i just bought a piece of mushroom coral and i happend to walk by the tank late at night and see him pick it up drag it by his den and use it to cover it... the mushroom coral cant hurt him right? he has taken my cleaning magnets and hid them i finally today got the big one which was hard for me to pull apart of all the rocks in the tank he could have used... is this normal for a octo?

I love it!!! Very normal for an octo!!! You are very lucky you have an octo thief!!! Mine uses a long spiral shell as the door to his cave. I don't think mushroom coral can hurt him, but not possative. Think anenomes are a problem. What did you name him? Any pics yet?

Carol

he didnt really use it this morning i found the mushroom coral on the bottom of the tank with 1 1/2 mushrooms left (there were 3) i think he just wanted to play with it i named him or her chewy the pics are on this site in the photo forum

Octis can be kleptos! One we had called Harry used to pinch the helping hand (we use these to pick up crab shells etc from the bottom of the tank with outdraining it!!!) One day I wa busy so I left him with it, he bit through the stainless steel peg that held it together :shock: I never did that again!!!

J

The green mushroom corals can cause some damage to the skin of an octo, but I have never heard of the brown variety doing so...most likely, they will have little effect on even a small octo, though.

greg

if it's fooling around with it, I don't think it will hurt the octo very much since animals tend to either stay away or glare at something that hurts it but cannot be attacked or defeated.