Hi all, need help please

jack-knife;163165 said:
So what kind of things do you guys put in your tanks to clean up the mess the octos leave? The only thing that has not been eaten so far is the starfish.
:sly:
I've learned a lot about what local animals make good clean up crew, and tank mates, in the past two years with my bimacs, and almost nothing is written about it, so maybe I can save you some time, and grief:
Clean up crew:
Brittle stars are great, and super easy to find under rocks at low tide. The octopus ignores them.
Little snails are good at keeping the algae down, and while the octopus will probably eat them eventually, they are so small and hard to eat, that eating them will be your bimac's way of saying "you should feed me a little more often". A well fed bimac will leave little snails alone for many months.
Avoid chestnut cowries. When the octopus tries to eat it an amazing thing will happen, the cowrie, as a defense, will start producing huge amounts of thick slime. I had a one inch long cowrie convert about two quarts of tank water into slime so thick that it plugged 90% of my overflow and made a huge mess in my tank. I think a fully grown cowrie would have completely clogged my overflow, causing a flood, and a burned out return pump. No cowries!
Red Rock Shrimp can be found under rocks at low tide, and surprisingly, are good at not being eaten. Again, you'll get many months out of them.
I would avoid the more carnivorous sea stars, but a bat star is okay. A large one will need to be fed a lot, and will produce a lot of waste, but a small one is great at eating algae, detritus, and food particles.
After you get a larger tank, you can put an aggregating anemone on a rock in the corner. The worry is that the octopus will get stung, and could get their skin damaged, but I theorized that since the anemone in question lives naturally near the octopus in question, they've probably learned to cope. My bimac did pull back it's arm when it touched the anemone, but I never noticed any injury, and it just didn't seem like a big deal.
 
Thanks, I did not know that! If thats the case i would put him up for addoption on here insted. Where do i find craig, I am aware of the copper issue and make sure to only buy new tanks of ones from people i trust so i know what has been used in them. I find that a lot of people have used copper and it's a bummer that people dont know how harmfull it it is. O i will for sure give the scallops a try, Thanks!

Joe-Ceph;163177 said:
Yikes! Please don't ever release anything that has been in your tank, back into the wild. non-native pests, diseases, or parasites can be brought in on store bought food, live rock, etc., and any animal you release could infect the wild population (California abalone were devastated by "withering foot" disease that way). It's not worth risking the health (lives) of wild populations just to save the life of one animal (or to protect your own feelings). Your animals, and your feelings, need to be prepared to "take one for the team", and protect wild populations by never going back to the wild.
 
cool, good advice. So do you have any tide pools you would sugest? I have been poking around them for a while and have yet to find any shirmp, brittle stars or stuff like that. I mostly find hermit crabs, crabs, the comon stars and stuff like that. So do you know of a good place to go in la?
 
Bimacs tend to be diurnal, so if yours hides when you're around, it's probably because he's still freaked out from being abducted by aliens. In a few weeks, and with regular stick feeding from you, it will probably get comfortable and come out a lot more during the day. If you feed them about the same time of day, I think they will tend to be active around that time consistently. I would guess that unless your main lights are super bright, you won't need to use moon lights to coax your octopus to come out. I think a lot of it is based on the octopus's personality. My first bimac would come out whenever we were in the room, and seemed to like to watch TV with us. The one I have now likes to peek out from behind a rock, and only come out for a total of a couple hours per day. He was older when I caught him, so maybe that has something to do with it. I just have a 10K fluorescent light on a timer set to be on when I'm home in the evenings.
 
I have been trying to find it but I can't, somewhere Roy Caldwell had advised against the moon lights. I'll keep looking for the post I think it was fairly recent.

I have used them with O.briareus, A.aculeatus, O.hummelincki, and O.vulgaris. My Aculeatus used to perch right where the light was brightest. I did not use them for O.mercatoris as they are extremely sensitive to light.
 
That one should be OK as long as you place it to one end. Diurnals need to SLEEP at night so be sure to leave a denning area completely dark.
 
dwhatley;163284 said:
That one should be OK as long as you place it to one end. Diurnals need to SLEEP at night so be sure to leave a denning area completely dark.

Diurnals? I have a bimac, im sorry but what is a Diurnals? Pardon my lack of knowledge.
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top