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Octopus at low salinity

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Aug 13, 2009
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Can anyone tell me what affects can get if you keep it at a low salinity for a long period of time. Like say 1.020 for lets say almost a year? I know that cephalopods do best at full strength sea water. I'm just curious what affects would lower salinity close to 1.020> would have on an animal. If anyone has any input it would greatly be appreciative or if anyone knows of any literature I could read that would be great too. Also how does calcium levels affect cephalopods in general? Is higher or lower levels better?
 
I don’t know about the affects but Foster and Smith list the salinity as between 1.023 and 1.025. I always thought that was odd considering they normally have good recommendations about care. I would be interested to know about this as well.
 
That is true, but Foster and Smith is a holding facility. The animals they have are only temporarily. So they can afford to keep them at a lower salinity until they sell. Plus if you keep up with their site, every time they get an octopus in stock it's gone within days at the latest. I know cause I've tried ordering from them before. I was on their waiting list for days until I told them never mind cause I found another octopus somewhere else, and the very next day the got some in. That very day they were sold.
 
I have been on the phone with Foster and Smith on and off about the octos and from what they have said they dont actually have the octos. They get them from a vendor. They dont even know how many they have. They only know what the vendor tells them and the vendor emails them to tell them they are out. This is what they told me today. I called to ask what kind and how many so I would know when to place my order. They tried to find out but they came back with "We dont know". Thats when they explained the vendor situation to me.
 
Huh... I thought the 1.026 was required for octos. Is there some reason that it is stressed so often that it must be 1.026? Now I'm really curious as to why it is so important to keep it so high. I know that 1.026 is full and keeping it lower helps reduce illness which is why a lot of people keep it low.
 
Although we otten refer to salinity, the figure of 1.020 is a measurement of the specific gravity. At one time a lower sg was recommended because it was thought to reduce disease in FISH.

It has long been a recommendation that octopuses and other invertebrates be kept in water with a higher salinity, near that of the ocean. However, many octopuses have also been successfully kept at 1.023-1.025. In our book, Colin and I recommended between 1.024- 1.026. There is always some inaccuracy in measurements and too much salt in the water is not a good thing, either. If you top off infrequently, the water will become more salty, that is, the sg will rise.

If CaptFish has been successful with a lower sg, it's worth looking into.

Nancy
 
skywindsurfer;155511 said:
And they are all happy and healthy with no behavioral differences?

As a survival mechanism, many animal species can be experience extreme levels of stress and disease with no outward signs. Just because you cannot detect changes in behavior, it does not mean that the environment you are housing it in is not detrimental to it's health.
 
It would make sence that the gravity could fluctuate as ocean water probably does. You would think that during a monsoon, the water gravity would decrease, and the inverts would survive.
 
From what I've read, the octopuses that live near the shore and sometimes in tidepools (like O. bimaculoides, the bimac) are more tolerant of changing conditions than the species that live in deeper water. This is one reason why the bimac does well in home aquariums. Heavy rains and outpouring from rivers can result in temporary lowering of the salinity in affected areas.

Nancy
 

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