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NEED HELP ON OCTO TANK

ageezy

Pygmy Octopus
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2010
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Hey guys and gals, My name is joe and I live in MS, I have a 210g reef and has been running good for the last two years. Now I want to try a ceph wether its a octo or cuddle, my idea is to use a 20g tank drilled plumbed into my reef. In my research on here I'm a bit :confused: as to wether the octo (o. briareus) needs a bigger tank for room, or a bigger tank for water volume.
Can someone please help me out?

Thanks
Joe
 
:welcome:

Both. Briareus is one of the largest species kept in the home aquarium. 65 is the min suggested but I had one that would have been too large for a 65.

Bigger the better.
 
:welcome: The consensus is that they need both the room and the water volume, I believe.
 
Unfortunately, a 20 gallon would only be suitable for a dwarf species and the only dwarfs we commonly see are the nocturnal O. mercatoris. Mercs are reclusive and shy and rarely interact but can be an enjoyable ceph experience. A pair can be kept in a 20 if they have lived together in the wild (it is unknown if multiples from different areas would endanger each other).

If you can bump up to a 30, a single S. bandensis (cuttlefish) is viable but no more than one.

Your 210, now, that offers a lot of possibilities :sagrin:
 
Yeah the 210 would be great but I have some fish in it that have been with me for 5years that can't let of right now.knock on would if I was ever to have a crash then yes.
 
I can set you up with eggs if you can't find any local. Figure $10 ea or 6 for $50. When I shipped overnight to NJ, I think was $44, so MS may be a bit more.
The first egg mass my female laid seemed to have a pretty low successful hatch rate. The 2nd bunch of eggs - approx 30 were given to NEAq and at the time they picked them up had 9 hatch and at least 10 eggs getting thin with visible hatchlings inside them.
The 3rd round is nearing hatch and looks to be a better rate yet.
4th round only about 15 but look good. I had switched to mainly frozen foods around a week before this.
5th round - been back on live foods, and nearly giving as much as they want. Started laying again 2 days ago.

A note - I gave what I thought were 2 males to a friend. They were kept in about a 35g frag trough plumbed into a 180g display / sump system. They were eating 1 - 2 Sally's Krill daily. Then they were moved to a 30 cube and one day a fight broke out over food and one later succumbed from it's injuries. One of these ( or possibly both?) was a female as he has a bunch of eggs.
The point I want to make is that if the pair in a smallish tank are fed amply, they will likely get along better. I see my pair (in a 40b) get a little testy when they aren't fed as much as opposed to when they are fed more (they mate and ignore each other more, and beg less), and the frozen krill did not seem to satisfy their appetite as well.
 
Thanks that would be cool but first I need to do more reserch before I venture off into to the deep.but I will keep u in mind when it comes time.
 
More research = Smart
You could try a breeder net, or my first was a 2.5g w/ bulkhead (foam filter or screen in it) placed in a sump with Carbon reactor outlet directed to the 2.5g. See first 2 pics here. I think for babies, the smaller the holding tank, the easier it is to keep foods concentrated. You'll have plenty of time, while they are growing, to plumb in a more permanent set up.
My newest hatch out tank the same 2.5g set in a 30g breeder frag tank that is plumbed into a 120g display / 40g sump system.
 

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If you want an octopus, I think a O. Hummelincki will fit in a 40 gallon, and are reported to be diurnal and have a great personality. I know you don't need a chiller for them, but I don't know what their upper temperature limit is, so verify that they can handle the temp of your 210 before you decide on O. Hummelincki.

A 45 gal tall tank has the same footprint as a 23 gallon long tank (36" x 12")
 
Okay guys just from reading the o. Briereus can be kept in a 65g or larger,is this because of the length of the tank? Or can I do a 30"long x 24x24 woch is about 75g?
 
The arms are so long on a briareus that I would recommend against a 30" tank. Water volume is always a concern and 75 is a good number but there is no swimming/crawling room.
 
if you do the math, the 30" wide tank, while maybe not big enough, is bigger inside than you might think. The diagonal distance from say the lower left front corner to the upper right rear corner of the 30" wide tank you described would be 45". For comparison, here's the max diagonal distance on a couple of standard sized tanks:
60 gal 48 x 13 x 24 Diagonal distance - 55"
75 gal 48 x 18 x 21 Diagonal distance - 55"

The 48" wide tanks are only 22% longer in maximum internal dimension than the 30" semi-cube you describe. That's not a small difference, but it's not as big a difference as one's intuition might suggest. 48" is 60% more than 30", so the wider narrower tanks might seem roomier than they really are. If you were keeping a cold water species (bimac) like I do, I'd recommend the more cube like tank because of the lower surface area per gallon (easier to keep cold), or if you already have the 30" tank, I would consider using it. Otherwise, 22% is 22%, so I'd go with the standard 75.
 

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