Lunch as a pet?

[hlywkar]

now.. food... such as?

I have tropical food right now...

Blood worms.

and

some brownish red crystaline sand food called "Tetrabits Complete - For all Discus and other demanding tropical fish"

I assume both are probably ok?

Or should I be forking out for the gourmet frozen shrimp?


Also... not to sure how pure ANYTHING I would be getting around here to feed my octo would be.

The crabs and shrimp that I would buy at the market are probably from just a bad a source... maybe not heavily populated by human swimmers, but tainted nonetheless.

the flat little crabs are similar to fiddler... minus the really big claw. they hang out in the mudflats when the tide goes out. they have two big eyes popping out. maybe a little blue in colour. walk sideways, and hide in tiny holes in the ground. range in size from 1cm to 2 inches+

 

[DWhatley]

You may need to keep the flat crabs in a shallow bucket with something to climb on so that they can come out of the water. If they live above the waterline they likely breath air from the surface and not from the water (same with fiddlers). Your current food should do but be sure it is made from fish and not vegatable matter. Tiny bits of shrimp (3 will last a very long time if you freeze them) will help add ammonia better than most any other food though.

 

[bluespotocto]

Ya i have heard that to really help speed up your cycle just drop some raw shrimp in the tank and let it sit in there for a while.

 

[hlywkar]

We had a bunch of dried out shrimp in the freezer. I took that and blended it with some water... I figure that should work well.

 

[DWhatley]

That should be well accepted by your new scavengers.

 

[hlywkar]

how bad are barnacles?

some hermit crabs have a few on their shells

 

[cuttlegirl]

They should be fine. They may not live long in your tank since they eat plankton in the ocean.

 

[DWhatley]

Jenn,
Can the large purple barnacles live in a tank? We saw a food show (one of those where they go around the world and eat the oddities of the locals) and learned that they had pinchers so assumed that they might work in a tank if fed meaty food (I have never seen them for sale).

 

[hlywkar]

ya.. those barnacles eventually did fall off.

these fiddler type crabs I have, sideways walking , flat, stripped, are still alive, despite not having access to the top of the tank for air.

I am also noticing that they are trying to go after the hermits, with little luck.

Also, I have a problem with algae growth on the glass... I have to clean it about every 3 days. I have cut back on the timer to 10 hours.

I also noticed some weird electric hair. One of my rocks had a piece of hair coming from it about 6 mm long. It would wave with the current of the water. Also it would glow blue with electricity one and off. starting at its base, then going to the tip... I don't think it was a piece of a larger creature, as there was not hole where it was coming from. Any clue what this thing may be?

also.. how often you think I should be feeding these guys?

I have been tossing in an icecube sized portion of homemade frozen shrimp about every 3 days.

 

[DWhatley]

Your electric blue hair sounds interesting and would be a neat post if you can catch a picture of it. Usually, pieces of "hair" or white strands are from worms in the LR. It this is part of a worm, it should remain in the same spot and you can likely get it to feed with a piece of food near where you saw it. I have seen these guys move amazingly large (considering thes size of the "hair" not really large) chuncks of food but have yet to take the time lapse I keep wanting to attempt.

For algae, hermits, snails shorter lighting periods and more water changes (be sure to stir up you bottom substrate when you do your water changes - the tank should look worse when you are done then before you started and your throw-away water should not be clear ). Algae is always a problem but usually settles to a managable level after about a year. It does seem that there are two times a year when it is worse in my tanks and I suspect it has something to do with the natural lighting the tanks get from the windows. Urchins are the best grazers (true in the wild as well) but are not octo safe. If you can pickup a pin cushion urchin that your fish store will trade for later, it will save you some work.

How about a picture of your progress

 

[hlywkar]

I did a water test at my LFS.

most seemed fine. ammonia was 0. Ph 8. some other tests he did turned out ok from what he said... the nitrite was 0.2ppm. so not 0. and the nitrate was around 20 ppm or just slightly over.

he said not to change the water at all for a month or more.

but I have read that you should be doing water changes when the Nitrates are higher as they do not eventually level out as the ammonia and nitrite would. However the LFS guy said the Nitrates would level out....

what do you think?

