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Houdini my GPO

jsshark1

Blue Ring
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Aug 20, 2012
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Hi every one ,
This post will be about Houdini my GPO world..


I received Houdini my GPO from Coldwater Marine Aquatics that did a killer job getting to me , very well pack with a ice pack .

after getting him I put him in a 10 gal temp tank so I can keep a eye on him and also to give me some time to set up his 200 gal home . ( till he gets bigger then he will go into a 720gal tank ).

sorry pic of Houdini are not that good.
4 days and he is doing well I be leave, still has that nice red color and no burn marks , looks like he is ok with my water. very active at night. he has two crabs and shrimp to eat but he still has not eaten then.
 

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the 200 gal tank , it is taking a bit more time setting up then I thought, I will be using a turf filter system I read about ..... and a filter pad on the bottom .. :frown: I broke the screen I will have to make another one...
left input will come from pump and will supply water to the turf system the input on the right is from the over flow that will fall over the filter pad...
 

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Houdini is doing well, i had to look for him last light and he looks nice , I feed him live grass shrimp from the bait shop , they stay alive in with the 58deg water , found some parts of some of them this morning.
 
Eating is always a welcomed sign of acclimation. I've never kept any approaching this size but the next positive signs I look for with a new guy are accepting offered food and defending its environment when you clean, initially near the den and then the entire tank. Defending it's "home" is not necessarily aggressive but it can be. Assuming this one follows suit, you should see Houdini paying attention when you clean and perhaps a warning arm if you approach his den. Some animals will come fully out and "hover" over you while you clean, some will interfere with cleaning tools (to the point of making it difficult to clean without providing a distraction) others only make their presence known and watch. The few that seem aggressive may need special handling to avoid being bitten.
 
Houdini's 200 gal tank is up and running

up and running,



for the moment I am using a 175 MH I just had lying around but will down size later because of $$$ and heat .
I am only using two surfaces for filtration , i removed two of them . ( 12X12=144X2=288 ) so two will do for now

I do have a peace of glass covering the top for the splash and the hood also has a glass .I think the heat will not hit the water.
water and rocks are from the pond so they are well seasoned

not bad for my first turf filtration system with just using parts that are taking up space.. got to love it " see wife I told you I would use it one day .."....
 

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see wife I told you I would use it one day
:biggrin2: most of us have learned not to throw away WORKING used components but we get into trouble where to put them AND the pieces of the non-working ones that might be useful in the future ...

Monty once commented on a fix for a house pipe break that he we envious of people that had the necessary parts to fix something ... HE did not throw away ANYTHING but I don't think he knew what he had or where to find it :biggrin2:
 
thinking of going to the SF coast line at low tide on Sunday and find somethings to add to the tank ...

I would assume I could add rock with mussels and kelp ?...... was thinking of a small Blue/Green Anemone...
any problem that I should not ?
 
Collecting the rock may not be legal so check before you remove. You should (as long as you are not in a no touch zone) be able to collect mussels without the rock or attached to any unnatural substrate (again, check the rules for collecting). Use a separate temporary QT for the mussels for a couple of days. They can foul a tank pretty fast when they die. I have been quite successful with clams but not so much with other mollusks.

Anemones and other stinging coral are somewhat of a risk to the octos skin. Anything you put in an octopus tank should be placed where it is not likely to be crawling on a regular basis. Octopuses don't go around things :biggrin2:. The risk with octos and any stinging coral (assuming no size issues) is that a sting may create a surface for infection. They will learn to avoid animals in an out of the way place (not sure about "in the way") but consider the infection issue before you add. Leather corals and other corals that don't have a sting are recommended over some of the more attractive varieties.
 
thanks DWhatley, I will look into the aria I plan on going look for thing for the tank.

I am worried about the center over flow, wont a octopus going in it? I can not find any threads that say what is used to prevent a octopus from going in to the overflow :frown:
 
I am worried about the center over flow, wont a octopus going in it?

In a word, Yes. In a recent link, see Yeti's thread. So, what to do. I was careless with Yeti as I knew this was possible at this size but failed to think about it. This tank usually has larger octos and this particular overflow is not a problem but I have kept small ones in the tank and have octo proofed the overflow but simply forgot about size when I installed Yeti. The easiest and has been 100% successful for me is to place a course sponge behind the inlet "turrets". With my side overflows, this is not necessary for larger animals because the water level to the drain is a strong enough dissuasion but the little guys can stay wet. If the overflow has a bottom drain I would recommend always keeping a snug sponge over the first 4-6 inches (from the top) but have not found it necessary to have the sponge the full length (you will need something to support it so that it does not slide down but leaving the bottom section open helps with water flow). I have a hex tank with a center bottom overflow and keep a sponge in it with all octos, regardless of size since (it also keeps snails out of the drain line). The courser the sponge the better. This is not for filtration so you want it rough but allow as much water to pass through as possible. You will need to clean it regularly to be sure you don't cause a tank overflow. An additional dissuasion is the addition of a light over the overflow section as it is the nice dark box that usually attacks them.
 
I just found Houdini after putting him in Thursday evening and having a Micky mouse to make the over flow safe but i found a small gap Friday morning ... thanks DFhatley I had the filter pad on the outside making the top of the tank water dirty. I have put them on the in side so that he has no room to get passed and now his tank is safe for him and the top water is clean..
 
LOL, I just realized that your tank is a much larger version of the hex tank I mentioned (it originally had a sort of similar filtration system inside the tank - called a plenum system if I remember correctly - that we opted to change. We lowered the overflow and moved it to the back - you can do interesting things with acrylic that you can't do with glass :biggrin2:). I do recommend using a sponge over a filter pad though as you are risking overflowing the tank if the filter gets blocked where a course sponge will block less easily and the feel of the sponge will help keep arms from investigating (some aquariums will use astro turf along the upper walls for the same purpose). Initially I ran the sponge the whole length of the overflow but found that it blocked the exit tube too easily and kept debris from getting to the filter. Now I only keep about 6" of sponge at the top and support it from underneath so that it stays high. It still has to be cleaned and I keep several to swap out but found that keeping a sponge just below the "turrets" also avoided letting unwanted larger critters getting into the drain line.
 
Glad to see he is doing well :smile: There are no better cephalopod resources on the net than here on TONMO.

We are going to bring our other little GPO to ReefaPalooza down in Costa Mesa this October if we still have it :smile:
 
Houdini in a glass

pictures of Houdini being moved into his tank...
I was a bit worried . Houdini moved over the night and I have not been able to find him. but I found another crab eaten over the night so he should be ok ,
 

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we did a family outing to the beach, did not find a tide pool so no crabs but the hole beach had a line of fresh sea weed and other plans that was loose and washed up on the beach. most had roots with a small rock I could not pay for better peaces for a tank.
I have for the moment I have a 250MH, had problem with the heat the first day but as you can see I worked it out till i make a custom light fixture with low heat lighting, have a wave maker going side to side in the back of the tank.
 

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