Hello,
I have been setting up a reef aquarium for about a month. I have all my live rock and I was planning on adding a california reef octo. I want to make sure I am making the right decision about what to put in the tank. I am planning a specimen tank and I already have the 75 gallon take with refugium and skimmer for a 200 gallon. I have live sand and have set up 2 feet of underground tunnles with PVC piping. I am looking at adding an octo or cuttle in september, so no rush. Can you please share your experiences with owning both? Could you tell me what you think me set up would be best for? I do not want to have to buy a heater. I like the idea that you can have more then one cuttle in the same tank.

Thanks for the help :notworth:

I need to edit what I wrote. I meant to say I do not want to buy a chiller.

You're not going to be able to keep any octos native to California in a reef type environment. California coast is pretty chilly water. Too cold for most corals available in the hobby. Consider a Caribbean species. Be careful which corals you choose also. No LPS at all, too stingy. I'd suggest sticking to soft corals like star polyps, anthelia, and kenya tree, as well as gorgonias. I removed my palythoas (Button polyps) as my octopus did not like touching them, showed obvious reactions of discomfort around them, so I suggest not getting those either.

Yes , Caribean Reef Octo (long day). That is what I have been planning on, but i want to make sure I do not want a cuttle instead.

Tough call! Both very cool.

Any carribean reef cuttles?

Nope. No cuttle species anywhere near the America's from my understanding.

Actually I was snorkeling recently in the Virgin Islands with my family and we saw quite a few cuttlefish. I'm not sure what species they were but some of them were pretty large, like up to a foot or more.

I saw them in cancun on my honeymoon.rather large also.

Actually I was snorkeling recently in the Virgin Islands with my family and we saw quite a few cuttlefish. I'm not sure what species they were but some of them were pretty large, like up to a foot or more.

Might this (http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/Ssepioidea.php) be what you saw? Reef squids look an awful lot like a cuttlefish. As far as I know, there are no cuttles in the Caribbean...

:grin:

Sepioteuthis
Sepi(a) - Cuttle, Teuthis - squid

This confusion comes up a few times a year, and the its represented in the latin for the animals. Super neat!

Many years ago we were snorkeling or diving in the Keys and saw a huge school. We were not sure if they were cuttles or squid at the time and have laughed that it to 30 years to discover what they were.

Okay so looking at the original post should I plan on an octo then?

It's really up to you. You should read several of the different journals in the journals and photos forum and make a decision on which best suits you. As you said, you can keep a small community of cuttles which is nice.