COOL LITTLE GUY!

[fishteacher73]

The little guy's been in my tank now for almost two weeks. He's doing great, started coming out a lot more(mainly at night) but he's no longer holed up in the crack in the live rock. He's been eating a few hermit crabs(they hitch-hiked on the rock from my reef), ghost shrimp, and silver-sides. Anyone have further ideas on food(aside drom tossing in my fireshrimp from the reef...heheh) or cautions on any of the food's Im using? Any help would be apreciated, thanks.

[Rinaldi]

Freshwater food is generally not a good idea, but crayfish will do at least in a pinch and most seem to think they are an okay food.

Fiddler crabs are okay too.

[Sinbad]

I've had good results with supermarket shrimp and scallops. I put them on a stick and she tries to pull the whole thing down with her. One feeding time, I had the top open while getting the food from the freezer, she was so excited she climbed out of the tank! (You try getting a slippery and squishy thing off the floor.) No other escape attemps have been recorded though. Every now and then, I feed a few crayfish for variety. I've not been able to find a source of crabs though.

I'm starting to have a problem with glass anemones. I was thinking of putting some peppermint shrimps in. Octopus is really not very fast (as my living damsel can attest), and cephosource claims that they have trouble catching shrimp. Maybe peppermints can survive.

[cephalopoder]

Great to see the cephalopod section pick up a little.
No shrimp will last any time in a octo tank! My bimac has gotten rather large is still quick as a whip. For a diet I feed, crayfish, frozen shrimp, fiddler crabs,hermit crabs, glass shrimp fed selco,snails and recently raw fresh steamer and little neck clams in the shell. No freash water fish!!! they are bad for octo!!!The steamers are ripped right open. The little necks are opened with the octopus using her radula to make a small hole in the clams shell then injects is venom to stun the clam and start breaking it down so it can be opend. The little necks take a while before she can drill a hole in it.
My top is open and none of my octos have tried to get out other than reaching out of the water in wait of food offerings. I have found it is a must to increase the size of the home to keep octo happy as they grow. My bimac recently moved into a 3" pvc elbow section with a end cap on it and fills it nicely.
I will soon be going on a expedition to costa rica next month to search for new species of octopus on the pacific coast. I will fill you all in when I get back. It's going to be a blast!
-chris

[Edited by cephalopoder on 04-30-2001 at 08:08 PM]

[fishteacher73]

Thanks for the info on staying away from the freshwater foods, I had not seen that this would be a problem, but will make changes now.
I have some really branchy marshal rock in with him now, any recomendations on moving toward the pvc type housing? Right now he;s pretty small and has a cave in one of the rocks that he's moved into, but do their houses need any special cleaning apart from reg. tank cleaning, and if so, does that then make the rock a poor choice and a water quality issue wating to happen?
Also what kind of lighting do you guys keep on your tanks? Ive just got a 6500k NO bulb, but was thinking of moving toward an actinic, maybe it would draw him out more in the day. I really dont care about any effects to the rock(I'll leave that to the reef tank) and dont have any other critters in there, ideas?

[Sinbad]

There is probably great variation among different species but in my experience, octopuses are much more active given some stimuli. My bimac is generally sleeping except around feeding time. However, if I put some strange items into the tank like a plastic spoon or something, it will generally occupy her attention for a few minutes. She will chase it, grab it and ride it! Also, whenever I change water, the octopus is always out and about. These behaviors are probably because she it anticipating food.

I also have a tank full of live rock and some live sand. This has not been a problem. Octopus is suprisingly neat when eating. I do have janitors like cucumbers and sea stars and one surviving hermit. Also, it turns out the damsel enjoys eating the sucker discs shed by the octopus, along with her feces! I have not had to do more cleanning then normal.