Octavian O.briareus - new to octo keeping

[loneracer05]

well i dont want him to be stressed i am a firm believer in making things as stress free and comfortable for what ever creature im keeping as i can. so wer thinking less then a month then? how big will this guy get about 48"? and whats the best way to catch him too transfer him safely and as stress free as possible?

on a side not i had 8 feeder fish i was using for mantis training i figured they wer done there so i put them with the octopus and hes knocking then down left and right 3 down so far...oddly enough he ate the stomachs on all 3 of them then threw them away... i watch him literally throw one tward the top of the tank. is there something to this?

 

[DWhatley]

Fish are not their normal diet and he may be killing them more because they annoy than for food. This is particularly true of the briareus. If you watch it hunt you will see that it uses its arms to investigate the LR where it looks for crabs and other crustatean (and often looses arm parts). Offering it a thawed, room temp raw shrimp (on a stick is most common - bamboo skewers work well) is the best option for commonly available foods but it should be given some live during the week. Fiddlers, mithrax and decorators are usually accepted. Most briareus are caught raiding stone crab traps but disable the claws if you have access to some.

I have only transferred one octo from a stocked tank and he was well acquainted with me so the process was painless and he volunaraily went into the offered container (video on OhToo available but your situation is different). Encouraging the octo to willingly go into a container is the best way to do a transfer (NO NET!). This is more easily said than done if there is a lot of LR in the tank and the animal is not already coming to you. You may need to remove (slowly) its hidey rock and herd it genltly and patiently with your hand into the container when there is nowhere else to hide. This is surprisingly easy if the only place to hide is where you want it to go. It may help to use a cup with a dark interior (vs the white of most plastic cups). Some people have had luck putting a catch container in the aquarium overnight and it would not hurt to try this before you have to disrupt anything.

 

[loneracer05]

i have green crabs will those do? mathrix crabs are also but at $13 each thats a pretty steep meal lol....i put the fish in more for hunting practice/ stimulation then food source. how often should he be fed live/frozen?

 

[DWhatley]

Pretty much any crab will do but consider disabling the claws (removing the top section usually works without killing the crab). We feed ours once a day, 6 days a week and fast a day. Others feed only every other day. There is some indication that a hungry (not starving) octo lives longer and that the every other day is a better routine.

 

[loneracer05]

hmm ok every other day it is side note theres only 1 fish left alive and a few white shrimp left alive he took out a crab today ill feed again on wed

 

[DWhatley]

You may have to feed twice as much though. I am still trying to learn the best feeding scheme. Being female, I have the stereo-typical thoughts that if it is hungry it should be given food. That and the fact that the octos seemed to decline food about once (sometimes twice) a week has been the reason for our schedule. Another option is to leave a small amount of live food in the tank and monitor when it is depleted.

 

[loneracer05]

would it be a bad idea to always have live food available in the tank for it?1 or 2 crabs with claws disabled ? or will he get tired of the same food all the time?

 

[DWhatley]

A couple of people have tried this and I have not noted any real difference in the behavior but we really don't have a lot of data on the attempt. Some people feel that hand feeding makes the octopus more interactive and responsive to the keeper though. I know they get tired of frozen shrimp and we try to give ours at least one live meal a week. Whether they would get tired of the same live food and want a change is unknown. CaptFish has experimented with live food in the tank as the norm and hopefully will chime in with his observations. Octo keeping is still not a mainstream hobby so we still fumble at equavalent options

 

[CaptFish]

*Clank (that's my chime).....I feel hand feeding makes the octopus more interactive and responsive to the keeper(at least it does for me). That is why I continue to do both however I feed Legs mostly live shrimp, 12 every other day. She will eat 8-10 right away and save 2-4 for the next day. On the days I don't give her live shrimp I give her a few small feedings of silver sides or frozen shrimp. It is during the hand feedings that she becomes very playful with me. on the days she get live food she is less social, but that could be because she is stuffed. I also followed D's lead and give her a fasting day once a week....she doesnt like fasting day and spends it sitting on the rocks giving me the evil eye.

 

[DWhatley]

she doesnt like fasting day and spends it sitting on the rocks giving me the evil eye.

I envision a fat little pigglet with octo arms giving some kind of Buda stare - wish I could draw it!

 

[loneracer05]

lol ok will do .... hand feedings it is you guys know much more then me so im taking your advice .... there is 1 feeder fish left btw the others were all killed and the octo ate the stomachs of them all.... we will be naming it fri i hope... we have come to a conclusion we have to wait 2 weeks before we can name things because prior to the 2 weeks if we name it it seems to die in her house lol so now we wait 2 weeks

 

[loneracer05]

seeing her octopus and helping her (aka doing all the work lol) is really making me want a ceph of my own. im thinking of cuttlefish but im in no rush just yet,wich is good because they are near impossible to find here.

her octopus is taking a liking to me i think... he likes to play with my hand when ever i put it in his tank to clear out his crab shells or dead fish or feeding time.... what ever the case may be.. she is still freaked out by the nipping the crabs claws thing(i dont get it ) and shes still afraid its going to eat her if it touches her lol but he has yet to do anything other then move my fingers around

 

[loneracer05]

we are in a crab crisis about 2 dozen have died and tonite is octavians last live meal for now...we are ordering from an online vendor but the food wont arrive untill tues. a week from today.

we also gave him a new buddy a pencil urchi. we are starting to see some patches of algea pop up so this should help as well as add some more visual apeal to the tank

we ( aka me lol) are looking into tank mates for octavian. still i am not to keen on the idea but she insist she wants him to have a friend. not just an urchin or starfish ... im reading afew ppl have had luck keping ribbon eels with them but i dont want to cause harm to octavian .

 

[loneracer05]

i saw octavian for the first time in a few days. there was a few small patches of green hair algae growing on the back wall of the tank. does anyone know if i can put my sea hare in with him for afew days ? its one of the green ones.

 

[DWhatley]

The only one I remember trying a seahare and an octo was AM with Kalypso. It disappeared in two days (or there abouts) and he was never sure if it was Kalypso or the power heads that elminated the animal.