can i feed my octo live oysters

Lol, definately. I forgot how Oysters behave though if your talking...giving it to them whole. Otherwise, their still alive if you give them the oyster without its shell.

i would jut split it open alive and give it to him

i would jut split it open alive and give it to him

Ya, then that works. I just caught loads of mussels at the shore. Im going again this whole week and collecting whatever I can like sea shells and rocks for the octopus tank. I also caught a moon jellyfish which are common and its in my tank. Im getting rid of it though as soon as the octopus arrives.

I just bought raw shrimp today and have been trying to feed it to the new octopus, but it wont accept that either. It pushes it away like it did with the small crabs. I guess I should try hermit crabs now. Kinda suprised its not eating crabs or shrimp.

I just happened to find a source for live mussels, shipping included:

Maine Bait (http://www.mainebait.com/mussels.html)

Today I just tried feeding my octopus a clam, different species of raw shrimp and squid...it won't accept either. Lol, very picky. I also bought a live crab, bit its huge and im going to have to kill it and feed it to it peice by peice. I just dont want to kill it.

Today I just tried feeding my octopus a clam, different species of raw shrimp and squid...it won't accept either. Lol, very picky. I also bought a live crab, bit its huge and im going to have to kill it and feed it to it peice by peice. I just dont want to kill it.

You could try just taking the claws off (it doesn't kill the crab) and see if the octopus could handle it. How many times bigger is the crab than the octopus's mantle?

You could try just taking the claws off (it doesn't kill the crab) and see if the octopus could handle it. How many times bigger is the crab than the octopus's mantle?

The octopuses mantle is about an inch or so long. The crab is about 7 inches across, but I just killed the crab. I tore off leg peices and the octopus is just touching it, but isn't eating yet. Should I try giving it the claws instead?

So far...the octopus won't accept things it should be eating. It wont eat frozen raw shrimp, fresh raw shrimp, clams, oysters, squid...or even blue crab which I bought live and killed. I think it's kinda odd and I wouldn't think it just feeds on hermit crabs.

The blue crab is twice the size of the octo, but even dead it wont touch it. I thought octopuses sometimes attack things larger than itself. Im gonna have to just go with hermits now. However, I really dont like the idea of feeding it 1type of food. Mabye my octopus is super picky.

Don't the claws have a lot of meat? You might try those. If you've just killed it, put some of the crab into the freezer to try later.

Nancy

Armstrong, why don't you go to the places where Carol hunts for octo food and find some hermit crabs? They'd be the best food for your octopus right now. Don't bother with the other types of food - crabs will suffice.

Nancy

Armstrong, why don't you go to the places where Carol hunts for octo food and find some hermit crabs? They'd be the best food for your octopus right now. Don't bother with the other types of food - crabs will suffice.

Nancy

Ya, Im going to have to do that this week. In inlets like these, their's bound to be a lot of stuff washed ashore. But im going to stick to hermits for now cuz thats what Tom said he fed most of them. He also told me they may not eat for 1 month, but it'll be ok. I just hope its not that long.

my local bait shop sells saltwater grass shrimp at 12.00 a pound. thats about 150 2 inch long shrimp. he loves them and they are easy on the wallet.

Are thoes shrimp frozen??

What would a good diet for o. mercatoris be?

The same as for larger octopuses, only smaller crabs, smaller pieces of shrimp.

Nancy

Ok, but I don't have a local bait shop, so where could I get food?

I get my live food from aquaculturestore.com, they sell shore shrimp and fiddler crabs.

Ok, thanks. So for a merc, I should feed about a few shrimp and/or crabs a week, right? Would a system like this work?

Monday: 2 crabs
Tuesday: 1 shrimp
Wednesday: nothing
Thursday: 1 crab
Friday: 2 shrimp
Saturday: 1 crab, 1 shrimp
Sunday: nothing

Your octopus will not overeat. It would be better to feed him every day and see how much he wants. He might not need two shrimps, for instance. Crabs should be his favorite food.

Nancy

Ok, so just feed him till he's done? Works for me.

Just be sure to remove the leftover parts of the crab or shrimp - you can leave the live ones!

