I am almost set on getting a 29 gallon tank. Does anyone know what the larget speciman that could fit in there COMFORATABLY? I would like to be able interact with it. Thank you for all your help!

Sicerely,Sincereley,
Calamari101

You might get away with an O. hummelincki/filosus. That's the only interactive octopus you're going to squeeze into a tank that small. Otherwise you're stuck with dwarfs, which are not typically interactive.

i was thinking about a 29 gallon tank also.....how big is a hummelincki(sp?)

You might get away with an O. hummelincki/filosus. That's the only interactive octopus you're going to squeeze into a tank that small. Otherwise you're stuck with dwarfs, which are not typically interactive.

Where can i egt one of those species? (not dwarf) :heee:

i think thats mostly what saltwaterfish.com gets in

Yeah, that's the species they sell. I'm not absolutely sure about how large they really top out at. According to Cephbase.org it seemed they were listed as reaching about 13 inches (not sure if that's arm-span or mantle to arm tip). The ones members on here have had are more like 6-8 inches mantle to arm tip. I kept two and they were about the size of a tennis ball all wadded up.

kool....so u think they are keepable in a 29 gallon?

Honestly I think sticking to the 50 gallon minimum would be better. But, as long as the tank is maintained properly then yes.

I'm going to chime in here with my regular post, sorry about the repeat, and I know I say it a lot, but hummelnicki, 29 gallon, and comfortable DO NOT go together, you can pick two of those, but your never going to be able to get all three, so basically what im saying is this is another ethics/opinion question.

What is the next size up to make it fairly comfortable?

I would go with a 50g, or better yet 55g.

Why are you set on a 29g ? Just wondering.

because its affordable and a good size.

Have you set up a salt water aquarium before? If you can afford it, I would recommend a 55 gallon for several reasons. If something goes wrong with your water quality, it is more stable. Secondly, sometimes when you purchase a dwarf octopus, you get something else. Most fish stores do not know how to identify the species of octopus they have in stock.

Okay I thought it may be a room issue. The bigger the aquarium the it is to take care of because things change more slowly. You might have trouble keeping a 29g stable with the high bioload an octopus puts on your setup. Also after rock ect. its not much space to move around in :thumbsup:

once you get started wiht an aquarium, upgrading it 10-20 gallons is not that hard OR expensive, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not get anything other than a dwarf for a 29 gallon. AT LEAST go with a 45-50 gallon. it will be better for both the octopus, and your interaction with it, something else to consider is a cuttlefish for the 29. Ill take this about the price from another one of your threads:





no, 30, maybe, maybe 20 would be the least, but then, i dont know how well enrichment/toys would work because you'll hardly ever see it, it's better to go for a 55 gal and get a more active, fun octo. I know it sounds a lot more, but really, as you get a bigger tank, the amount spent per gallon decreases. for example, I am really cheap as well, so take my time and shop for low prices, and my 12 gallon has cost me $400 to date with a filter, skimmer, Halides, live rock, test kits, etc. this does not include live stock, so that's about $34 a gallon, my friend has a 40 gallon, and has pretty much the same stuff as me, just rated to a bigger tank, obviously and has spent $700 not including live stock and that's about $17 a gallon so it works out cheaper, and you'll be able to get a cooler, more interesting and interactive octo.

Octane's (Hummelincki) tank is 2' tall and he can stretch to the top with one arm when his body is on the substrate. Unlike some of the other aquarium size octos, Octane likes to swim and I wish the tank was 4' long to allow him more room to jet about. I am looking for a longer tank (keeping the 2' height) but that will have to be for the next one as 'Tane is beginning to show signs of old age (not eating well, flashing like a cuttlefish and not quite as friendly - only comes up for a couple of pats rather than his half hour of constant returning for a massage) and I would not attempt to move him now even if I had a cycled tank.

The lfs's here have 55's on sale frequently, for about 40 bucks more than a 29. On top of that, the equipment costs are only marginally higher, I picked up a great RedSea skimmer for 80 bucks. The smaller model for 30 gallons was 65.

The advice above was sound, with that much more water, you have an ability to catch a problem without the tank crashing, and the octopus has more room to wander about, which they do love to do, no matter what the species. You can also keep the small tropical cuttlefish in a tank of that size. The 55 is a very versatile tank !

Here is why a larger tank is better... Sometime last night my pump died, I didn't notice until this morning. My heater is in the sump, so not only was there no water flow (well, a little bit from the protein skimmer), but there was no heat in my 55 gallon tank. Everything is still alive (a clownfish, watchman goby and bunch of mushroom coral) because I had a large volume of water. Had this been a smaller tank, the temperature would have been much lower, the oxygen levels lower and I could have lost some of my animals. I was able to throw a powerhead in the main tank as well as the heater until I can replace the pump. If I hadn't burned out the pump :roll:, I could have taken the time to repair it, without worrying about the animals dying for the few hours I would have needed.

does anybody know how big o.filosus get when there full grown?

Norman say roughly a 3" mantle and foot long arms. Octane's mantle is close to that now and he can stretch his arms to about 18" but in his swim position his arms are only about 6" long.

Norman say roughly a 3" mantle and foot long arms. Octane's mantle is close to that now and he can stretch his arms to about 18" but in his swim position his arms are only about 6" long.

what sizetank do you have him in?

Tooo small. We bought it as a 45 gallon tank for our seahorses several years ago. 'Tane came to us much sooner than anticipated so we chose to use this tank and I have to change out roughly 10 gallons a week to keep the nitrates down so I measured the tank to discover that it would only hold 37 gallons if it was full of just water. I do have a canister, separate overflow (mostly for aeration) and skimmer in the small sump and was planning on upping the size of the sump when we found the new 50 gallon tank.

As an aside, always check your gallonage against tank measurements. This was a new tank was drop-shipped from the manufacturer and we had not clue that it was 6" shorter than the size needed to be a 45.