 

[bluespotocto]

Well your nitrates should are perfect. They are a little high but nitrates isnt as dangerous as ammonia and nitrite. When i was setting up my tank i did water changes every 2 weeks. Sounds like your tank is almost ready. Do you know what species you are going to get?

 

[hlywkar]

I really don't know the species...

Generic lunch breed.

not sure of the survivability of transferring one of these bad boys to my tanks though. some of them look kinda bad off to begin with.

what sort of life should I be start thinking about. plants fish. etc.

right now I have about 15 or so hermits... and 2 or 3 fiddler-esk crabs... and one snail. as well as some hidden brittle worms.

 

[bluespotocto]

If you get fish they will most likely get eaten by the octo. A good thing to keep is some brittle stars. They will help clean the tank and eat left over food. The octo wont eat them either.

Is your tank tropical or the water temp where you are?

 

[DWhatley]

Since you are seeing nitrates and algae growth, I would go ahead and start a 2 week water change program. After you have your critter, once a week is advisable. Nitrates will continue to build as your tank cycles and continue after as it ages if you do not do maintenance. After the tank is established, climbing nitrates are a sign that you need to do heavier water changes, they will never decrease without maintenance. Nitrates are, however, a sign that your tank is cycling well at the moment. One thing that is not well written and I try to emphasize is that a water change is more then just swapping old saltwater for new water. It is important to disrupt the tank a bit and stir up the bottom substrate as well as squirt down the LR to put the decay into the water column to be removed both by the water change and whatever filtration you are using. I like to take a bamboo stick and stir the sand where I place my siphon so that I get a lot of the cloudy water as I disrupt he substrate.

I agree with bluespotocto, if you can find a couple of serpents, they are one of the very best clean up crew for an octo tank. There is also a diurnal star commonly called a thorny star that is often a brilliant orange and has been a mainstay of my octo clean-up crew (they are not reef safe for corals, however, and should not be kept with anything more than polyps). They are particularly attractive, active and attentive to left overs. I avoid all fish, either they will pick on the octo or become lunch. Lunch is not so bad but even in the wild they will annoy an octo while eating (the only one I have seen in the wild be being harrassed by a wrasse and is why the octo was detected) or worse, pick on the octo. Yours in particular will not be in the best of health to start with so minimizing stress is important.

If you can find a nice looking leather coral, they are hardy, usually survive a young tank and add some dimension. Any mushoroom seems to be acceptable, the red ones I use from the Caribbean do particularly well in lower lighting. They don't multiply but do get large. Polyps (zoeanthids) are touchy. They have varying degrees of stinging cells and octopuses are sensative to the sting of most. I have some that are brown and white (the solid browns I have tried had to be removed as the octo definitely reacted) that are commonly called sun polyps (not to be confused with the hard coral by the same common name). In general if you put in zoes, look for very short tentacles and watch for a reaction from an octopus. It it touches the polyp and acts like it is hot to the touch, remove it.

Sponges are another piece of color but need to be monitored and removed quickly if they start to die. Most are not a huge water problem but some can poison the water at death (one commonly called a red ball sponge is know for this unfortunate property). Red or orange "tree" sponges seem to be safe even if they die off.

Gorgonians don't tend to be a problem but need a delicate balance of current and to be placed where an octopus won't be constantly disrupting it.

No anemones. They sting and can even eat a small or unhealthy octopus. I love flower anemones but they are kept in different tanks. I found one of my flowers trying to eat one of my antler anemones the other day and was totally surprised. I was able to extract the antler from the mouth of the flower and everyone is fine (in diffrent tanks!).

I am really looking forward to seeing how this experiment will work out and I hope your wife is starting to enjoy the tank.