Nancy

Ok, daily feedings, clean up afterwards. Got it

i've heard feeding octos goldfish is a no-no...but can anyone tell me exactly why?

i'm thinking maybe that's why my octo died. i had perfect water parameters (even checked by my LFS for accuracy) and fed him daily, gave him plenty of hiding places, etc.

maybe the goldfish?

i've heard feeding octos goldfish is a no-no...but can anyone tell me exactly why?

i'm thinking maybe that's why my octo died. i had perfect water parameters (even checked by my LFS for accuracy) and fed him daily, gave him plenty of hiding places, etc.

maybe the goldfish?

It's possible. FW fish (and to some extent FW crustaceans) have the wrong ratio's of fat and protein for marine critters. A good rule of thumb is to feed marine species to marine species and FW to FW. Also if that fish had been treated with copper or had been in a tank that had been treated with copper that would've been fatal too.

Sorry about your octi :angelpus:

How long had you had him? Octopus don't live long and it may simply have reached the end of it's life expectancy.

J

Can anyone tell me what ways that i can try to get my Octo to eat cocktail shrimp or other frozen foods that i could select from the grocery store. I tried to feed him a shrimp (thawed) I just droped it in the tank near him & he grabed it & tasted it for a while but then i found the shrimp a little later. I also trie it on a feeding stick & to give to him by hand. I am not sure if he just dont like it or do i need to build him up to eating it. Or is there anything else that most octo's like to eat that isnt going to cost so much.

I have been feeding him crayfish & he eats those in 10 seconds. But those are costing me $3 USA each. I live in Indiana so it is winter time & i can go to a creek & just catch them myself If any people can give me any helpful tips would be great.

I also have another questen. How can you tell if an octo is blind or idf its eyes are closed. My octo swims around for hours but it never looks like its eyes are open & it seems to ignore everyone & every thing. Wehn i put a crayfish in the tank the octo acts like it never even sees it & takes the crayfish when it happens to brush one of its arms & then it just grabe it & bring it to its mouth. Here is a picture of it & this is the way its eyes looks all of the time.

well, i found out about his eyes & that it is just they way they are. & saw other pictures with octos like that.

I've read through all the posts here but am still unsure of something. Any kind of crab where I live will be $$$. But I have an endless supply of freshwater crayfish. Will they be a good food source??

:welcome: to TONMO!

The general recommendation is to avoid feeding freshwater animals to cephs, since although cephs like them and will be happy to eat them, they don't have the correct nutritional balance to keep them healthy long-term.

Thanks for the welcome and the reply. My intentions were to use crayfish as a daily meal, with frozen food as a side dish, and a live crab maybe a couple times a week. I'm new to saltwater tanks, let alone ceph care, but have been planning and researching for a few months.

Thanks for the welcome and the reply. My intentions were to use crayfish as a daily meal, with frozen food as a side dish, and a live crab maybe a couple times a week. I'm new to saltwater tanks, let alone ceph care, but have been planning and researching for a few months.

I'm less of an expert than some around here, but I suspect that may still be out of balance. Here's a post from Jean on her views:

http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showpost.php?p=88650&postcount=8

but hopefully she'll chime in on whether that's balanced enough. There have been people who fed primarily freshwater shrimp or crayfish to their octos, but I think the general belief is that it was bad for the longterm health of the animals, even though it was not immediately deadly or anything... it's probably safest to use the crayfish as an occasional treat or an emergency food if you can't get marine crustaceans for some reason, but not to make the freshwater ones a major part of the diet. Also, note that some cephs will never accept frozen food, although a lot will, but it's not always good to count on it, you could get a fickle octopus who insists on live food!

I keep hearing this about not giving freshwater stuff to octo too often... Does anyone have a hard reference for this? It would be of great help to me research...

i got my octo on anything i tell him to eat! ive had it for a little over a week and he is tank raised so im sure that helps. he eats live blue legged hermit crabs, frozen silversides, frozen krill, live crayfish, live saltwater ghost shrimp, and attempts to catch my damsel fish thats been in there but never succeeds (anyone know why? it looks like the perfect sized meal). i just ordered a shipment of fiddler crabs from http://www.aquaculturestore.com/index.html and im glad i seen it in an earlier post because i see that being important for the future to have access to that site. one question though...whats the best way to keep the fiddler crabs once they arrive? i know its not good to throw them in the main tank all at once and i know they live on the beach so should i just do a half water have sand tank to keep good quantities of them alive?

