I have such a problem! I have a 30 gallon tank that has been maturing for over 3 months prepared for a bimac (because octopets said that they can be kept nicely in a 25-55gallon tank), and now looking at all of these posts, you're saying that they need a 55 MINIMUM! Crap! Um, is it possible to keep a biareus in a 30? Oh, Lord! Please say yes! I can't afford a 55 and a filter for it! I'm only 16! NEED HELP!!!!! :(

How did you end up getting a briareus instead of a bimac?

There have been people who've kept them in a 30 gallon, but theirs remained small. Mabye these captive bred bimacs are staying smaller than our wild caught ones from the previous year. However, it will put more of a strain on your filtration, so you need a good set up and must have a protein skimmer. Also, what if your bimac did grow large - would a pet store or friend take it?

Briareus can be a fair sized octo, too. Also, it's hard to get a certain species if they're wild caught - might not be the one you order. Carol (corw314) has kept some smaller species, but she finds them at her local fish store.

DO NOT get a bimac and underfeed it when it's young - it's very important that it have plenty of food to get off to a healthy start.

Nancy

my tank setup is as follows:
Fluval 204 with extra biological filtration (rated for 40 gallon tanks)
30 pounds of marshal live rock
15 pounds live sand
5 pounds mineral mud
SeaClone 100 protein skimmer (rated for up to 100 gallons)
30 watt 50/50 light
cycled 3 1/2 months with damsel

Oh, and I haven't gotten an octopus yet, so there was no mixup in the bimac/briareus species, fluffysquid. sorry for any confusion!

...as for briareus, id keep it in a tank bigger than 30 gals too :)