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does anyone on tonmo have a giant pacific octopus?
- Thread starter fishkid6692
- Start date
I have kept giant Pacific octopuses as a course of my research. First of all, having kept them, I had a 750 gallon tank. That tank was a bit small and had I kept the octopuses for more than two months each I would have wanted to put them in a larger tank. Secondly, you will need to get a collection permit from the state or province from which you are collecting them. In Washington state, where I have collected, they are touchy even for scientific collection, so it will likely even be more interesting to convincing them to let you collect one as a pet. GPOs are "game fish" in most of their range with makes governmental organizations less likely to let people capture them to keep as pets.
A well fed GPO will easily be an 8-foot, 60lb animal before it dies. Keep that in mind.
A well fed GPO will easily be an 8-foot, 60lb animal before it dies. Keep that in mind.
Note that most biological things scale as the cube of the length, so if a one foot bimac needs a 55gal tank to be comfortable, an 8 foot GPO needs 512 x 55gal, which is a 28160gal tank. It will also need around 512 times as much food (maybe a bit less because of lower metabolism)
just some back-of-the-envelope things to keep in mind.
I'm actually surprised they did OK in 750gal tanks. Was that a flow-through seawater system?
just some back-of-the-envelope things to keep in mind.
I'm actually surprised they did OK in 750gal tanks. Was that a flow-through seawater system?
Yup, it was a flow-through seawater, with high enough flow to essentially exchange all the water each hour. 750gal was indeed small, and I wouldn't recommend that small of a tank for anything other than short term holding (a month or two at the most). The last GPO I held was about 7' arm tip to arm tip and 48lb male. He could touch sides of the tank (long ways, about 7' apart) if he stretched out. It was indeed small.
That being said, metabolism actually increases more slowly than other parameters such as weight. Mass-specific volume actually goes down with increasing size by about the 3/4 (or 2/3, depending on who you believe) power. A GPO will produce considerably less wastes and require less O2 than a rubescens or bimac pound-for-pound. I still however wouldn't suggest a 750gal as a life-long pet GPO home.
That being said, metabolism actually increases more slowly than other parameters such as weight. Mass-specific volume actually goes down with increasing size by about the 3/4 (or 2/3, depending on who you believe) power. A GPO will produce considerably less wastes and require less O2 than a rubescens or bimac pound-for-pound. I still however wouldn't suggest a 750gal as a life-long pet GPO home.
I just consulted with Roland Anderson's (the Seattle Aquarium's Puget Sound biologist) "Octopus dofleini and O. rubescens: animal husbandry" in Workshop on the fishery and market potential of octopus in Califonia in which he says the aquarium uses GPO display tanks of 1100L (about 300gal) in which they have kept octopuses up to 18kg (about 40lbs). That being said they use seawater flow-through as well and as such water parameters are kept pristine and at temperature below 13C (about 55F). He also mentions that the Cleveland aquarium has a 1900L display tank that is part of a 9500L closed system in which it has kept GPOs up to 39kg.
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2008
- Messages
- 254
ok nvm lol i was thinking 500g. way too big for me. i really like there color though. maybe i will just get a giant cuttle tank! i was going to make it a reef but my smaller tank got rapid tissue necrosis and i am giving up on corals after loosing about a thousand dollars worth of it. and i will downsize a bit. maybe a 265g. how many cuttles can i keep in a 265g? i love bandensis but i may consider other cuttles. any ideas? thanks!
Then you are still new to reefs yeah? 
There is always some kind of cycle when you move tanks.
I generally recommend 'if you can keep a reef, you can keep a ceph' because fish and corals are better 'learning' animals than cephs.
How many cuttles you could keep in a 265 depends on the species of cuttle.
There is always some kind of cycle when you move tanks. I generally recommend 'if you can keep a reef, you can keep a ceph' because fish and corals are better 'learning' animals than cephs.
How many cuttles you could keep in a 265 depends on the species of cuttle.
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2008
- Messages
- 254
well my sps was doing fine so i don't think it was my tank. and i know that there was going to be some cycle but not a big one. i am almost positive that RTN was spread from a coral that i bought from someone. i have kept 2 cephs so far and i believe that i have cared for them the right way so far. i cycle my ceph tanks longer than my reef tanks though. i was thinking about bandensis cuttles for the 265g. and maybe try to breed them.