Chiming in! :welcome:

FW critters have the wrong balance of nutrients for a ceph to be on long tern (it would be like us living on a diet of only sweets, tasty but not good for us!) In particular the ratio of protein to fat is off. A diet comprising solely of FW crays with marine on the side will lead to malnutrition, increased susceptibility to disease and a shortened lifespan (and they're already short enough). You can try scallops, mussels and clams (marine ones of course) some octis will take them. But be prepared to have a large outlay in live marine crabs, at least while the octopus is young, some can be weaned onto frozen marine, with live (& FW) as a treat (BTW feeder goldfish are out too!).

As for his eyes, perfectly normal, octopus have a horizontal slit pupil, that often looks closed, it's not!

Cheers

Jean

Do you have a reference for the marine vs. freshwater and its affect on octo nutrition, Jean?

:P I'm a dietary manager... I have to know this kind of junk for humans!! I just have to put it towards my future ceph now.

one question though...whats the best way to keep the fiddler crabs once they arrive? i know its not good to throw them in the main tank all at once and i know they live on the beach so should i just do a half water have sand tank to keep good quantities of them alive?

This is being discussed over at this thread, check it out:

http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9255

it comes up pretty often in general, so if your questions aren't answered there, you could try a forum search for fiddlers to read about various folks' setups for crab-keeping (or just ask over on that thread, just to keep stuff in one place!)

I have an octopus set up in a tank at my school. Is it possible to feed it on weekdays, give it a little extra on Friday so I don't need to feed it during the weekend? Can it survive being fed 5 days a week? Thanks

If you are feeding live food just put in a little extra over the weekend. Hopefully you have something that can clean up the leftovers because the octo probably going to leave some behind, which will decrease the quality of your water. Even if you feed frozen, throw in a couple crabs/shrimp/snails that the octo could hunt for if he gets hungry while you're gone.

Snails, hermits, pieces of silversides, raw shrimp pieces. The usual.

Mine is on a diet of hermits and snails right now although he is pretty small... I hope to go to the beach and catch some sargassum shrimp and sargassum crabs/fish soon b/c
Im affraid that the hermit and snail diet wont be very nutritional for him.

Hello all

My Bimac is eating boatloads of snails (Margarita) and a little frozen with selcon. And once in a while some hermits and mythrix. My question is "Are any snails more nutritious than others for my octo?"

Would these work for a baby bimac? about the size of a nickel? http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=1768&parent_category=4&category_search=63&root_parent_id=4

Would these work for a baby bimac? about the size of a nickel? http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=1768&parent_category=4&category_search=63&root_parent_id=4

You can get a better price at aquaculturestore.com. He sells 100 marine shrimp for $42.95 with free shipping.

are they small enough for a baby that size?

actually it looks like he has mysids that are up to 1/4 inch that would probably work better..

Thanks!!

are they small enough for a baby that size?

actually it looks like he has mysids that are up to 1/4 inch that would probably work better..

Thanks!!

You might want to try both. Mysids are cannabalistic so they don't last very long. You could also ask Paul Sachs (the owner) to try and ship you some small shrimp.

Rob,

http://www.livebrineshrimp.com/ (about mid-way down the page) is the cheapest place I find shrimp. If you add a note to your payment that you want the smallest they have, Mike (well, maybe his bookkeeper, Phyllis) is very good about noticing such comments.

Paul Sachs as referenced by Cuttlegirl is also receptive to size requests for fiddler crabs and has the best prices for them, his shrimp are more expensive but a great backup.

I would recommend using FROZEN Cyclop-eeze over the live mysid. A hundred + dollar order won't last long (maybe a week) and you can't be sure they are eating them.

Great, tyvm dwhatley. I will be checking them out-looking for all my options.

I am feeding Doc Oc, my O. Briareus, a combo of shrimp, crabs and small fish.
Primarily he feeds on one shrimp (3"-4") each night. Once a week, I will through in a crab or a small fish for a treat, he accepts them all without preference and leaves little behind. As long as it is alive, he makes short work of it...

