Before i ask i would like to say that i am absolutly not getting impatient or anything like that im am just a little curious. I just got done testing my water and i have been cycling my aquarium for about a month and 2 weeks, and these were the results.
PH- 8.0
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-25

I am just wondering whats wrong with getting an octo now? These water parameters have not been fluctuating and everyhting seems to be going good. Again i am in now way getting impatient, but my water seems to be good and t does beg the question.

thanks everyone :)

p.s- sorry for the never ending posts

I think it should be ok to add the octo.However you might want to wait longer as octos produce lots of waste and the bacteria might not be able to cope.But then again 1 and a half months is a long time.

As long as everything is doing well in the tank (stars, fish, etc) I would agree that it would be alright to add an octopus now...just out of curiousity, what species were you getting?
Greg

Another good reason for waiting a bit is to allow your tank to develop amphipods that a young octopus can use as food. (That's all Ollie would eat for a while).

nancy

I think it should be ok to add the octo.However you might want to wait longer as octos produce lots of waste and the bacteria might not be able to cope.But then again 1 and a half months is a long time.

I agree, Henry is a very sloppy eater, and I assume most octos are, however, once a bacterial colony begins to develope, it eventually comes to equillibrum ($.25 word for the day) with it's environment, i.e, more waste, more bacteria. Keep a close watch on the amonia, if you do decide to get one sooner than planned, as amonia levels rise, so follows nitrite.

The trick is to get an established colony, that can consume the amonia and nitrite before it becomes dangerous to it's inhabitants, because these products never stop being produced, they just don't actually build up enough to be a danger.

Hope this helps, and the never-ending posts are what makes the world what it is.

:D

Felix, El Gato!

I will bne getting the ever popular bimac :) .

How much longer should i wait like say two more weeks?

Should be just about right.

Another reason why I like to ask people to wait longer than normal is because quite a few people who have started keeping octos have done so with no previous fishkeeping experience and they need time to set up and get used to running an aquarium...

Hopefully saves octopus's lives :)

Actually, waiting a little while to establish an ampipod is a nice idea...that's what kept tiny Gollum happy, since he refused my offerings of larger food anyway. He prolly would have starved if I didn't have amphipods. A great site for these is Florida Aqua Farms:

http://www.florida-aqua-farms.com/

Only about $10 worth of these buggers will get a nice, healthy colony going in your tank, especially if you have live rock. Incidentally, live rock should (I believe) ultimately bring down those nitrates too, not that you shouldn't still do regular water changes.

rusty