am new here and I have 1 vulgris octopus and I live CA. I have had my octo for to weeks and I want a baby I have no tank for It but am going to get one soon I have my rock cycled now . so go easy on me because I don't no much but the basics taking care of an octo. so please give me tips on baby care:notworth::banghead::tomato::sink:

Hi, glad you have found a good source of information. How long have you owned a Vulgaris? What size tank? What kind of filtration? Where did you buy it? Enquiring minds want to know :)

Much of the same information you will find in the Ceph Care articles as well as the forums applies to babies as well, you will just need to provide much smaller live food for them; hermits, snails, mysis shrimp, etc. And being smaller, they will be more capable of escaping through even the most seemingly unlikely of spots, so make sure there's nowhere for them to get sucked into a pump.

If you own a Vulgaris, you should be aware that feeding an octopus is expensive, especially more so when they won't accept thawed raw foods like shrimp and silversides, and the larger they grow, the larger their appetite is going to be. If you live near the beach in California, feeding them will probably not be that big of an issue.

For now though, you should read all of the articles on this website, even the ones pertaining to Cuttlefish husbandry, as the more knowlegde you take in now, the better off you will be when you come across changes in behavior, husbandry do's and don'ts, and everything else involved with this particular hobby. Both you and your pet will be better off!

Also, if you don't have a tank set up for another octopus yet, you should focus on your Vulgaris while you get the other tank put together and cycling. You need to wait AT LEAST 3 months for the tank to fully cycle before buying an octopus for it. Many people aren't patient enough to wait out this long, and most of the time it ends with the octopus' premature death.

Um... huh?

sorry Is thair a way shortin a cycle

How long have you had your tank up and running?

I don't have one. I am getting one to night. the rock is cycled

Dude, it's not enough to have the rock cycled - you need to have your tank up and running and cycled, which takes at least 3 months, before adding an octopus.

Nancy

Where are you keeping your octopus right now?

Yes, you said you have a Vulgaris. How large is the tank that octopus is in? It is going to need a tank larger than 100 gallons for the long-term.

There is no shortcut to cycling a tank. Wait at least 3 months.

1 pound of rock per gallon of water in the tank. At least a 50 gallon tank.. read the articles here... http://www.tonmo.com/index.php?page=cepharticles

Judging by your posts, you seem young. Can I ask how old you are?

yes but the tank cycled only for 4 days and the tank is a 20g I was planing to move him

Do you have an octopus in that tank, or are you saying you're planning to get one?

Nancy

planing to one his in a 22g now

yes but the tank cycled only for 4 days

Well, that's not good at all.

You have two options.

1) Return it to whatever store it was purchased from before the ammonia in the tank kills it.

2) Check the water parameters daily, perhaps even twice daily, do water changes as needed (which will be very often) and pray the octopus doesn't die a slow, horrible death. This is not the ideal situation at all. It is torture.

I am thinking you are pretty young.

Think of a tank as being kind of like a bathroom. You need good plumbing to flush the toilet. (Kinda like a properly cycled tank has enough bacteria) If you don't have a toilet installed, everytime you use the bathroom it gets nastier and nastier, until it builds up so much, you are swimming in it. Eventually these conditions will make you VERY sick. Your octopus is going through this right now, because the bacteria in the tank is not enough to "flush" the waste out of the system.

Please do what's best for the octopus and return it to the store. Keeping it is selfish.

:banghead:he seems fine now and he has bin there for two weeks and I have done two water changes but the day I got him the tank was cycled for 4 day and he seemed fine

planing to one his in a 22g now

If he is a Vulgaris he is going to outgrow that 22g fast. Vulgaris need a tank of at least 120 gallons. Keeping him in a 22 gallon is like keeping a horse in a closet.

am going to get one

am going to get one

At this point it's not going to do you any good to get another tank. You'll just have to wait another 3 months for it to properly cycle, and by then, your Vulgaris will probably be dead. The smart thing to do would be to return it to the store, get your money back, and wait until you have a tank set up and properly cycled. Then you can buy one without worrying about the animal dying, or wasting however much money you spent on it.

