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Gulfsurfer101's step into cephs!

Joined
Mar 11, 2011
Messages
18
Recieved my first ceph and it's a dwarf. I had a fully cycled mr.aqua 12" cube that was going to be his home but upon bringing him home I realized this was not the best option and I need to rething my overflow desing before adding him in that tank for his own safety of getting sucked down into the sump. I removed the choice peices of LR I wanted and thought would make for the best jungle gym set up for a young and easily bored ceph and transferred them into a 5.5 aga along with sand and water from original tank. I've been testing waters daily and pulled it off with out a hitch. My equipment for the tank is weak at best but do have plans to upgrade very soon. I'm using an aquaclear30 with a hulf unit of chemipure-elite and a k-1 for better surface agitation, and self cut acrylic top locked in place by my ac30. I have pics and will load them through the day.
 
My 5.5 with 2g wc's every week or as needed,
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My two dwarfs looking into two very different worlds!
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Coming out to explore,
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octopic3020.jpg

He's a voracious eater,
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I plan on ditching the K-1 as soon as I'm able to get a small hob skimmer in place.
 
Welcome to TONMO!

I'm guessing female (although the mercs don't always carry their third arm to the right curled) and at that size the heavy eating may mean she will brood before too long. O. mercatoris is a large egg species so it is viable to raise a few of the young (but not easy). I do wish you would consider upgrading to at least a 10 gallon and preferably a 15 (I change 5 gallons a week when keeping mercs in a 15). Water purity is only part of the reason for the suggestion. Octopuses need more oxygen than fish and a 5.5 gallon is not likely to provide enough air exchange. If I am correct about her sex and eating indications, you will need a much larger tank to have any chance with the hatchlings. Both my broods started in a 40 and the ones transferred to the smaller 15 gallon were not moved until they were 5 months old. GHolland raised his broods in a smaller tank but I don't recall the size (it was, however, larger than 5 gallons). You might want to read through Greg's posts (there are forward links to the next generations on the original linked provided). My experiences start with Trapper and are also forward linked if you are interested in more reading (I, ummm, get a bit wordy :wink:)
 
I do have a 20t at my exposure but I don't feel that it's neccessarry, my water quality is fine, and I always have ro water on hand, lol. I'm not a newb, I've kept simialr tanks, larger eel tanks, scorpions, and pico reefs. If she does decide to brood and indeed the eggs are fertilized I will try and raise some young myself. I'm not too familiar with breeding though and if that may come around I'm hoping for this place to be one of hte best to get that information.
 
The 20 would be ideal for this species (even a tall as they will climb about the walls. If your hardware permits, drop the water level about 2 inches and you will have a good safety buffer for keeping it in the tank). Not so large as to lose it in the LR and plenty of swim and crawl space. If I am correct in my guess then you should be able to keep a couple in that sized tank but the 5.5 is almost a guaranteed failure (when I first started keeping mercs, I lost two using an 8 where my first one (kept simulataneously with the two that died) did well in a much larger tank - they NEED to be able to hide and can die from stress). If you can easily find an assortment of giant barnacles and can place it so a comfortablly sized shell is about 2-3 inches off the bottom substrate, the mercs will often take these for a den (the males will tend to move between dens where the females tend to find a den and keep it if they are comfortable) and you will have a nice opportunity to see it much of the time.
 
I might just be setting up the 20t today after I get home. My ceph has made a junlge gym out my ac30 and like's to rest in the area where the intake pump sits's underneath. Might just be a little warmer for him or completely dark enough for him. Any how it scares the crap out of me for him climbing into the intake pipe and getting chopped up to bits by the impellar. What I have in mind is my 20t with a false wall for chemical filtration and to hide away any equipment like heater, return pumps, ato, and skimmer. I should be able to get that done by the end of the week. I'll post as things progress or as a final product. I'm trying to keep this about the tank as much as possible as apposed to species but in the end it should make for a good species tank and very cost effective by utilizing spare equipment I have aquired over the years in the hobby.
 
The false wall sumps work relatively well BUT lighting it if you can will be helpful in keeping her out of the nice dark area it provides (mercs in particular seem to climb into the nano sumps). Pump intakes are a definite problem and covering it with a sponge is recommended while you are creating another environment. One of my hatchling briareus lived in the return pipe from my sump until he was to large to comfortably fit through the holes :roll: but there was no impeller to worry about.
 
It seems to have past it's interest in the filter and has remained in the tank as of lately. I still have the ac30 lid taped down so it doesn't escape out of the top. I did travel to the beach this last weekend and found a few small crabs in some sargassum that was washing ashore along with two blenny looking fish, sargassum angler about a 1/4" long(very tiny, smaller than a finernail), tons of sargassum shrimp, various snails, and hermits that are size suited for him and a few yellow nudibranches that I thought would make for a tasty treat. In the last two nights he has decimated the fish and shrimps. Out of maybe 30 tiny sargasumm shrimp about a dozen remain. Both blenny's are nowhere to be seen, the tiny sargassum angler is still clinging around and probably has helped in the shrimp decimation and is doing his best at not gettin eaten so far. The snails are the luckiest so far as they will serve as the only food he will need till I get back home next weekend to pull of a water change and fill up my ato.
 
The sargassum is worrysome even though it is tiny. If it does not bother the octopus and try for an arm, it still may find the eggs and octo fry would definitely not survive. They are not fearful of things bigger than they are. I had two tiny ones from in a plankton tow and the next day there was only one (I was trying to find out what they were before deciding where to put them or I would not have kept them together).
 
:welcome: so glad you joined :biggrin2:

I kept my merc in a tank w/false wall sump. (actually all my tanks are set up this way) I covered the overflow with a rigid plastic mesh I found at Michaels. The holes were too small for escape yet large enough not to get clogged easily. We made a slot it slid into out of (red, all we had on hand) plexi. Here is the best photo I have that shows the overflow. I loved this setup, it worked wonderfully.

 
I haven' had time since I just returned from a 12 day work trip. I should have some more time on my hands this weekend and see what I can come up with. I have seen it out and looks to be pretty healthy. There are still a few sargassum shrimp and snails along with the tiny angler I caught so that is a good sign that he didn't go hungry while I was away.
 
Things haven't changed much in this tank since I left it two weeks ago other than a 50%wc. I don't have time to set up the 20t and my philosphy is if it aint broke, so with the lid over the 5.5 I get almost noexistent evap levels and mwater chemistry was not very different than when I left. I did notice some gha of some kind from letting the water get a little dirty whie I was away but a few more wild caught hermits should knock that stuff right out before meeting their demise. I'm still quite amazed to see a few snails and shrimp are still in here with him so there's no rush to run off to the beach to go collect some lunch just yet which is nice to not worry about for a few more days.
 
Did you put the lid on recently, or has it been on for a while? If recently, watch out for low oxygen levels (and/or high CO2 levels which will lead to low PH). If you're getting very little evaporation, it's likely that you're also getting very little gas exchange, and octopus are particularly vulnerable to low oxygen.
 
No the lids been on since day1, and it has 3/8" size holes drilled at both ends of the tank for propper gas exchange. I'm thinking about combing the beach this weekend to see what I find out there. I'd like to get a vid of it taking on a small crab or fish and post somewhere on here.
 

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