• 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.

First Time: Octopus keeper

Ok I got a setup question. If I have a big skimmer good enough for 100gallons and 44+ lbs of live rock and a power head aimed on that will that be enough for filtration? It'll just be a FOWLR system
 
The information I sent is in a Word document. You will need to save the document to your computer if you cannot open it directly in your email. You can get a free reader from Microsoft if you don't have Word or word is not working and you are using a PC. I don't have it in another format or available on-line.

So you said if I leave the light on 24/7 he'll come out at night and ill be able to see him
Not necessarily. This will give you the best chance of seeing it though. How often depends on the individual animal.

The hardware is fine. Mercs are not as messy as the larger animals but be sure your intakes are protected from exploring arms.
 
A lot of us make a red light out of a unit we already have. I found red plexiglass and cut it to fit. I doubled it (2 pieces) to make it darker. If you have a fixture with a screw-in bulb you can use a red bulb. I believe there may be red leds but these would be much more expensive. Just another note, I did try red celophane, the heat from the light melted it.
Intakes can be covered with plastic screen seccured with a plastic zip tie. This has worked well for me with O. briareus and O. Mercotoris, however my current Diablo O. vulgaris has removed them.
 
Ok cool! Will those pieces of plexi glass work for the tank tho? If I set them below the lights? And if I have to feed live because they won't go to frozen. What should I order for adults? Should I get fiddlers and random feeder crabs? And where are the cheapest places? I found sum offering lots or 10 for 14.95(good deal or not)? And will I just let them lose in the tank till they are caught and eaten or should I make a seperate tank for them? If I need a seperate tank Ill probly do crayfish since they can do well in a 10gal. And if I do marmokebs they will clone in there readily.
 
Here is a photo of my red light. I already had this fixture and happened to find the red plexiglass cheep.

DSCN0727.jpg


Most octopuses will take frozen, my merc accepted it right away. Feeding a variety is best, I feed a mixture of frozen and live, live food can get expensive unless you live close to the shore and collect your own. When you make your (octopus) purchase, you could check if the vendor sells feeder crabs, some do. There are threads that cover sources and keeping live food in the "sources of cephalopods and food thread". (as Dwhatley just stated) Very happy to answer your questions but you should :read: through the threads, you will find a lot of the information you seek. :smile:
 
Those crabs would be fine in your octopus tank. I noted my experience with them, same types of crabs but purchased from http://www.tomscaribbean.com/index.html Keep them with your octopus or in seperate tank if you prefer.
Several of us have used them, our experiences are in the section I directed you to in my last post. The crab pictured in the link is a decorator (they may be destructive to corals) and make great food.
 
Well Im doing mercs and i decided ill just have it set up with red lights and I may have purple barnacle for them to help make there caves. So I won't do corals but maybe on a different tank where the not nocturnal I may try corals.
 
fishy12;157544 said:
Ok thats what I was gonna get for it. I was gonna try to mix there diet too. But I found one site thats sells crabs http://www.ccritters.com/catalog/i203.html along with fiddlers and other crabs. Could I let them lose in the tank till they eat them or should I put one in every day or when the one in there dies?

Thats is where i get my crabs. I buy 12 at a time and just let them loose in the tank. So my little beastie can eat when he wants, but in addition i give him frozen shrimp every a couple time a week. I also give them Silversides sometime. Penelope my larger octo loves the Silversides.
 
How much does it cost for 12? Ill probably feed those like let them loose all 12 at once then feed shrimp and mussels when there are only 2 or 3 left
 

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