octopus food

**clownfish** · Jun 10, '05, 8:02pm

I was wondering if you could keep your live food in the octopus tank and just have the octopus when he is hungry eat some food?

**corw314** · Jun 10, '05, 9:14pm

When they are new I like to have a few food choices in with them so they can eat as needed. As they adjust, once the stocked food is gone, I find they start hunting and associate us with the food. I keep a 15 gal run by a Aquaclear 500 as my feeder tank.

**Colin** · Jun 12, '05, 3:16am

One reason not to keep feeders in there full time is because they will increase the bioload on the filters and if for some reasons they died they can pollute a tank quickly.

**corw314** · Jun 12, '05, 7:50pm

This was our collecting today. Should last about 2 weeks.

**sneegs** · Jun 13, '05, 3:12am

Hi Carol,
If this many crabs will last you about two weeks, I was just wondering how frequently do you feed and how many at each feeding?

**nini** · Jun 20, '05, 5:55pm

would feeding octos goldfish be a good idea?
how much do they eat?

**Jean** · Jun 20, '05, 6:09pm

Originally Posted by nini

would feeding octos goldfish be a good idea?
how much do they eat?

NO!! Goldfish are too fatty (as are all freshwater fish!) plus if the fish has been treated with copper it will kill your octi!

Crabs, shrimp, clams etc are the BEST food for an octi!

J

**nini** · Jun 20, '05, 6:27pm

thank u jean

**cthulhu77** · Jun 20, '05, 6:54pm

"pets or meat"

yep, stick with saltwater animals for saltwater octos...now, if you had a freshwater octo, you would have no problem.

greg

**nini** · Jun 20, '05, 7:02pm

is there such thing as a freshwater octo?

**Nancy** · Jun 20, '05, 8:08pm

Hi nini,

Greg is joking. We had a big discussion of this some time ago. There are freshwater versions of many saltwater species - shrimp and lobster, for instance. Yet there are no freshwater octopuses....too bad!

Nancy

**Mizu** · Jun 21, '05, 8:28am

Odd
Megas is existing off an almost completly freshwater Crayfish diet.
every third day or so i make him eat a thawed shrimp but thats about it
i catch the crayfish right out of the creeks near where i live.
Megas actually ate one that was 4 times his size or so. it was very interesting to watch Megas tactics.
and Megas is getting BIG hes grown a lot and like i said on and almost exclusive freshwater Crayfish diet.

**nini** · Jun 21, '05, 5:20pm

cool, sounds like a great diet to pick up on
thanx mizu

**clownfish** · Jun 22, '05, 1:08pm

no not may octopus will flurish on that diet you realy should feed saltwater diet.

**Nancy** · Jun 22, '05, 1:23pm

I don't think you'd want to risk the possible long-term effects of feeding freshwater creatures to an octopus whose natural diet is crustaceans and other animals found in the ocean. Jean mentions that freshwater animals contain too much fat for an octopus.

Octos seem to enjoy crawfish and an occasional one probably won't hurt - the crawfish move fast and the octopus enjoys hunting. If the crawfish do manage to hide, they won't live more than a couple of hours. Be careful to remove the uneaten parts as soon as possible.

Nancy

**Jean** · Jun 22, '05, 10:19pm

Plus the fw animals could have parasites that the marine critters are not set up to deal with (it happens!)

Good rule of thumb.....if you have an exclusively marine animal like an octopus it should be fed marine food. (and visa versa for freshwater critters) There are nutrients and trace elements etc that these animals can ONLY get from a natural diet.

Cheers

J