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O.vulgaris

Kharn

O. vulgaris
Registered
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Messages
83
G'day

Very soon I will be stepping into the Cephalopod side of marine aquarium keeping and I was wondering what peoples thoughts are on tank size for an O.vulgaris seeing as most of the information based around them ends in "take it back" but what of those of us that might be targeting a Vulgaris in the hopes to provide its needs ?

Whilst I'm more then confident with everything the system has to act as the Cephs life support I am just slightly concerned about the Cephs overall potential space within the Display Tank it will call home...

The subject on O.vulgaris 95% of the time tends to be "Gets to big", but I have seen many people keep them before in aquariums and so know it's not only plausible but as just stated, people are doing it.

What would a GOOD tank size be for an adult O.vulgaris ?

Currently the planned tank is a decent 48"L x 24"W x 36"T @ 170g est. / 650L est.

Cheers
 
Kharn, Please consider adding your location to your profile as it is not automatic and helpful for answering questions. With your salutation, I suspect you may not be in the US :wink:

Since you are designing lots of additional water, I would expect length to be more of a consideration than gallonage. In the US the vulgaris are considerably smaller than the Mediterranean variety and are less plentiful than many other species. I have kept one in a 65G (246L) but LittleBit was small even for a Caribbean. Had she grown larger before brooding, I had a 140G (530L) available but this is likely small for a Mediterranean animal (especially since mine is 3' deep). El Diablo was probably more typical and his tank probably at the minimum (130G). He died after a major inking event and it is unclear if more water would have prevented his death. I have only had one major inking event (O. hummelincki), fortunately had an open, equivalently sized tank for a quick transfer and the animal survived.
 
G'day DWhatley

Australia is my home I know it must make other envious... :wink:

Length regrettably is the 1 dimension I am limited in...1200mm or 48" is the max length we can sacrifice.

O.vulgaris seem to be in large common supply down here and specifically my local area SE QLD.
 
I got to visit just south of you (Coffs Harbour, NSW) in 2012 and loved it :biggrin2: Have you considered a gloomy (Octopus tetricus, Common Sydney) or are vulgaris more common in Queensland?
 
I got to visit just south of you (Coffs Harbour, NSW) in 2012 and loved it :biggrin2: Have you considered a gloomy (Octopus tetricus, Common Sydney) or are vulgaris more common in Queensland?

I'm going to be honest with you....I certainly do NOT know my Ceph species like I do my Stomatopod species... Having said that, Blue Rings/Flamboyants/Mimics/ these stand out easily enough for me to understand what's what.

But as far as actually physically identifying the difference between other species....I'm kind of just guessing and hoping, the primary aim though IS to target or obtain a LARGE species, Vulgaris to me/us just seems like the most common up here or at least 1 of the most common larger species.

Up until you wrote 'tetricus', I had never heard of it....please do not mistaken this as ignorance...I started out the same way with Stomatopods and now 5-6yrs later I have the largest thread (over 90pages) on one of the largest forums (ReefCentral) and am considered in general world wide one of the Stomatopod Information Powerhouses...

You and I are a lot alike.... even if those that we care for primarily are effectively born and bred to war with one another... :wink:
 
Use this link as a search for "Gloomy" in the encounters thread for some interesting and fun interaction in the wild with this species. @haggs kept one last year (Coffs Harbour) but when we converted to the new forum software Hector's (octopus name) posts to that journal failed to survive the conversion. I believe this species is one that would interest you and they seem to be well suited for a large tank.

I suspect your mantis experience is toped by one of our admins though :sagrin: Check out @Neogonodactylus under the staff bios :biggrin2:
 
I think Dr.Caldwell and I are on different levels but I provide for the public whilst he provides for a university...

Dr.Caldwell rarely inputs photos or videos online for us he does do it but once a blue moon...I will upload photos and or videos daily and much of my "methods" the good Dr is to paranoid about...

For example I just caught footage for the first time I have ever EVER seen it of my largest stomatopod bringing down a 2ft long eel.
 
I have mentioned in the past that there seems to be two sizes and have wondered if there are two related species like our Pacific bimacs (bimaculoides and bimaculatus). The animals @haggs sees have much shorter arms but in the south, the animals @jugglematt and @pgs have been studying appear quite a bit larger (the 4 I saw during my visit varied but none had 3' arms. It is a robust animal with a thick mantle but vulgaris would not be much (if any) smaller. Jugglematts thread, Octopus living in groups and more stuff is well worth going through the entire thread. There are many excellent in situ photos with and without divers as well as interesting video (the one with the leatherjackets is well done but gets one rooting for the unfortunate octo to no avail) and the oddity of this band living together. There is only one other species that we are aware of that does this. This is not typical of the gloomy but appears to be of the yet to be described Greater Pacific Striped.

We keep hoping we have most of Roy's camera time :sagrin:.
 
When I go to my collector next time I will take a photo of 1 of the Occys or a photo of each that he has on offer.

We are also having to downsize the tank very slightly (depth/height wise) instead of 900mm tall its now 800mm on the grounds that if we go 900mm the builders will need to use 15mm glass and the tank will be around $2000 but if we go 800mm then they can use 12mm glass and the tank will only cost $500.

Huge difference over 10cm.
 
My rule of thumb (after acquiring the 3' and 4' -1m and 1200mm - tanks I have to clean) is to not buy a tank deeper (including any hood rise) than my arm :roll:. The difference in 32 and 36 inches should not be a problem as most standard tanks are 24" (~610mm) or less but probably should be taller.

The link in this Octobot new post has video showing a pretty typical vulgaris. The members links I posted can be used to compare the two.
 
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My rule of thumb (after acquiring the 3' and 4' -1m and 1200mm - tanks I have to clean) is to not buy a tank deeper (including any hood rise) than my arm :roll:. The difference in 32 and 36 inches should not be a problem as most standard tanks are 24" (~610mm) or less but probably should be taller.

The link in this Octobot new post has video showing a pretty typical vulgaris. The members links I posted can be used to compare the two.

I'm a fairly large man standing at 6'6", so reaching for things is one of my 'gifts'....you would laugh and likely be confused at my current large Stomatopod system, considering the ballerina act I sometimes need to perform in order to reach certain places...(one of the reasons its all being torn down and rebuilt).

But yeah we want an Octopus as well and not a small one.

Went to my LFS yesterday to get 500L for water changes, they had a little Octo in store so I bought it home :smile: but beyond that you don't want to know the rest...

Not sure what species this little tiny octo is/was, in this picture its around the size of a 1.5inch diameter, when open and tentacles out aggressively, it's a little bigger then my palm.

uTAnDvn.jpg
 

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