Hi everyone.
I've been a long time reefer and member of the Boston Reefers, but decided to get out of coral reefkeeping. Recreating the warm, shallow, high light, high flow reef in NH just took too much electricity for me to feel good about it any more among other things. I had had a large, brightly lit tank on a very large system to keep H. magnifica anemones and handle their occasional spawning (dilution and skimming).
So, that leaves me with a setup that I think would be really good for a cephelopod. We have a 120 display connected to a large amount of water (650 gallons more or less) in the basement. That is a 180 refugium, a 100 sump with a great skimmer and a 425g water reservoir to add volume. The basement stays ~65 all year round, so with slow flow upstairs the tank should be around 68-70 year round. I could tweek the flow and other things to move that temp up or down a little.
So, my question is, what species would work well in here? We are considering both octopus or cuttlefish. I'm leaning towards octo and hubby likes cuttles, so we can be convinced either way very easilly. I'm getting a little overwhelmed trying to sort out all of the species and their requirements.
On our recent vacation to Aruba I got to follow an awesome octopus for several minutes (~10 inch head and maybe 16" arms) It did several color and texture changes and even swam mimicing a fish with two stripes when other divers startled it. I also got to watch a tiny cuttle (3/4 inch about) swimming in the open water at about 15 feet (40 foot bottom) curious little thing hovered there watching me for a minute or two, but he unfortunately inked and shot away when I moved too fast. Needless to say, I have a love for these critters.
Being able to try to breed them would be gravy. We could partition the display and or keep potential mates in the refugium or the 425 holding tank if we aren't working with a mated female. I have experience with the breeding of clowns, B. cardinals, and seahorses but I am not yet up to speed on cephelopods.
So, what species would you guys recommend me starting to look into for this setup? What would you do in my place? Do I have much of a choice, or is it generally a crapshoot with "assorted octopus" at the LFS and hope they at least get carribean or pacific correct?
Thanks for any help.
I've been a long time reefer and member of the Boston Reefers, but decided to get out of coral reefkeeping. Recreating the warm, shallow, high light, high flow reef in NH just took too much electricity for me to feel good about it any more among other things. I had had a large, brightly lit tank on a very large system to keep H. magnifica anemones and handle their occasional spawning (dilution and skimming).
So, that leaves me with a setup that I think would be really good for a cephelopod. We have a 120 display connected to a large amount of water (650 gallons more or less) in the basement. That is a 180 refugium, a 100 sump with a great skimmer and a 425g water reservoir to add volume. The basement stays ~65 all year round, so with slow flow upstairs the tank should be around 68-70 year round. I could tweek the flow and other things to move that temp up or down a little.
So, my question is, what species would work well in here? We are considering both octopus or cuttlefish. I'm leaning towards octo and hubby likes cuttles, so we can be convinced either way very easilly. I'm getting a little overwhelmed trying to sort out all of the species and their requirements.
On our recent vacation to Aruba I got to follow an awesome octopus for several minutes (~10 inch head and maybe 16" arms) It did several color and texture changes and even swam mimicing a fish with two stripes when other divers startled it. I also got to watch a tiny cuttle (3/4 inch about) swimming in the open water at about 15 feet (40 foot bottom) curious little thing hovered there watching me for a minute or two, but he unfortunately inked and shot away when I moved too fast. Needless to say, I have a love for these critters.
Being able to try to breed them would be gravy. We could partition the display and or keep potential mates in the refugium or the 425 holding tank if we aren't working with a mated female. I have experience with the breeding of clowns, B. cardinals, and seahorses but I am not yet up to speed on cephelopods.
So, what species would you guys recommend me starting to look into for this setup? What would you do in my place? Do I have much of a choice, or is it generally a crapshoot with "assorted octopus" at the LFS and hope they at least get carribean or pacific correct?
Thanks for any help.