This is why it's very important that people do their research BEFORE buying these animals.

thank you for your help I will get tank :notworth:

Animal Mother is right, a 22 gallon tank is far too small for any cephalopod. It's actually pretty rare to find a vulgaris in a pet store, usually they just label any octopus that way because they don't know how to ID octos. There are going to be more immediate problems, though: if the tank has only been running for 4 days, it's pretty much guaranteed to get to toxic levels during the cycling process, even for the smallest dwarf species, and even a fully cycled 22 gallon tank would probably be unable to handle the waste produced even by a dwarf. If it is a dwarf, it's not automatic death, but it's still playing Russian roulette with your octo's life, and you'd have to do water changes very often, which will probably stop your tank from ever cycling properly.

thank you for your help I will get tank :notworth:

Don't thank me for help, take the octopus back to the store, and tell the octopus "Dale says, you're welcome."

I am going to cry.

How big is your "vulgaris?" Is the mantle (the round part of the body) the size of a ping pong ball or a softball?

What sort of filtration do you have on your 22 gallon tank? Do you have a protein skimmer?

How are you making salt water?

Have you tested your water for nitrite, nitrate and ammonia?

We would like to help you, but we need some more information.

yes but the tank cycled only for 4 days and the tank is a 20g I was planing to move him


Where to? The toilet?

I'm with Greg. Dude, maybe you should get some practice killing some clownfish, damsels--maybe a moorish idol or a few bengaii cardinals--before you try killing an octopus.

Wow, I was being very reserved... wanted to say something along these lines.

I'm pretty sure Dude is very young, so I was trying not be harsh. Then again, I'm starting to think maybe Dude is just a troll.

Folks,

I think this is a good thread. This can go downhill from here and so I am hoping it will naturally peter out. But if it doesn't, I'll take some action (i.e., lock it). I'm very proud of this community for holding new members accountable for their actions with cephs. If anyone wants to keep a ceph, they need to be prepared to listen to the collective voice of the community when it is observed that they are putting the ceph they care for in harm's way. If you're going to keep a ceph, you need to be accountable and responsible for your actions. If you can't answer the tough questions posted here, and/or you are not willing to learn / react / adjust appropriately in the interests of the ceph's health, then this probably isn't the right forum for you.

We don't demand that everyone who posts here are "experts" -- on the contrary we are here to help. But if you are going to keep a ceph, I would suggest you need to be willing to listen, learn, adjust and yield to the more senior members and staff of this forum (of which there are many).

Disclaimer: I am not a ceph-keeping expert, I just run the site!

I have a skimmer that is capable of handling 100gal tank, 50gal filter, and I am not a troll, just want to learn and solicit ways to take care of an octopus. My water is ok., just got it tested. I have 10lbs of live rock in a 20 gal tank. thank you in advance for any comments.

I have a skimmer that is capable of handling 100gal tank, 50gal filter, and I am not a troll, just want to learn and solicit ways to take care of an octopus. My water is ok., just got it tested. I have 10lbs of live rock in a 20 gal tank. thank you in advance for any comments.

You should have 1 lb. of live rock for every gallon, so if you have a 22 gallon tank, you should have 22 pounds of live rock. You should invest in a test kit for yourself, so that you can test the water daily.

How big is your octopus? What is it eating?

he is eating ghost shrimp and he 's the size of a gulf ball.

Are the ghost shrimp fresh or salt water?

fresh water

Won't be a good long-term diet. Good that it's eating though. Try Fiddler and Hermit crabs, or Shore Shrimp. You can order Fiddlers and Shore shrimp from this site... www.aquaculturestore.com They are very reasonably priced and include shipping in the item price. 10Fiddlers for $13 and some change, shrimp are a little more expensive. If the mantle size is about the size of a golf ball it will probably eat one Fiddler per day, maybe every other day. At this point I wouldn't worry about feeding it long-term because even with your filtration on that small tank, not being cycled, you have much bigger problems than diet issues.

Again, you can find several threads on this forum in which people who did not wait out the cycle period lost their octopus regardless of the advice given. This is your chance to do something different and everybody wins. Why not return the octopus and buy another one when you have a proper setup? There is no good excuse for not doing the right thing.

thanks for the link

You should probably be doing daily water changes for this tank. About 2 gallons per day. Do you have access to RO/DI water?

yes I do

You should probably be doing daily water changes for this tank. About 2 gallons per day. Do you have access to RO/DI water?


In a perfect world, this would be correct...but how is the tank ever going to cycle with constant massive (for that size tank) water changes?

The only hope for this octopus is to go to another tank, and hopefully Dude will follow basic aquarium protocols on the next try.

What are the water parameters on your tank right now? If your octopus has been eating a lot (and producing waste), you could have some high ammonia levels.

Did you ever get any more live rock?

yes I got 5 more

What are your nitrate, nitrite and ammonia levels in the tank right now?