• 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.

Infected arms

Tako_Poke

O. vulgaris
Registered
Joined
Jul 9, 2006
Messages
94
Hey all,
I just got an octopus and it seems to be adjusting well except for one thing. Its arm is wounded and Im worried it could become infected. What should I do?
-Nick
 
I've had different octopuses that have come to me with missing legs, different injuries and as long as your water quality iis good, they have healed really quick. Maybe someone else may have a recommendatation on something to help the healing along, but I know I have never added anything and they have healed just fine. Good luck!
 
Thanks,
It doesnt seem to be bothering the octo to much. But I am worried about water quality. I dont have any means of knowing if its good or not, I rely pretty much on color and clearity. And then I do water changes. Btw does anyone know how to prevent algal growth? I can never seem to get rid of the stuff...
 
Bare minimum would be ammonia and nitrite kits to test water parameters. Color and clarity is only affected by nitrates. Algae blooms are caused by lots of things- including phosphates, nitrates and newly/poorly cycled systems.
 
Illithid said:
Bare minimum would be ammonia and nitrite kits to test water parameters. Color and clarity is only affected by nitrates. Algae blooms are caused by lots of things- including phosphates, nitrates and newly/poorly cycled systems.

Check the ceph care articles for other testing and water change issues-- I know making certain there's no copper is extremely important, and most people recommend using RO (reverse osmosis) water for water changes to make sure it's free of contaminants.
 
monty said:
Check the ceph care articles for other testing and water change issues...people recommend using RO (reverse osmosis) water for water changes to make sure it's free of contaminants.

Yup, and these are just the bare minimums if you really know what to look for and are just out of the testing solutions.

Do you have alot of experience with saltwater/reef tanks?

If so - more power to ya...I have been doing saltwater for more than 20 years and still refer back to test kits.

If not - do refer to lots of instructions from the web and books. It does take some getting used to -to know what you are looking for and what is causing what to happen. It's alot like electricity - you can't see it happening, but it will knock you on your ass if you don't know what's coming.
 
Tako_Poke said:
Well I have some expreience. The problem is I dont have any kits and besides that I dont kno whow to use them. But I better get some fast.

I use Red Sea Marine Lab. This has a bunch of kits together. Each test has a little laminated card that has simple instructions to do the tests. Using the tests is very easy-knowing what the results mean is the tricky part.

The Marine lab test kit isnt cheap, but it isnt expensive either compared to the livestock you will lose without it. I have the lab and seperate tests for copper and calcium for my corals. The "Lab" is the same as the seperate Red Sea kits-they are just bundled in the lab packaging.

www.wetwebmedia.com and www.reefcentral.com are good resources for testing and nitrogen cycle information, (TONMO is pretty specialized in cephs only.)

There is one major trick to cephs/reef keeping/life that all successful people do....
ask tons of questions.
 
I was trying to feed him a crab and I bumped some rocks. He freaked out! Hes an angry one. Hes always red. And I dont have a protein skimmer. They are way to expensive.
 
Tako,

I'm sorry if I was a bit rough, but I do have opinions on this. A lot of us have spent big money to make safe habitats for our animals. I'm worried about your octopus because you can't seem to afford much equipment for it, you don't know much about the other animals that you put it in with, and without a test kit you can't tell how much poisonous ammonia is in the water.

I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't try to keep an aquarium and I don't want to make you feel bad. I just think you're moving a bit fast and should slow down a little. There are other kids on TONMO who have no money and start slow, keeping local crabs and things while they buy equipment over time.

Let me share with you my experience:

When I was about your age I saw an octopus in a pet store and fell in love with it. I didn't have any money and when my parents wouldn't pay for all the equipment. This was well over ten years ago, long before TONMO. The store tried to sell it to us, told us that it wouldn't need much equipment, just a small tank and an undergravel filter. We knew it was being pushed on us and it didn't sound right. We (read: my mature and responsible parents) decided that since we were unable to give it a good home we wouldn't take it. I was a kid with no money and no job and if that octopus died in my care it would have been my fault and mine alone for putting it in that environment.

Only in college did I discover TONMO and my interest in cephs and aquariums came back. Once again I knew I wasn't ready for an octopus, so I bought a used 30 gallon tank for $20 and kept clownfish. It was very hard because I didn't learn about the nitrogen cycle like I was supposed to and killed one of the clownfish. I still feel bad about that. It wasn't until that tank was set up for over a year and I had fixed the previous mistakes did I think about setting up a tank just for an octopus. And after I bought the 75 gallon tank for the octopus I spent a year and a half playing with different types of filtration and plumbing before I settled on a configuration I liked.

During that time my patience was tested as I kept being unable to get my octopus. I ordered one from Octopets but it was really tiny (smaller than a dime) and died very quickly. The next time Octopets had any in stock I was going to move soon and was worried it would be too stressful for an octo. The next time they had some my tank was still cycling. When my tank finally cycled I found out Octopets had gone out of business and I desperately tried to find some other octos or even eggs. Now six months after that I have two adolescent cuttlefish that keep me very happy.

This hobby rewards patience and often punishes eagerness. You can do it, but I think if you slow down a little bit you will be rewarded, too. You won't have to lose any sleep worried that your octo might ink during the night and die before you can do a water change.

Dan

PS - My aquarium system cost over $1000. The protein skimmer I'm using in it right now cost me $5 used. You can get a lot of good equipment real cheap, you just have to be patient and snoop around!
 

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