I have tried dead shrimp, and he rejected it...

i give mine thawed shrimp, but there are two live shrimp in his tank that she always attempt to catch but never can. Does anyone else's octopus have trouble catching shrimp?

When she was young, my bimac had a tough time with the little shore shrimp, which move very quickly. It was some months before she figured out a technique for catching them - she waited until night, turned black (!) and hung out upside down on the water's surface near the overflow. Her method was quite effective!

Nancy

My Mercs now ignore the shore shrimp swiming in their tanks. I tried killing the shrimp and hand feeding and that has worked for several months but last week Neal just handed Sisturus a live one and he gladly took it so we have been hand feeding live. It is curious since Sisty would hunt them in the breeder net even when the others would only catch them from their dens. Once in an open tank, however, my shrimp count does not decrease even when it looks like they can easily be caught since I have seen both Sisty and Medusa flick them away.

hello everyone i am teacher of a small highschool and we have started a 55gl tank for a octopus in the school with live rock, a sump, coral, lighting, snails, and so on.We have do not have the bimac yet. we have also started breeding malies (freashwater fish dont know how to spell it though) for food that have been Acclimated to salt water and are doing good. we wanted to see the octopus eat the malies for part of our experiments and maybe a crayfish to see how it hunts and eats, but at the same time i dont know if thats a great idea. help please

i think they are spelled mollies but im not sure. Anyways, i dont think most corals would do well in the type of lighting that octopuses like (low lighting) and vice versa, and bimacs also like colder temperatures so keeping corals might not be the best idea. They also tend to move "stuff" around in their tank, and this would include corals. Besides that, everything seems good. Also be sure that the liverock in the tank is at least 3 months old so it can manage the amount of waste an octopus produces.

lemon,
Fish are not the best food for your octopus and it may ignore them. Freshwater anything is not going to keep it healthy (snacking is considered OK). In stead of the crayfish, choose a small crabs, instead of your mollies, shore shrimp, frozen uncooked shrimp or if you must breed and use fish, use either silver sides (available frozen but not sure about live) or possibly sailfin mollies (which will breed easily but will eat their young so they have to be monitored) that are at least a brackish water fish and should be closer to the desired fat percentages (this is guessing and someone else may have actual data). Crabs and shrimp are your best bet to be able to see them eat for your observation but remember that they take the food up into their web so you will be limited as to what you can see. My most active Mercatoris (nocturnal pygmy) will take a small live shore shrimp from my fingers when he is on the glass with his beak facing me but it still disappears from view while he is sucking out the meat.

You might also consider Bandensis cuttlefish for your tank instead of an octopus. They are easier to observe eating (you will definitely need live shore shrimp). They would fit your environment much better and are not an escape concern (low lighting is still a requirement if you want to observe them though). If this is of interest try scanning the cuttlefish forum.

anyone know what bait shops use to get their crabs? if i could get a hold of someone who does wholesale, i'd be happy to try setting up a shipping business for as low $ as possible for all my tonmo friends

i have a question, I am setting up my 55gal Bimac tank and was wondering if i should set up a small cheep tank from Petsmart for some fiddlers and other food. If so, what size of tank and what types of filters should i use for the crabs, snails, and shrimp? Im looking to keep it as cheap as possible seeing as i just spent a ton of $ on a large tank.

My food tank is a 15 gal run by an airpump and bubble filter.

i just use a 10 gal... and it is only half way full so the fiddlers can get out of the water

For my fiddlers, I use a 2 gallon, split in half with a plexiglass divider with a small nano filter and a piece of lava rock on each side. The division is used to keep the smaller ones on one side and the larger on the other as well as to keep from fouling the entire tank if one dies. The lava rock is set against the divider so that if they crawl out, it is into the other side. It may be a bit of over kill but I lost a couple of crabs before doing this and now I never find dead ones.

