Cadre's 85g cephalopod build!

[DWhatley]

Waiting for thing like this is hard

A common cause of MTS. It is actually kind of fun cycling a new tank when you have others but not when it is the only one

 

[cadre]

Just to update, the tank is finishing up the cycle but I have been given some bad news. Apparently I am moving up north so I may have to give up my dreams of having a ceph tank (at least for now). School and all that fun stuff is taking priority so if we end up in a small apartment then I cannot keep a large tank. Regardless, I am not sure about keeping cephs when there's not a single lfs in town anymore. And now I don't get a discount on food. So I'm going to look at places to live next week and we'll go from there. Worst case is a downgrade to a 40 gallon, possibly smaller so I will still have a tank. Could also convert this to a reef since food would not be an issue then.

I'm off to read about food sources and mail delivery stuff!

 

[iAlex]

For Fiddlers/Shrimp a lot of people use Cannot connect to MySQL server

 

[cadre]

Alright, so after some debate the ceph project will continue. We got another octopus in at the store which may end up coming home with me if we do not find another home for it. I've already had a discussion with the manager about ordering octopuses just to have one on hand but I'm not in charge there so there's not much I can do. The tank is cycled, I still need to figure out a lid and a protein skimmer but I picked up a light from a friend (probably too bright but oh well) and I got some macros and corals in there.

FTS:

 

[iAlex]

Looks good. That octo doll made me

 

[cadre]

Thanks, the doll used to be in the tank but since I put water in it it's been on the top. Maybe I can use it to teach an octopus? Monkey see, monkey do.

Time to take some measurements and get lexan cut for the lid. I think I'm gonna use sponges to fill the gaps

The octopus we got in this week is tiny but I believe it's also an aculeatus as well. I haven't seen it much yet so hopefully it's okay. It appears to be eating our fiddlers though.

 

[DWhatley]

Small, shy and eating are GOOD signs! IME, healthy young octos keep themselves hidden and are not interactive until they reach about 5 months of age (give or take, I think it has more to do with sexual maturity than actual age).

Are you still moving? Since octo lives are short you may have time for one before you have to break it down. WAAAAY back, we could have aquariums but not dogs or cats in our first apartments but that may have all changed now.

 

[Joe-Ceph]

When I lived in the dorms at college the rule was that you could have an aquarium "up to 30 gallons." My roommate had a 125 gallon in the common room of our four room suite, but he got some small rub on letters and wrote "Aquarilux 30" on the lower left corner of the front of the tank. Neither the cleaning staff nor the RA ever made an issue of it, and we never had to get rid of it, so you might be able to do the same if you're willing to move the tank, and take a chance (It's better to ask forgiveness than permission?)

 

[ieatfalalfel]

Small, shy and eating are GOOD signs! IME, healthy young octos keep themselves hidden and are not interactive until they reach about 5 months of age (give or take, I think it has more to do with sexual maturity than actual age).

so if when my upcoming octopus is mature i interact with these little tentacles you slip over your fingers, it might try to mate with my hand!?

I hope i get as health an octo as you did cadre!

 

[DWhatley]

so if when my upcoming octopus is mature i interact with these little tentacles you slip over your fingers, it might try to mate with my hand!?

Interesting thought but I expect not. If you saw my mating videos, I don't know that you would keep your hand in the tank long enough to find out for fear of having it held captive for 4 or 5 hours though.

 

[ieatfalalfel]

The octopus would probably realize, oh, these are rubber and cold, and there is an arm attached, and no siphon. But it would be cool to see if he went for it.

 

[cadre]

Haha, that would be a little funny but I would hope octopuses would be intelligent enough not to fall for it.

As far as my situation, as of right now we will not be moving but that may still change. Schools for me and my husband are making things difficult. So I'm setting up the tank and pretending I'm not going to be moving. We'll see how well it works out.

On another note, the octo in my store is most definitely an aculeatus but no gender id yet. It came out yesterday and rested in between a few rocks but it didn't move around much and all it's arms stayed pretty curled. I cleaned out the critter keeper a bit and he/she seemed a bit interested in the tongs but more scared of my hands. We're making progress! But I mentioned buying this one and my manager wasn't too excited about the idea. I guess he wants to see if it sells first. Since my tank is fairly young and I don't have a skimmer yet I'll have to wait and see what happens

 

[ieatfalalfel]

who cares if he's happy, you get a freaking octopus!

 

[cadre]

Well, he's right that we can get another one pretty easily so if he can sell it to someone who has a tank where it will be happy then that's okay. I just don't want it to go to someone who has no idea what octopuses require.

In other news, I went by another lfs where I know everyone well yesterday. They pulled me into the back to show me a skelator eel they got (boring!) and a tiny little octopus. It was about the size of a quarter, looked like some of the photos I've seen of mercs and he was missing a few arms. I told them good luck keeping him in a jar in their display! I offered to take him if they can't sell him but one of the guys there wants him. Apparently cephs are all the rage in the valley now. Not really sure how I feel about that given some of the customers I know.

Also, I've been planning/mulling over a marine sleeve tattoo. My arm's much too small to have a coral reef with any details so I'm thinking maybe a kelp forest with a gpo and a great white. Not completely accurate but I'm open to ideas or artist suggestions!

My threads are always a mix of ten different topics. Haha