My last octo died, i think from old age since my water is perfect and foot is plentiful. anyone selling bimacs? i'd love a California 2-spot again...

any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

We hope that some captive bred bimacs will be available in a few months.

I'll be checking into this and will post about it soon. Or, perhaps our breeders will post directly.

Nancy

Right now I have some eggs. I usually only raise about 5 hatchlings as thats is all I handle at any one time.

Right now I have some eggs. I usually only raise about 5 hatchlings as thats is all I handle at any one time.
Hello Marinebio guy, by the sounds of it those might be due around the same time I would be looking for one. If you could let me know an eta on them I would know better-I dont know at what age you let them go and how long that is from now. I am looking in the 1-2 month from now range for my tank to be well cycled and ready. Thanks!!

They are about a month from hatching

Hello Marinebio guy, by the sounds of it those might be due around the same time I would be looking for one. If you could let me know an eta on them I would know better-I dont know at what age you let them go and how long that is from now. I am looking in the 1-2 month from now range for my tank to be well cycled and ready. Thanks!!

They are about a month from hatching
How old do they have to be to ship??

How old do they have to be to ship??

I usually like them to be 2 weeks old before I ship them.

I usually like them to be 2 weeks old before I ship them.
Would I be able to get on that list? What do you charge?

Would I be able to get on that list? What do you charge?

A two-week old octopus is very small. Do you know what you would feed it?

A two-week old octopus is very small. Do you know what you would feed it?

You could feed it live mysid shrimp, small ghost shrimp, or hand feed it frozen krill,plankton,mysid. They can eat something the same size they are and they would be about the size of a quarter at 2 weeks old

The good part is my gf works for a lfs so I should not have any problems keeping up with food for him.

Do they sell live mysids or ghost shrimp? Not many do.

No but im sure the LFS wouldnt mind if she took some of the larger amphipods and the live mysids swimming around the tanks....
Culturing your own is easy in a refugium.. I have tons in my refugium....

Live ghost shrimp--she is checking tomorrow to see what they have frozen

Live: Ghost Shrimp
Freeze Dried: Krill, Plankton, Mysid
Frozen: Krill, Plankton, Mysid

Bigpapa,
Are the "Ghost Shrimp" freshwater? There are two kinds of shrimp often referred to this way, one is freshwater and the other a brackish water variety. I have read that the freshwater shrimp (like all other freshwater food) is not an acceptable primary diet. I am not an expert on diet but have stayed away from any freshwater feeds because of the warnings. It may well be that because of the short life span, the concerns are moot.

So what about those huge prawn Costco sells fresh? Is this not a good choice for food? I find Biddle loves this and when I am low on live caught food, it's a quick fix for a large meal and he goes wild over it.

The frozen and freeze dried are saltwater but the live is kept at .2 salinity so I am assuming they are not but she is going in today to check for sure and I will let you know.

Is the salinity you quote in Specific Gravity? If so you should double check it. Natural sea water is 1.026, and that's what a saltwater tank should be kept at. Some people go as low as 1.019; 1.026 is better though.

Cephs should be kept in water that is close to natural sea water in salinity.

However, fiddler crabs are often kept in brackish water, half fresh and half salt.

Many LFSs will use a lower-salinity salt water, as Shipposhack mentions. The theory is that it's better for the fish, but not everyone agrees with this theory.

Nancy

Carol,
Not being a dietary expert (please don't even ask about the "quality" of my own diet and suffice it to say I add vitamins to help compensate :hmm:) I can only try to piece together what I have read about the "fats" in fresh vs saltwater foods. The mysis that seahorses are most often fed are freshwater/brackish water creatures and are enriched to add a balance for saltwater stomachs. For octopuses, the preferred choice has been saltwater critters but many recommendations are for brackish water animals even as primary diet (fiddlers vs mithrax) because of availability and cost. But all these are recommendations about primary diets and not occassional feedings (like your praun or crawfish) that are both accepted and relished as a special item.

All that being considered, I have an Iguana that lived on a consistent diet of less than proper food for over 6 years. She is still quite alive after 10+ years with us but good information about diet was simply not available at the time she was given to us and I followed the diet the only books and online info provided at the time (and have corrected the situation with observed improvement in overall health).

Of interest, sometime ago Roy posted a story about feeding one of his octopuses a large praun that was greedily consumed but resulted in fouling the tank the next day to the point of almost losing the octopus. His point was water quality, size of tank and how an extra large meal could be disastereous but I also question the richness of the FW food in the mix of events. When I asked Roy about that posibility he did not feel my thought was a factor.

My rambling point being that I am not sold 100% on diet theory (particularly for an animal that lives only a year) but try to totally avoid anything that is known to be bad for a critter (in the case of my Iguana, certain kinds of plant leaves are poisonous). I suspect that prauns, other freshwater shrimp and crawfish are not bad for the animal, are not good as a primary diet but are definite alternates to starvation (i.ei animal won't eat what's good for it or a shortage of desired food), sort of white bread over whole wheat kind of thing.

I have a small captive bred bimac if you are interested..

How old is he?

How old is he?

about 6 weeks... here is a photo of him 2 weeks ago when I brought him home, the bottom of the container is 3 inch's around for size reference. He is now in a 30 gallon until he finds a new home.

Nice one!

Sure, how much and any other specifics-- I have paypal if that helps

I just want what I paid for him, 49.99 plus whatever shipping costs.