My shrimp are in two 10 gallons (I buy 500 at a time) with hang on, cascading filters and a net over the intake. I change out the water and filter with each new shipment (roughly once a month - sometimes I am lazy and change the water every other shipment) and only top off with fresh water in between. I use Poly-Filters in the overflow which may help some with my laziness but they are probably over-kill (and expensive) for the shrimp. I have an overhead (not on the tank) regular light fixture mounted about 2 feet over the tanks (they are under a stairway) but I have noticed that they seem to do best if I keep the lights off as much as possible.

I feed both tanks a little Cyclop-eeze every couple of days and have very little maintenance.

So I haven't done very much searching through this thread but just thought everybody might like to know that mussels and snails also make great octo food. i feed my octo a variety of foods including shrimp, hermit crabs, shore crabs, mussels, snails, and topsmelt and out of all of them he loves the mussels the most so if you live close to the ocean you might want to pick up some mussels from your local reef, your octo will truly appreciate it!

I've talked (via email) to a couple of people about trying to ship barnacles or some other similar small food for my Mercatoris' but no one thinks they will survive shipping. I did find some reasonably priced clams at

http://www.livebrineshrimp.com (my primary shore shrimp supplier)

but they were way too big to even be of interest to the Mercs. Of the six I purchased and now use as substrate cleaners, only one has died in the roughly 4 months I have had them so they may be a good idea for the larger octos (hopefully I will get the opportunity to find out next week ;>).

Marineboy, how large are the mussels and what's the size of your octopus? Does it drill the mussels?

Nancy

i have tried mussels with mine and he doesnt really like them... i still have one in the feeder tank...

Well my octo is about 8" in length from the length of one tentacle to the other and a out an 1" long mantle. I always broke the mussels open and then fed them to him because when I just left them in the tank he wouldn't touch them.

And the mussels that I left in there were about 4"-5" in case you were interested Nancy.

i'm getting a baby octo soon and it's about 3-4" what should i feed it?

i'm getting a baby octo soon and it's about 3-4" what should i feed it?

The answer is in this thread if you would read it from the first page. :grad:

i read the first page but what is a good website to get baby clams and crabs off of?

Try aquaculturestore.com, they have a variety of feeders.

My aculaetus (I think) seems to just like frozen scallops. I have put damsels. frozen silversides, and fresh frozen shrimp in there, and he just throws it back at me. He will however, try to rip the feeding stick from your fingers with frozen scallops.

I have introduced an octopus to a tank with several fish, a bunch of snails, a starfish, and a hermit crab. I think the octopus is too small to eat most of the other animals now, but is there any danger (to the octopus) in leaving the other animals in there until he's big enough to eat them all?

depends a bit on what species the starfish and fish are.

J

:welcome: to TONMO. Sometimes the fish might be a danger to the octo, as well... we've had a number of reports of damsels attacking the octo's eyes, in particular. Although sometimes octos get along OK with other critters, most of the time, one or the other ends up as lunch, and even if not, sometimes the octo is stressed out and hides all the time.

I feed my O.J's live mysid shrimps,limpets,common shore shrimp,and the occaisional blue leg that gets in the way.At the moment we have a 100 of the little buggers ,all well fed and living in little clam shells and mama is still alive and well,so maybe we'll get another season out of her with any luck.

:welcome: to TONMO. Is O.J. Octopus joubini? I'd be surprised if you had viable babies from that species, since they're small-egged... is it possible it's a large-egged mercatoris, since they're very similar? Or am I guessing wrong what O.J. means?

Dwhatley's threads (regarding her mercatoris Trapper and her 2 generations of babies) show a lot of pics of mercs at various ages for comparison.

the eggs themselves were about 1/2 of a centimetre in length -mini tampon with eyes as the kids call them,I looked at the merc. pictures,and mine does not look like those ones.Here is what my octo's look like and I watched them hatch over two and a half weeks time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6mtZSzYeM0

Is this a video of your baby octopuses hatching or ones that look like them?

Nancy

I think this joubini/mercatoris issue has come up before, and it's not clear what, if any, the authoritative answer is.

According to Nesis Cephalopods of the World, they're the same species and have eggs 6-8mm long.

According to Norman Cephalopods: A World Guide, joubini "...females lay small eggs which would hatch into planktonic young. This species is often confused with a similar large-egg species which co-occurs in the same region." Why he doesn't name this other species is not clear, we've assumed it to be mercatoris, which is not mentioned by name in Norman's book.

