are octopi difficult or like so many animals are they simple but a few things that are over looked can kill them?

where is the both option, or c all of the above :)

funny thing i voted for the one i didnt want. i was gonna say difficult. thats why theres only one for mis..

I said that they're misunderstood, but they aren't exactly easy to keep either.

I voted for C. :)

I imagine they'd be difficult if you didn't understand them! :)

I guess it seems real difficult due to the amount of work required to set up the tank, but if you take it a step at a time, it isn't too hard. Once the tank is up, running and stabilised, only a little maintainance once in a while would be required.

I think a lot of it is the irresponsibility of impulse buyers. "The guy that buys the blue ring at the store and throws it in the 10 gallon with his Nemo's." 90% of people who do the research are succesful. And the other 10% just happen to have got an octopus that was "difficult" :lol:

Looks like we have only 10 out of 90% here :? How did you get the statistics John? :)

Very intense scientific research...that's how! :wink:

Yes they're hard to keep compared to damsels and clowns and triggers and the like. But a lot of things are considered difficult like seahorses, corals, and others, but people can be succesful with them.
They are also misunderstood but thats probably because most people don't take the time to try to learn about them. And a lot of people are scared off from them by unknowledgable lfs's and unsuccessful owners.

Seahorses difficult? :lol:

I have to say corals are tough. I guess it also depends on how much one is willing to spend on whatever they plan to keep.

Maybe not captive bred seahorses. I used to keep seahorses back in the day and they were wild caught. I had to keep another tank running with a constant source of wild food. And you couldn't just feed them brine shrimp because they would get sick of it and it had no nutritional value. Maybe someday I'll get some captive bred ponies and train them to eat goldfish flake food. 8)

Ghost shrimp in the other tank or pods?

I raised the brine shrimp in the other tank. I would go out weekly and buy or catch pods, little grass shrimp, little blood worms, tiny baby mollies and other stuff to supplement their diet. They still ate more "sea monkies" than anything else.

Maybe not captive bred seahorses. I used to keep seahorses back in the day and they were wild caught. I had to keep another tank running with a constant source of wild food. And you couldn't just feed them brine shrimp because they would get sick of it and it had no nutritional value. Maybe someday I'll get some captive bred ponies and train them to eat goldfish flake food. 8)

My cousin is quite ahead of you on that :wink:

I got 2 wild caughts to take enriched frozen brine shrimp, but it was painstaking as I had to feed them individually on a tweezer.Captive breds are way easy. They come the moment I put my hand in the tank and also cling on to it.

Sweet. Got pix? :)

Sadly no, the only pic I got is of a yellow H.reidi ( brazillian seahorse) That shows it when it had eye infection. It's eye was quite bloated up, it doesn't really look too good so I'd rather decline.

I have both, captive bred and wild-caught seahorses, in separate tanks. Enriched frozen mysis is the preferred food source for seahorses. Captive bred horses are already trained to eat frozen when you get them. I have 2 of my 5 wild-caughts eating frozen mysis now. A couple of them will snick frozen brine but as Sideways mentioned, they are not nutritional enough. So I buy a couple hundred ghost shrimp a week to feed my horses and Ashi.
Here's a pic of my wild-caughts.

Spring

nice pic!

Sure is! :D

Sweet. 8)
I just have dwarfs (about 20 in my 20 gallon, just had babies) , I feed them live BBS; I never see them eat it but they do stick their heads into the sea lettuce and chow on something.

:nofeet:

Are those horses H.Reidi and Babouri ( or Histrix)? They look lovely, getting wild caughts to eat frozen food is quite a pain.

Great picture!! NJ wild caught are so feisty! I am able to get them to eat frozen prawn. There used to be alot in the wild, but due to collectors, their population has dwindled down so you only see them every now and then. It's sad as they have such great personalities!

Carol

im a little late chiming in but ive been keeping reef tanks for a while before trying octopus and i have to say, the octo is incredibly easy, you basically just feed it and interact with it, i would consider them easy for anyone who understands aquarium chemistry, my reef is much more of a pain

That's probably because you have more things to please and keep alive. :)

rc nice reef, I totally agree. After you have a complete understanding (and love for the hobby) an octo is easy, and quite interactive compard to corals!!! :lol:

I have a reef too :)

Most cephs, apart from those like the mimic and wonderpus are surprisingly easy to keep. Wow I like the tank,was it custom made?

no, it is made by all glass, its a 92g corner tank, its got to flat sides and then one large peice of curved glass connecteing those two making a pie shape, the curved glass makes it diffucult to get a good pic of the whole tank at once.
the more i look at that tank the more i think of how cool an octo would be in there creeping around on all the rock, but my wife would kill me, thats has all her little swimy fish

Not to mention your corals in there, could hurt an octo. I can't believe thats a 92. I thought from the pic it was a 46 corner. Wow you have some big corals in there then. :)

Size references are hard to judge sometimes, but after knowing thats a 92, I can imagine a few of those piece are nice size, like the xenia on the left!

that is a very nice peice, its like a big bush, there are actually two different types of xenia on there (you cant tell from the fuzy pic) i took that pic not to long after the lights came on, thats why you really dont see any fish, i cant remeber what the thread was about but i had previously posted a pic of the eel in there with a neon goby on his head