And for my next trick...

[David M]

Blue Ringed Octopus ???? Is this possible ?? I got a call late last night, a friend claims to have some developing blue ring eggs and is bringing them over this evening. I have no details other than that. He says you can see little eyes and "squidlike" bodies in the eggs. :confused: Is there info out there on this species? I know there is (or was) a company called Octopets that bred and sold octopus so I guess it can be done. Christine ???

[MimicTang]

Should you be encouraging octopus as pets though??

They dont seem to like capvity and are very smart animals able to literally learn skills like opening jars to get food and such.

[Luis A M]

Beware.Losing you would be devastating!:(
And bad press for the hobby:D

[David M]

Yeah wev'e already been through a few jokes on that. I have two fellows that help me out, Jeff & Danny. I can just hear the wives on the phone, "Have you seen my husband? He said he was going over to feed the octopus." " Gee I don't know but David has been down there a long time now..." :lol:

[Noof]

Hey David,
I am in South Australia and I have thought and are still thinking about Blue rings. I think that it would be great for looking at in a tank but the whole can kill you in less time than it takes to run to the car and drive to the hospital think has me a little worried?

I have had a few run ins with them while fishing here and it is pretty intimidating. I would hate to try cleaning the side of the tank??...
Interested to hear more about people doing this or who are interested in it? PM me if you want?

If I can find a couple in the near future I may give it a crack. I believe that a local uni was doing something with them here but havent heard anything for a long time?
Cheers
Nathan

[gemini aquarius(t)]

I know nothing on the subject but basic needs for the octos so i guess it would be possible but it would require a overflow like a regular tank i suppose but with a very fine mesh of some sort over it octos are very adventurous and they can fit through anything bigger than their beak so what ever you choose it has to meet that requirment also i would suggest a seperate system so you can litterally have a box (sealed and then just feed and clean by means of the sump and then feed by putting food next to the pump that goes into the sealed tank and in this matter mag floats would help

just my 2 cents
hth

xavier

[David M]

The eggs are on their way over now, should be interesting.

[gemini aquarius(t)]

i want a pic please

[mano]

Hmmm....not sure I'd want to take the risk with blue rings myself but I wish ya luck. I can just see some customer buying one and not having a clue about how venomous they are.

Any idea how long ago they were laid? Not sure about blue rings specifically but I imagine they develop similar to bimacs. Hatching depends on water temp etc. If you can see eyes already you better have a ton of amphipods or mysids to feed them. We would do daily feedings of amphipods with the bimacs and we had HUGE tangs for the pods but those things can easily wipe out all of your pods. I guess it depends on how many you have too but live food is pretty much the only way to raise octopus I think. Once the bimacs were a little bigger we used small clams and mussels.

Have you tried tonmo.com (cephalopod forum).

I want to see pics too!

Good luck!

Christine

[olin]

Hi David, I did raise a few batches of those a few years back when I was researching the bacteria that live in their venom glands - super cool critters! Very smart too. Started them on amphipods, but they took to frozen cockle and shaved shrimp, then to frozen mysids in rapid order. Getting them not to eat each other was the real trick. Using floating individual compartments was necessary. PVC and window screening. Good Luck!!! Keep us posted.

[David M]

Well if it takes live pods they aren't gonna make it around here :rolleyes: Doesn't matter now anyway, as I began this response the phone rang, they apparantly hatched in the tank already and all were lost. My friend went to get them and found nothing. No trace of them. Maybe they hatched or maybe something just ate them, we'll never know now. Sorrry to get you all worked up.

Hey, it was an exciting 24 hrs though :D

[gemini aquarius(t)]

ohh how sad well maybe it was a sign that u dont want to die yet?? maybe or not ohh well sorry about that good luck with your clowns though!

[aomont]

That´s sad in some way David.
Olin, what´s the safest way to handle them ?
Anderson.

[olin]

Bummer about the octopuses! It is sometimes a little sketchy sometimes raising something so smart, slippery, and deadly :) For handling them, the little octopus chambers did the trick most of the time - basically 3"PVC tubes with screwcaps on each end holding on window screening. For hands-on time (as little as possible), I used soft brine shrimp nets and wore kevlar reinforced scuba gloves in case one of the little buggers snuck up on me.

[David M]

I am really sorry for the false alarm, for all I know it was all a cruel hoax :rolleyes: I do trust the fellow that was supposed to get them, he services tanks and this was one of his clients. He is under the impression that females store sperm for multiple spawnings, does anyone know if this is true? If so there may be another opportunity.

[Peter Schmiedel]

David,

as most of the octopus femals only take care of one nest and die afterwards I would not count on a second nest. Also I assume information on that regarding the blue ring is probably not available.

I alos would love to keep them but my girlfriend over rules that. As she ahs to stand already 20+ tanks I don't strech it;)

As adults seem to feed heavily on hermit crabs I wonder if raising them with pods will give them proper nutrients they need for growing ?? Or bill the be "miss-ringed" :D

[David M]

I had also heard the "one nest and death" story so the multiple spawns made no sense :rolleyes: This is why I question the knowledge of the fellow I'm dealing with, he told me BOTH those things in the same conversation :lol: