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finally decided on cyanea.

simple

Vampyroteuthis
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Ok i know i've been switching a lot between what octopus i want and stuff, but i think i finally found the perfect one. I want to get a cyanea, I already contacted someone in hawaii that can get me one for a relatively low price and they are diurnal and outgoing, as well as have great coloration, and i wont need a chiller. I will set my 110 gallon tank up on Sunday, i just want to know if anyone has had any past experiences with these. Any special requirements? will it interact with me? is 110 gallons fine for it?
 
Cyanea is a neat species. Care will be similar to Bimacs excluding temperature. I believe O. Cyanea gets larger than a Bimac so a stronger lid and bigger/more food items should be offered. Should be interactive.

Shoot be a PM with your supplier, please (if possible). I'd like to know where to get one for next time I need an octo.
 
I was told that a 110 gallon would be fine with a vulgaris which reaches about three feet, and the cyanea gets to that same size as well, so why would the cyanea not work? I will have a skimmer thats meant for 210 gallons as well as a wet/ dry filter, canister filter and a small hang on back filter, with 100lbs of live rock, so i doubt that the bio load produced would be an issue (i will also do weekly water changes). The octopus would also have no other livestock in the tank with him, so he will be the only inhabitant..Please tell my why cyanea wouldnt work and vulgaris would, so i could change my plans, and look for an alternate option.
Thanks
 
simple;103450 said:
I was told that a 110 gallon would be fine with a vulgaris which reaches about three feet

I don' know if I'd keep a vulgaris in a 110. Honestly, if my bimac had grown bigger I think he would have been a little cramped in my 75.
 
O. cyanea would be miserable in 110 gallons. These animals roam 10 - 50 meters + on a given foraging bout. Plus, keeping up with its voracious appetite would be a challenge to say the least. It's true- cyanea is an amazing animal- and you could make an escape proof lid, and feed it pounds of seafood a week- but whether you should requires serious thought. Also- it's against the law in Hawaii to take a cyanea smaller than 1 lb, unless you have a research permit (and if your friend did, then it would be against the law for him/her to send it to you). These are very large, smart animals. Keeping one is a major decision.
 
i live about 3 miles from the ocean (in miami, florida) so i would have access to a lot of crabs and such, i could make the lid escape proof as well and he should be fairly entertained, since the tank will be in my room and i have already gotten legos and other safe toys that i plan on giving it. The reason i want cyanea so much is the fact that its diurnal, and i cant pay for a chiller for a bimac, briareus aren't very diurnal, i can't find anyone with filosus and i don't want to take my chances buying online form a dealer that says the have "assorted octopus," in other words i have no idea what i would be getting. I have a big asm skimmer for up to 200 gallons as well as a large overflow with bioballs, and then another wet/dry filter with bioballs in the sump that leads to a large canister filter before going back into the tank..So with the right entertainment (toys, bottles,etc.) several hiding places (100lbs live rock), a strong escape proof tank, a lot of filtration, as well as food being available all the time would the cyanea be fine or would he still become miserable?
 
For what it's worth, I've never heard anyone complain that briareus is too nocturnal, shy, or non-interactive. They may be primarily nocturnal in the wild, but they seem to adapt to life with humans pretty well, so ruling them out purely on the nocturnal label seems like jumping the gun. Heck, cats are pretty nocturnal by nature, too, but they make pretty good pets and interact during the day. There is definitely a scale, it's not just "nocturnal or not"-- there are some dwarf octos that will only venture out if they think it's quite dark, and they are very shy. Most larger octos are not so picky about the light levels, even if they may be more likely to hunt at night in their natural environments. Bimacs don't even seem to come out much in their natural environments during the middle of the day; they're around some at dusk (and maybe dawn) and marinebio_guy told me they're actually pretty night-active in the wild. Most bimac and briareus owners report that the octo will adapt its schedule to yours (in particular, when you feed it) which doesn't seem to be true of the dwarf species so much. I'm not sure about other species, it seems like the larger they get the more likely they are to be adaptable in this way.
 
yea i was thinking briareus, but cyanea still amzes me a lot more with the fact that their so good at changing colors and the white spots make them look quite beatiful even when their in neutral mode, but i wont get a cyanea just for my pleasure w/ out considering its happiness so my question is, would it be happy with proper care? or should i just forget about getting a cyanea?
 
You've got some really great friends here who are steering you toward briareus, and with good reason. I think you could make one a lot happier than you could make a cyanea.
 
People who have studied adults have kept them in large saltwater pools and ponds. While they have been housed temporarily in 1.5 cubic meter flow-through seawater tanks (not sure how many gallons that adds up to), this was not enough space for them in the long term. They outgrew these tanks and the owners let them go. Unfortunately you don't have that option in Miami. O. cyanea are fast-growing and very active animals that - unlike E. dofleini that can handle captivity- don't typically do well in small spaces for very long. It would be like trying to keep a Labrador in a small studio apartment. If I had to venture a guess, I would say one could get by long-term in a ten foot diameter tank....maybe.
 

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