• 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.

help me, please

steve_d

Hatchling
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Jan 7, 2011
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Hello. I have only been in the saltwater hobby for about 3 months. I have succesfully built a 4 gallon finnex (includes fish, crustaceans, and 3 different corals).

I am getting a 29 gallon biocube in a week, and I want to know how I can modify it for a octopus. How do I keep it out of the outlfow? Also, can I use thin plastic mesh (for sewing pictures onto) to create good barriers for the overflows?(Shouldn't limit waterflow)

I am thinking about just putting this thin mesh in between the tank and hood and weighing it down.. Enough?

Lastly, I need to know the best possible octopus to get. I want the longest living species I can fit in a biocube 29... Any suggestions?
 
:welcome: to TONMO


Lastly, I need to know the best possible octopus to get. I want the longest living species I can fit in a biocube 29... Any suggestions?

Unfortunately a 29 is too small for most species of octopus except a dwarf species. Your best bet is too look for a O.mercatoris. Mercatoris are cool however, they are nocturnal and very sensitive to light, they will not come out of hiding unless the entire room is dark, and you have only dim red lights on the tank, Due to there light sensitivity and nocturnal behavior they are not the most interactive octopuses.


If you really want to keep an octopus I suggest a 55 gallon tank and trying to get either a O.Hummerlincki or A. Aculeatus. however this bring me to another important fact. Most suppliers have no idea about octopus or how to ID them, so in fact you never know what your going to get. There are a few vendors emerging that a learning to ID and ared becoming more reliable, Like Tom's Caribbean, Saltwaterfishes.com, and liveaqauria,com, but it is still a bit of a gamble.
 
CaptFish;170136 said:
:welcome: to TONMO

Unfortunately a 29 is too small for most species of octopus except a dwarf species. Your best bet is too look for a O.mercatoris. Mercatoris are cool however, they are nocturnal and very sensitive to light, they will not come out of hiding unless the entire room is dark, and you have only dim red lights on the tank, Due to there light sensitivity and nocturnal behavior they are not the most interactive octopuses.


If you really want to keep an octopus I suggest a 55 gallon tank and trying to get either a O.Hummerlincki or A. Aculeatus. however this bring me to another important fact. Most suppliers have no idea about octopus or how to ID them, so in fact you never know what your going to get. There are a few vendors emerging that a learning to ID and ared becoming more reliable, Like Tom's Caribbean, Saltwaterfishes.com, and liveaqauria,com, but it is still a bit of a gamble.

Oops, I should have specified that I was referring to a pygmy/dwarf octopus. I'm not too fond of keeping such an amazing creature in a tank too small for its own brain. Also, I would love to have. 55 or larger, but I am a college student and can only fit/afford the 29 (which I found an astoundind deal on, including sand, spare lights, stand, pwerhead and protein skimmer).

As far as companies go, and how hard it is to identify some species, all I can do is reasearch as much as I can to be sure I'm getting the right thing. The pet store I shop at is owned by marine biologist (I believe) and they know what they are talking about. They have over 3500 gallons of saltwater alone. Noting that, they still are not perfect so I better bring an octopus book with me while shopping
 
I better bring an octopus book with me while shopping
That will be hard to find and one with really good identity information does not exist. There is a very good introduction to ceph keeping written by two of our staff members that I will highly recommend, Cephalopods Octopuses and Cuttlefishes for the Home Aquarium by Nancy King and Colin Dunlop.

To get a bit of a feel for keeping an O. mercatoris (the only dwarf you are likely to find although we do occassionally see others) look at the top of Forums->Octopus Care->Journals and Photos for the stickies entitled List of Our Octopuses 20xx. We have had very few mercs this year so start with 2008 or 2009. All years contain the species and octopus keepers but the 2008 forward lists contain links to the journals. I also have a word document with some of my own notes I can send if you PM me your email address.
 
Pardon my intrusion but I found a great site for some mods for a 29g Biocube that you may be interested in.

I have 2 29g Biocubes myself, and was about to buy these mods, until I bought a new Red Sea Max 250 just yesterday.

I went to my LFS for some Ro/Di water and one of the staff, talked me into it, as well as 3 New baby Cuttles. As Dwhatley says I have MTS < Multi Tank Syndrome> but I plan on taking down the 29's once I have the 65 set up and cycled.

Just take your time, and do your research. It will completely pay off in the long run.

Just something I wanted to toss in here, just in case you would like to poke around these sites and look.

They have some videos on Youtube as well to teach you how to install these mods. It's really simple.


This link is for the 29g Biocube mods.

[URL="http://shop.mediabaskets.com/BioCube-29_c16.htm"]http://shop.mediabaskets.com/BioCube-29_c16.htm[/URL]


They also do other tanks styles and sizes like the Red Sea Max, JBJ Nano Cubes, Aquapods, and the Solana.


This is a link for a Single 10 watt light Halogen fountain light for tabletop fountains. IT IS SUBMERSIBLE! A very nice idea I think to help keep from tempting them to go in the back.

Fountain Pond Lights | Pond Fountain Lighting

I also suggest to put a sponge or screen modification on the filter slots, and clean them daily! I found some great plastic mesh screen at Lowe's for a few bucks, and we are going to modify a frame for it and stick it on my Red Sea Max 250 filtration vent. The only thing I'm trying to figure out now is the return flow nozzles.

I'm pondering a Hydor Flow.

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=11363

A GOOD Protein skimmer is also a must. I suggest a Tunze 9002. You can pick them up on eBay for about $100 bucks. I just bought 2 of them for mine. My friend at the LFS swears by these, and they fit perfectly in the back with the InTank Cup mod on that site.

http://www.tunze.com/149.html?&L=1&C=US&user_tunzeprod_pi1[predid]=-infoxunter050

Well thats just my 2 cents, if I can help in any way, please Pm me. I'll try to keep track of your post and see how your progress goes.

I would love to see your end result if you try these.

Ramie
QueenB
 

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