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Octopus and Coral compatibility for a 24 Cube

Maverick

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Aug 14, 2010
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Hello fellow cephlapod lovers,

I am seeking to put some corals and a small octopus in my cube. I have been thinking about the O. Briareus.

My Cube has a good amount of live rock, hiding places, a concrete backing, a 8g refugium complete with 5 inch deep sand bed, a good oversize counter current skimmer (in ref), 18w UV light, small ozone generator, 100 micron filter bag (in ref), main system pump 265 gph, refugium pump is 600gph, 2 nano Koralias, 2x36w 50/50 pc's and other basic stuff.

I have a good amount of experience with corals, fish and been around a lot of Octos.

So, I was thinking of the Octopus in a few months after cycling the coral and fish (firefish, maybe clowns: used for cycling if they get murdered by the octo then they do). Coral I was thinking after some reading that I might be able to start some low current sps now so it gets good and attached before the octo tries to uproot it. Other coral include Mushrooms, yellow polyps, other calimorphs, zenia, and some various leathers.

Some questions:

1) Anyone have any other good coral that will not hurt my new friend? (maybe zoas?)

2) Does anyone have successful experience keeping fish with this species? If so which ones and why do you think it works?

3) Does anyone have experience keeping them with koralia pumps?

4) Can they fit through the egg crate mesh used for lighting?
 
:welcome: to TONMO

1) Anyone have any other good coral that will not hurt my new friend? (maybe zoas?)

I have a bunch a Zoas in with my octopus they seen to be fine, sometime they get a little beat up just from the octopus hunting but they always seem to recover.

Does anyone have successful experience keeping fish with this species? If so which ones and why do you think it works?

Any fish WILL be eaten.

Does anyone have experience keeping them with koralia pumps?

Yup lots of use them with great success. some people wrap them in screen to protect there animals but I do not. i have see my octopus reach in and stop the propeller with no effect to the octopus. for a dwarf species I would cover it.

Can they fit through the egg crate mesh used for lighting?

They can fit through any hole the size of its beak.

I have been thinking about the O. Briareus
un fortunately your tank in much to small for most octopuses especially the Briareus which is one of the largest species kept in the home aquarium. I recomend at least a 75 gallon aquarium for them. and a 55-65 for most other species. My briareus had an arm spread of over 4'.

The only option for a 24 gallon tank is a dwarf species. You could actually keep a pair of them. The most c0ommon of the dwarfs seen on the market is the Mercatoris. The down side to these octopuses is that they are Highly nocturnal and very sensitive to light. The will only come out with a completely dark room and red tank lights.
 
Dave: you are allowed to reference your own articles :wink:.
You will have to enlarge this by clicking it twice (it is working its way into the official article section soon) but CaptFish wrote this at the request of the staff and should be read by anyone thinking about creating a "natural" environment and not expecting the natural results.

Maverick: I am not picking on you when I say I had to laugh when you combined the thoughts of a briareus and a 24 gallon aquarium. The reason for my grin is the misconseptions people have on octopuse sizes. Some people (usually non-aquarists who know little about the ocean) think all octopuses are huge (GPO sized and I have had some really strange comments by these people when the subject comes up) while most considering keeping them initially think far too small on tank size. Almost no one has a good idea of animal size and tank need. Regretably, I don't recall what my own first thoughts were. I ended up with an O. mercatoris as my first animal (unintentionally so my tank was really too big) and kind of went from there, continuing to keep mercs along with my others. Our merc tank is currently occupied by a baby hummelincki - that was initial thought to be a merc by the collector - or we would have/be looking for one now. When we move the little one, we will be seeking another mercatoris but not as our only octopus. That being said, many people are very disappointed in O. mercatoris as pets because they are almost never seen and rarely interact with humans (not at all with daylight lighting).

Soooo, I will suggest that you go to the Forums->Journals and Photos forum and look at the top stickies. You will see several List of Our Octopuses followed by a year posts. From 2008 to present the lists will have links to the journals we keep. Read through some of the longer ones (ending dates are posted if reported). Get a basic feel for keeping an octopus and an understanding that they are short lived. Setting up your first tank will likely take longer than the length of time you will have your first octopus. This is important to note in that a long term strategy for tank sizing is more important than choosing which octopus you want to keep. Their short lifespan means you will keep several over time and sizing a tank and equipment should take this into consideration.
 
What is the recommended minimum tank size for O. briareus then? I have seen conflicting reports and was wondering if my 95 gallon would be too small.
 
Smooth.. what about the next size up then, O. vulgaris? (sorry to go off thread topic, Ive been wondering these things for a while since I decided to get a bigger tank, what bigger species I could put in 95 g that wont go in 50 g)
 
Tank size:
The short life span, leading to keeping a series of octopus, is part of the reason for getting a large tank. The other part of the reason is that you typically won't really know what species you'll get until after it arrives, regardless of what the seller tells you. The bottom line is that you need to have a tank large enough to house the largest species that you might end up getting.
There are some dwarf species that might fit in a 24 gallon nano, but I understand that they are al nocturnal, and you'll only see them at night, under dim red lights, while sitting still in a dark room (woo hoo!)

Maverick;161146 said:
2) Does anyone have successful experience keeping fish with this species? If so which ones and why do you think it works?
If the octopus doesn't eat the fish, it will be because the fish picks on, or kills, the octopus, and at best keeps it hidden all the time. Some fish might last a few weeks or even months, but eventually the octopus will get them. On the other hand, octopus love to hunt, so having fish to chase is about as much fun as your octopus can have, as long as they are afraid of him, and not the other way around.

Maverick;161146 said:
3) Does anyone have experience keeping them with koralia pumps?
Yes. no problem for medium to large bimaculoides, but I would worry about a dwarf octopus.

Maverick;161146 said:
4) Can they fit through the egg crate mesh used for lighting?
What Capt Fish said. I'll add that their beak is probably about as big as the bulge made by their eyeball. Any octopus that could live in a 24 gallon tank could skip through egg crate as if it weren't even there.
 

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