum time to keep it. http://www.fishsupply.com/cgi-bin/f2/common/store.cgi?dbname=f2&mode=item&path=top/C/CC/CCB00-11902 Chris can give you more info on the company

Cheers
Colin

 

[MacTiGGER]

I am actually lucky enough to live about 30 mins from the retail store of fishsupply.com (called Seaside in Huntington Beach). I was just in there last week and saw they had 3 octos in stock. I don't know who I spoke to but the person didn't know what "bimac" meant so I am guessing it was not Jack

Let it be said that the customer service is incredibly good here. They spent a lot of time with me even though more customers were waiting. Something that did not happen at Tongs. I was quite rushed there.

My tank is setup and is "curing" I have live sand and live rock in there... Is there anything else I can do to increase the amount of time it takes to cycle the tank?

 

[cephalopoder]

MacTiGGER
It takes about 3 ful months till a tank is stable enough for a octopus. There is a product called " fritz zyme#9"
It is live bacteria in a bottle. I have used this on every tank I have ever set up and it works well. You could add a fish or two to help build up your bio load. Just remove the fish before you ad your octo.

 

[cephalopoder]

Fish supply is a great place to go to. Talk to Jack and ask him for a small bimaculoides. This is your best bet for a quality octopus. Tell him chris said hi.
chris

 

[imbuggin]

octopus lives / short

octopus lives / short

I have kept a few octopi over the years. The key was to keep it be itself and run TONs of carbon incase it inks. The longest I had one was just over a year. I was told that is about as long as one can hope for in captivity. (small ordinary variety). I fed it crayfish and other small freh water crabs. They are cool but a pain. I don't recomend it to people with little experience. Oh yea even when they are healthy they may escape so seal your tank well!

 

[cephalopoder]

Octopuses are a advanced marine animal.
However if you do your research, take your time, and ask questions even a beginner can keep certin species.
Carbon is highy recommended, but a protein skimmer is even more important. Not all species are prone to escape.Species like O.bimaculoides and O.cyanea almost refuse to leave the water. On the orher hand, O.briareus and O.vulgaris, E.dofleini are some that are known escape artists.