• 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.

Nano reef and the octopus for which i weep

Joined
Jan 29, 2004
Messages
11
I studied the blue ring for some time, escape proofed the tank, and was ready for the little bugger. He reacted very badly to the aclimation, hyperventilating, convulsing, went nutz basicly. this was on a 5cc of water every 5 minutes aclimation. good enough to aclimate the most sensitive of creatures. Well that one died. not shure why. Pet store offered the other one in it's stock, this one seemed a bit more lively, it was, that is untill i pulled his plastic bag out of the paper bag and all I see is brown water. Octo 2 is dead. Tried recesitation with a water squirter. I don't run an octo trauma ward, so that was the best I could do. Why!!! just why? wont my new pet live? even a couple of months would have been satisfactory though not entirely fulfilling. Is this just what these guys like to do? suicide pets? I want an octo in my 10gallon nano bad! if not the blue ring what then? what are your recomendations, any idea why they would freek out on aclimation? everything is perfect, even had the LFS double check it for me. Corals are fine, why not my squishy?
 
Welcome to tonmo.

I would not recomend a blue ring for 10 gallons or at all. Research the guys and you may not even tried to revive it yourself.

A 10 gallon is greatly going to limit your choices. Try mecatoris, you seem to have conceeded to the fact that it wont be in there long anyways.

Mecatoris life span is 4-6 months, and they are caught wild, so you do not know their age when captured. Could be 1 month could be 5.

Sounds like the second one inked in the bag and suffocated. The first could have been a natural death.

GL to you and read some threads on keeping an octo and you should do fine.

BTW - some corals can sting and octo. Be careful. :biggrin2:
 
simple fact is that blue ring octopuses do not do well in captivity... FACT!

It is a waste of animal's lives and money, they just dont do the captive thing or the travelling thing well, despite all your best efforts!

10gal is small for an octo, even a pygmy.. go bigger and things will get easier, why not try for a captive bred bulletproof bimaculoides that you could have for almost a year?

PS welcome to tonmo.com!
 
:welcome: to TONMO, TEB!!

Colin's right, they do horrible in aquariums and you probably know they can kill you.
My LFS has an blue ring octo in a 20 gallon tank, but it arrived in an itty bitty cup, and Paul believes that they if he lets it out, it will try to bite him, so the poor thing is just floating in it's cup with no hiding space and a few hermit crab shells. :x

:frown:
 
That is to bad, while my last one was aclimating it really seemed to be curious and kind. I used the water dropper to stroke its arm and it did the same to the dropper. It was great untill he inked himself for no reason. poor guy.

I have a 55 gallon that has some stupid fish in it right now. I'm thinking about an octo in there. what do you all think for a first octo. long life, easy temperment, escape proof tank. lots of rocks, will make some hiding places. I'm game. Oh who would win Lion fish or octopus? :biggrin2:
 
BIMAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 100% BIMAC! :heee:

I have a 55 cycling right now. For what I read they are the way to go. I am planning a captive breeding program for mecatoris(thats a diffent discussion), however, how can you resist a bimac.

Please read up on them!!!

But, the Lion Fish may adapt to the octo, and visa versa more importantly, they can be bad news together. It has been done and can be done, but no recommendation coming from me on keeping them together.

Put it this way..... If an octo inks, you have an unstable environment that the skimmer will help clean, along with your filters. If something hits a lion fish everything is subject. All poisons are in the water and are not easy removed. Not worth the risk of either creature! I have a lion, Foo, and love it but thats what F/O tanks are for. IMO! :wink:
 
should i post my age on this forum, not to sound like an ass hole, but DUUUUHHHHHHH....... I'm a responsible adult, I understand the dangers of my pets completly. I respect all of them, and have had nothing but positive experiences with them all. In fact my Lion fish will eat out of my hand, and even allow me to pet his head. Hannibal is awsome. just wish he would quit eating all my shrimp. Sooo.. please don't state the obvious. The LFS makes sure that that is done ahead of time.
 
EvilBug, for the record, I am worried about the creatures you want to put together. In fact your challenge to house them together for a fight to see who would win, jokingly or not, is ludacris.

So, to answer your posted question once again, it is not worth the risk for either creature to house them together.
 
you guys really need to learn how to get a joke, seriously, who would try to pit $200 worth of pets against eachother for fun? Hannibal the Lion would go in my 60gallon in the master bedroom. Now back to normaility, post on!
 
sad but true... its been tried several times and cohabitation with cephalopods doesn't bode well for either inhabitants. So for that reason some of us are wary of posts suggesting such things... i can think of cuttles with cuttles, octos with octos, triggers, lions, octos with cuttles and so on and there hasnt been a good news story.

Look at it this way, its not that we dont get a joke, just see that there are people here who care about what they are keeping and are keen to help you get the same enjoyment out of the hobby... many people initially come here because of the blue rings and that's fine but we dont want to see you or anyone else harmed by a cephalopod, indeed anything at all that disturbs our hobby is bad, likewise we dont want the wasteful deaths of blue rings either.

So, i hope you feel welcome and understand the reasons for a lack of humour on our part
cheers
Colin
 
Colin's given you a good answer, but I'd like to add this:
our Ceph Care forums contain about 800 topics more than 6800 posts - we get many different views and attitudes from our Tonmo members and we have had some people interested in or reporting about tanks like your described - Octos with lion fish and other aggressive combinations that end poorly. So we don't dare assume you might be joking - we'll just do the best we can to help and support you and the marine creatures you're keeping.

Nancy
 
I might be thinking of trying captive bred seahorse with cuttles, the cuttles and the seahorse live quite happily together in the LFS so I just wanna give it a try. Mean while I'm now adding more liverock to the tank, just got 4.5 kilos.
 

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