• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Bimac care?

Its really hard too do. It depends on what your going to feed your octo and where you get the food from. It also depends on how much food that particular octo eats.

Cheapest route is most likely frozen shrimp. to be safe figure on at least one a day for a larger octo maybe two or three a day...How much can you buy 30,60, and 90 shrimp for? This will be your approx monthly price.


Now if you get a reclusive or shy octo that wont take frozen food from you then its going to be expensive. You will have to buy live food online and have it shipped to you, Like fiddler crabs.
But still I cant really give you an exact number.
 
Well, actually you gave me what I wanted. A rough figure of HOW ON EARTH I'd figure out how much to feed them. Also, shouldn't I vary the diet a little? With what? Thanks for the time you've spent answering my posts!
 
Octopus Food Suggestions

Also being inland (GA does have a coast line but not where I live) I have had to be creative with feeding. Our top choice is to go to the Asian markets when they have live blue crab and scavenge the tanks for loose claws. Whole live crab does not freeze well but the claws do so we get as many as we can when they are in season and freeze them. Larger animals can eat the full crab but the tank suffers badly and we only feed the claws (the shells need to be removed daily to minimize pollution).

Raw shrimp is our second choice, virtually all raw shrimp will have been frozen for most of us but the shell on seems to be less dehydrated. We have also noticed that newly introduced animals will take shell on shrimp more easily than peeled shrimp. Once they become accustomed to being stick fed, the shell seems to lose its importance.

Live clams (from the food market) can be placed in the tank and act as a minor clean-up crew until eaten. Other mollasks can be introduced but tend to be very messy and require changing excessive water if they die or after being messily consumed. I prefer to let the clams sit overnight in a bucket of tank water to both ensure that they are going to survive and to remove contaminants.

Occasional crawfish are well received. These can be fed live (be sure it is caught and eaten as it will not survive long in saltwater) or tails removed and frozen. These are freshwater animals so the fat concentrations are not optimal for daily feeding but are sufficient for a change of diet.

Any kind of small crab is alway accepted (fiddlers are available via mail order). Small live shrimp (also available mail order) are difficult to catch and can be placed in the aquarium for clean-up before they become snacks but are not suitable for regular feedings. They can be freshly killed and offered on a stick but are only viable as food for smaller animals (very young or dwarfs).
 
Please note that Zyan was dealing with hatchlings and he had over 600 gallons of water flowing through these tanks (several 100 gallong tanks interconnected). When you have hatchlings, you have to work around housing them until you can find proper homes. Most of Zyans found homes with new pet keepers either through TONMO or through local pet stores. Virtually all TONMO recorded attempts of non-sibbling mutli-octo tanks have resulted in the loss of one or both animals in a very short time.

Not to soap box but please state your keeping experience when you provide others with suggestions. It is fine to suggest but the reader should be aware of your level of expertise and if you are making conjecture or speaking from experience (not reading).
 
DWhatley;192224 said:
Virtually all TONMO recorded attempts of non-sibbling mutli-octo tanks have resulted in the loss of one or both animals in a very short time.

Thanks for letting me know. :smile:

DWhatley;192224 said:
Not to soap box but please state your keeping experience when you provide others with suggestions. It is fine to suggest but the reader should be aware of your level of expertise and if you are making conjecture or speaking from experience (not reading).

I think this is a good idea. Just so I don't get my hopes up and try anything stupid that kills them that could've been prevented. Thanks D and everyone else for posting all these wonderful replys. I have learned a lot and will NOT keep more than 1 in a tank. I appreciate you all taking the time to reply.
 
Yes, a 75 gallon would be large enough. However, keep in mind that locating a bimac is very, very difficult. I try to advise setting up an "octopus" tank sized for the general population of what is normally available and not a tank for specific species of octopus. Octopuses only live for about a year and you will not likely get a new hatch (nor is this particularly desirable). Hopefully, you plan to keep the tank functional for longer than the life of the first animal as it takes as long to establish a tank as the likely life of its first inhabitant.

A 75 gallon tank meets these requirements nicely. A chiller will be needed for a bimac but there are several Caribbean species that are warm water animals and easier to find. Adding a chiller to the tank is not a show stopper for housing a Caribbean (not adding one for a bimac is) but it is expensive to both own and to run. Keeping a tank below 65 does limit the inverts you might want to add to keep the tank interesting and most won't survive alternating warm and cold water species (some will tolerate a 70 - 80 degree range but not thrive).

While you are tank shopping, I highly recommend looking for a drilled tank and sump set up vs a single tank. Also keep in mind you want a no fish tank if you are buying used. If it held fish, you need to ensure that the fish were never treated with copper. Copper medications are known to leave enough residual traces to be lethal. A tank set up used for a reef environment is your best bet that copper was never introduced as it is also a problem for other inverts but always ask. A primary tank with a large sump provides the benefits of increased water volume, a non-display place for your skimmer and filtration and makes maintenance and octoproofing the tank much easier.
 
What would be a suitable replacement for a bimac if I can't find one. Criteria: easy to locate and available for the most part, has to have a personality, approximately the same size as a bimac (no dwarfs or small ones but no HUGE ones either. try to keep it bout medium since the bimac is a medium sized octopus.), and, last but not least, MUST be able to thrive in a 75 gallon tank. I want the replacement to be as low cost to buy and maintain as possible within these criteria. THANKS!
 
Why does it look like O. briareus is all webbing and no arms - if you know what I mean? It has a lot of webbing and doesn't seem to have that long of arms. :/
 
O. briareus has very long arms, the longest of the ones we keep. The webbing is a bonus display and is used to capture small animals on the rock but most times you will not see it fully deployed.

We keep a linked list of the octos with journals in the sticky at the top of the Journals and photos section. The species is listed and the name of the animal is a link back to the journal. This should help seeing the personalities and looks of the various species.

An alternate that has been hard to come by but several have shown up recently is the Caribbean O. hummelincki (sometimes called filosus). It looks much like a bimac but is slightly smaller (occasionally a lot smaller but in general, only slightly smaller). If you can obtain a male, they have decent longevity (age when caught dependent of course, as with all the octopuses we keep, life is short). Females are a bit more problematic as they are often caught just prior to laying eggs. Both Carol and I are keeping one at the moment (see the mentioned list for links) and both are very personable.
 

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