Is there any reason I would not want any of the following in a bimac tank?

* Mexican turbo snails (will they be eaten?)
* Sifting sand star, knobby star (again, will they be eaten?)
* Medium-sized sponge (will it deoxygenate the water?)

Are there any fish (seahorses or small, quick fish) that can peacefully coexist with an octopus? Thanks in advance.

Snails will probably be eaten, the sand stars will be ok, not sure about the sponge, seahorses will be eaten, or in Pudge's case, rode around the neck, small fish will be eaten or pester the octo. :)

Hi,

While Ollie ate some of the Mexican Turbo snails, she didn't eat all of them. I don't think they're as yummy as plain old turbo snails. So go ahead and try them.

Starfish won't be eaten.

I've had very small sponges in the tank, don't know about larger ones.

No fish!

Nancy

Are there any fish (seahorses or small, quick fish) that can peacefully coexist with an octopus? Thanks in advance.

People have tried but i dont think there has really been anything considered a sucess. Even lionfish get nailed in the end.

I would imagine that if the tank was big enough and the octopus was big and the fish were really small it may work but its probably out of the reach of home aquarists of all but the biggest tanks.

Anything i have ever tried has been octofood!


I did have an orange sponge with a bimac for a while and it was fine, other than it got moved about a bit by the octo

Even lionfish get nailed in the end.

A friend of mine keeps some quite large seahorses with a bandensis and they're doing quite well. But I wouldn't dare try after what happened to the lionfish ( btw I just got a fu man chu lionfish in another tank).

in the past i managed to keep a bimac, a bi-color angel and a large hairy hermit crab in a 46g tank for about 6 months, all three were about the same size, the hermit crab got a hold of the angel and killed it and ate it, about a month after that the bimac decided to eat the hermit, one week after that the bimac escaped and i found him on the floor, the octo seemed to like to interact with the fish they would follow each other around as if they were playing follow the leader, i thing the octo got bored with the fish gone and turned on the hermit, the being really bored decided to seek out new places.

i currently have briareus with 3 stars a red tree sponge, black and white damsel, and a little yellow sea horse, have not had a problem yet

thats pretty good going :) but i'd suggest that this is the exception and not the rule......

how long have the co-habited?

the stars and the sponge were there before the octo (they do a great job handling the octo detrius) about 5months the damsel has been there for about 1 maybe 1 1/2 months, the seahorse is new, only about 2 weeks

its interesting and something worth more attention.. i often wonder if a mandarin would be okay or a similar poisonous fish.. they may taste nasty to suckers???

i find it very interesting when you can get things to co habitate that arent supposed to be able to, but of course your always taking your chances
i curently have a pretty big golden spotted moray in my reef tank, he is much much bigger than anything in there but he doesnt touch anything, it only eats the food i put on a feeder stick for it, whats really cool is watching the coral banded shrimp clean his mouth :)

that would be nice to see!!!!

better make sure it never gets hungry :shock: :shock: :shock:

if you look carefully at the first pic you can see a neon goby sitting on the eel's head

second pic is what i meant

heh, very good!

i used to have a big undulatus moray... miss having them and that pic brought it back :)

i love predators, they are usually impressive and in some cases very gracefull (sharks) unfortunately my wife does not like them she likes all the "pretty swimmy fish" this led to my experimentation with putting predetors in a reef, this was an acceptable solution to my wife.
my ultimate goal would be to have an octo roaming the reef, ive heard rumors of this happening but it seems to me unlikely, all those little reef fish would be to tempting

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I really appreciate it.

RC--I know just what you mean about your wife. I had a snowflake eel in my reef once, and everything was fine until he annihilated her little bangai cardinal right when we added it to the tank. After that, she absolutely hated the eel--and hates eels to this day. Oh well!

rc, awesome habitat you've got there!

My freshwater ray made a similar impact when it ate all the rummynose tetras!!!!

Has your wife developed a taste for eel since yours ate her fish?

Melissa

I'm wondering how the ray got the tetra? are they ambush predators?

Great Tank!!! I love the picture of the Neon Goby on the Eel! It's saying Nahnah can't get me!!! :mrgreen:

Carol

the rummies tend to sleep lying on the bottom of the tank and at night the ray would cruise along and suck them up, or pin them agaisnt the glass with its disc and then move them towards the mouth.. rattled through about 20 in a week or so!!!

now teh ray is gone and we have 10 happy rummies :)

it was pretty cool, the neon goby had his little cleaning station set up and anytime the eel would come through there the goby would clean him and the eal would stay still with his mouth open allowing the goby to do his thing, unfortunately the goby got what looked like a parasite and died not long after, i will soon get another

Melissa--nope, my wife still hates eel in any form, food or pet! ;)

Funny thing happened to us a year ago in Florida. We were walking down the street (near the ocean), and we found an eel writhing in the middle of the road. Odd, yes. I can only imagine a seagull caught it and dropped it. Anyhow, I threw it back. I could tell my wife would have preferred to keep walking. :bugout:

I have 2 mated clowns and a damsel in my tank. They are reminants of the original inhabitants. I got all of them out except those last 3 fish. At first the octo was freaked out. Everytime they "bolted" he would recoil. I have only had them 3-4 weeks, but now the octo doesnt even seem to care. They dont mess with him, and vice versa. I dont think this is the norm though. I'm still trying to get them out, but they dont want to leave I guess, as they hide with him when I stick a net in.

You could try ambushing them while they are feeding.