The FAO Cephalopods of the World guide only lists joubini, not mercatoris, and says the eggs are 10mm long.

This PDF newsletter (http://www.sdafs.org/FLAFS/PDF/jul-04.pdf) summarizes the claims, and points to a 1990 article:

Prior to 1990, Octopus joubini (Robson, 1929) was believed to be the only resident pygmy octopus species within the Gulf of Mexico. Closer investigation by Forsythe and Toll (1990), however, revealed that the Gulf of Mexico pygmy octopus population is actually comprised of two distinct species, Octopus joubini, and a second, similar species that is either a synonym of Octopus mercatoris or a previously undescribed species. While both octopuses are morphologically similar, egg size, fecundity, hatchling type, and habitat preference vary markedly (Forsythe and To
ll, 1990).

(...)

Forsythe, J.W., R.B. Toll. 1991. Clarification of the western Atlantic Ocean pygmy octopus complex: the identity and life history of (Octopus joubini) (Cephalopoda: Octopodinae). Bulletin of Marine Science. 49(1-2):88-97.

I don't have online access to this journal, and the article isn't in cephbase, though, it appears that it's not available elsewhere online (via google scholar.) Google did find that it's been mentioned before on TONMO...

Anyway, by TONMO made-up nomenclature, pygmies from around Florida that lay large eggs are called mercs and the ones that lay small eggs are called joubini, but it sounds like we inherited a lot of confusion from the actual professional octopodiatrists' taxonomic debates. (Or maybe it's settled; Nesis and the FAO guide version that covers octopods predate the 1990 paper, and from the PDF newsletter, it sounds like the 1990 paper says "maybe mercatoris, maybe an unnamed species" which could explain why Norman's 2003 book just says "a similar large-egg species" and doesn't give a name.

In any case, I'm sure we'd love to hear more about your octo experiences, whatever it may be!

I don't think his octo is Merc/Joubini. The mantle and webbing are way to big and there is too much light in the tank for the activity. A Merc/Joubini would have difficulty holding one large crab at a time - at 11 + months mine are just now comfortable with one medium one. The purple tips along the suckers, mantle, webbing and arm length, thickness around the upper arms look very much like Octane (Hummelincki) but the color, smoothness of skin while hunting, missing eye spot and eggs size say otherwise.

Is OJ nocturnal? Have you a clue where she came from (ocean and/or geographic area?)

Scratch that - The octo opening the jar is Vulgaris, the babies are Mer/Joubini. Do you have any pictures of your actual octopus and/or her babies?

Still tryin to get the camera workin,an update though the mama octo is no more -she died yesterday having reared over 100 hundred babies ,out of them there are still 76-has them seperated now.Stickums made the jar of fame -they really enjoy live mysid,and limpits because they are small along with all the other little shrimps that came in on rock months ago -cleaned the fluvalve out for those-haha,one other thing I tried and they seem to like it is minced frozen cod.

Paul Sachs fiddler crabs every other day, fresh scallops or Ecuadorian shrimp I get weekly from my GF's dads fish store as a staple.

Sounds like you need to work hard to keep that GF :sagrin:

Believe me, sometimes thats all the keeps this relationship going! Hope she never goes on this site ;)

i was just unsure do the octopuses leave the hermits shell when they eat them and is going to a fish store and buying all difrent kinds of human seafood ok for a octopus or are they treated with things that are deadly?Is feeding thawed mysis shrimp ok?

i was just unsure do the octopuses leave the hermits shell when they eat them and is going to a fish store and buying all difrent kinds of human seafood ok for a octopus or are they treated with things that are deadly?Is feeding thawed mysis shrimp ok?

Yes they leave the shell, and yes you can feed raw shrimp and such from the grocery store.

One observational note about the raw/frozen shrimp. Some of the fresh shrimp sold at the grocery are actually thawed frozen (many will now say "previously frozen" somewhere in the display). If you have a fish or international market that is convenient, I recommend trying that for the chance at the freshest. We have noticed that some of the raw shrimp we have bought turns pink when thawed and Octane won't eat it. After mulling about for an explanation, we wonder if they might put lemon juice on them at the store which will "cook" the shrimp.

is feeding diffrent kinds of hermits,diffrent kinds of snails,fiddlers,thawed shrimp,the occasional blue leg enough variety? do i need more? less? more shrimp? more crab?I just want to know if my feeding schedule is ok..

