• 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.

I want to buy an octo

Joined
Aug 27, 2008
Messages
28
Hey everyone, ive always been interested in cephalopods and ive been making some money so i think its time that i buy one. I have a 20 gallon tank and i just need to know how to set it up. I have no experience with salt water so its gonna be a challenge but im for it. So how do you set up a salt water tank then? I also need to know about temperature and lighting. I was gonna buy some sand and put in some live rocks. But i would like to know everything. So when the tank is all ready i would buy a dwarf octopus. As for feeding, where i live they dont sell crabs but i will try frozen products. I can also catch many crawfish, i was thinkin of removing the pinchers on the crawfish and throwin them in the tank, would they eat that and would it be okay to feed?

:sink:

Jesse
 
Most people will recommend starting with a saltwater set-up that does not involve an octopus. It is no easy task caring for these creatures and since you have never kept a saltwater tank, there is much to be learned. Also, and octopus will most likely eat a crayfish but since they are freshwater, they are not recommended. Because of the fat ratio or something you should only feed them saltwater creatures, You can order fiddler crabs from Cannot connect to MySQL server. Another issue with the crayfish is that depending on the size of the crayfish and the size of the octo, The octopus may not even attempt to eat it. I'm not trying to discourage you from keeping cephs, I just don't want you to do something wrong and get frustrated.:smile: So you should probably look through the articles (navigation bar at top of the page) and read up on some of that and use external resources also such as the library or other forums where you can find more information on keeping saltwater tanks in general.
 
Hey i know cephs are alot of work and there hard creature to keep but i have been reading up on them for that past couple years, i just never got one because i never had the time and money.
 
I'm not doubting you knowledge on cephs, Here is a step-by-step guide on the set-up but there are modifications that are needed for cephs like an oversized skimmer, screen or mesh anywhere there is an opening, and I suggest you invest in nancy and colin's book it is very useful.
 
20 G is perhaps a little on the small side even for a dwarf, can you trade in for a 30??? (no copper either! tis fatal for cephs, so even if it's just been fish meds the copper will linger and kill the ceph).
 
So tomorrow im going to set up the salt water tank so i can cycle it. I will be buying a test kit, salt, sand, some live rock, a filter and the filtration equipment. Do i need a protein skimmer and what does it do? Am i missing anything else? I will be buying a screen lid and i have a florescent tube light. So is there anything else i should know? I think ill buy a cheap saltwater fish tomorow too so i can see how it does in the tank.
 
NO fish, NO animals. You have to let the tank cycle before you put ANY live creatures. Three months of cycling is minimal for an octopus but completing the initial ammonia -> nitrite -> nitrate cycle to stabalize the environment is needed before any animals can be successfully introduced. This will take AT LEAST 1 month. At the point you have no ammonia and no nitrates, then you can consider adding clean up crew. Building a marine environment is a slow process. Watch the small things on your LR and enjoy the process as it matures without rushing it.


I recommend getting the multi-test strips over the reagents for your test kit. If you can find the 100 count, get that kit (these are useful for keeping a check on the tank as well as great when you acclimate critters). This will let you watch your water change without taking an hour or more each time you want to test it (the strips take 30 seconds, 60 for PH). The combo strips do not have an ammonia test but there is a separate strip for that. It requires you to fill a small vial with tank water and test it in the vial (the chemical on the strip is not safe for the tank).
 
Okay im gonna go right now and get the stuff, and ill try getting the 100 count test kit. But like i asked in my other post, whats a protein skimmer and do you really need it?
 
Skimmers are discussed in the thread kept at the top of the Tank-Talk forum. My personal choice is the Coralife because it has been the least finicky with water level changes, is reasonably priced, requires a minimum of over head space and is easy to clean.

You can wait a month before getting one though (which will give you something to DO with your aquarium at a fixed point in time :wink:) as you will not want to run one while you are in the initial stages of your cycle.
 
Jesse Horvath;141966 said:
Hey, i have 40 gallon so i could even use that, the tank is just a ordinary tank though with no copper.

I also mean that it has NEVER had fish meds in it, such as those for ich, as the copper binds to the silicon and leaches out again later, very tiny amounts are fatal to cephs!
 
Im going to test if the tank has any copper or anything else in it. Is it true that you shouldnt use a 10 or 15 gallon because if you lose power and no filtration and no heating then the water can change temp and the ceph will die?
 
yep and even with everything going smoothly the waste build up would be phenomenal! Cephs produce several times the amount of waste than a similar sized fish, and they're messy eaters, thus to keep your water chemistry stable you need a large, mature tank.

Do you know the history of your tank? IMHO copper test kits don't test low enough to pick up on the lethal dose for a ceph.

We lost one in our 3000L tank because someone left the end of some copper wire in the tank, we checked everything else and this was the only possible cause of death. So be real careful!

J
 

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