Hello everyone, I am new at Tonmo :)
My questions are: what size hermits to feed the octopus? The size of their mantle? A little bit smaller/larger? Actually, how can I determine what is a good size of any crab?
My octopus (I got him last week on Monday) has not touched any of the dwarf blue-tips in his tank. Their actual bodies are about 1/2 inch long. Should I go for a larger species? Doctor Octopus has a mantle that is just over an inch long with legs about 6 inches from tip to tip. Still not sure of the species, though. He was supposed to be a Dwarf, and Animal Mother thinks he may be a Briareus.
I do have some fiddlers on the way from aquaculturestore.com, but hermits would suit my budget better.
Thanks for any input fellow octopus owners.

Hello everyone, I am new at Tonmo :)
My questions are: what size hermits to feed the octopus? The size of their mantle? A little bit smaller/larger? Actually, how can I determine what is a good size of any crab?
My octopus (I got him last week on Monday) has not touched any of the dwarf blue-tips in his tank. Their actual bodies are about 1/2 inch long. Should I go for a larger species? Doctor Octopus has a mantle that is just over an inch long with legs about 6 inches from tip to tip. Still not sure of the species, though. He was supposed to be a Dwarf, and Animal Mother thinks he may be a Briareus.
I do have some fiddlers on the way from aquaculturestore.com, but hermits would suit my budget better.
Thanks for any input fellow octopus owners.

:welcome: to TONMO!

I'm not sure on size, and some octos are just picky eaters. If you haven't already, make sure that the water's OK as well, since that can sometimes throw off on octo's appetite.

If you can, posting a picture over in "ID requests" would help a lot in guessing the species, although if AM has seen it in person he's probably right... and probably more likely to give you a good answer on food size than I am, anyway.

I posted pictures and he likened it to the briareus he has now, even though the colors are different. Mine is more of a reddish brown. There are some pictures in my albums I would appreciate any opinions.
And I know what you mean about picky eater, sheesh. If there was caviar for octopuses I'm sure that is all Doctor Octopus would want to eat.
Thanks for the welcome! :heee:

I forgot to say that my water parameters are perfect-o. That was my 1st worry so I have been testing every other day since the arrival, just in case :/.

i have an inlimited supply of FREE fresh seafood at my disposal.clams,mussels,crab meat,lobsters,shrimp,scollops,etc.etc.et c.OCTO HUSBANDRY as far as feeding shouldnt be a problem for me...what do you think?

:welcome: to TONMO!

Fresh seafood sounds promising, but keep in mind that some octos will only eat live food, and others can be pretty picky, so you shouldn't count on being able to feed non-live food, particularly at first. If the octo is willing to eat it, a lot of that sounds fine: marine crustaceans and molluscs are a fine diet for an octo, but having a source for appropriately sized live crabs, clams, etc, is important in case you get a very picky octo.

For some reason the LFS gave us some squid. My octopus loved it. I thought that it shouldn't be a staple diet so it was more like a treat.

That was daily.:smile:

:hmm:will a octopus feed on a clean up crew? thats the closest thing I have to fiddler crabs in my area. is there a way to breed live food for a octopus.

:hmm:will a octopus feed on a clean up crew? thats the closest thing I have to fiddler crabs in my area. is there a way to breed live food for a octopus.

Yes they will most likely eat the cleanup crew. You can order fiddler crabs online. A lot of us that don't have access to the ocean use www.aquaculturestore.com for live fiddlers and shore shrimp as they are fairly priced and always good service.

Never heard of anyone breeding their own food for an octopus. Mine ate the hitchhiker stomatella snails until it outgrew them. They breed quickly but they won't suffice long term.

Do octopuses eat any kind of worm? Just wondering.

My octo is very picky. She will only eat crayfish. She wont touch snails or hermit crabs. But she will devour a crayfish larger than her in less than 20 mins.