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Other sea creatures with Octos?

Strongbad

Hatchling
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Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Messages
5
Okay, let me preface the following questions by saying I have no idea what I am doing.
Now that that's out of the way.. From what I gather from this website putting two octos in a tank together is a no-no. Is there any other creature I can stick in a tank with an octo? Do they just attack everything in the tank? I would like to put SOMETHING in there besides the octo. When I put live rock in there and the creatures emerge from the rock with my octo in the tank then what? Panic? :confused:
 
Things which would be safe in a tank would be starfish, tubeworms and urchins. Fish are generally kept away from octopus as they normally fall prey to the octo or vice versa, damsels have been kept with octos but on some occasions they harass and annoy the octo by pecking at its eyes.
 
And even then, 'safe' is relative - I have seen bored octopuses pulling sea stars apart. (Maybe they like to watch the arms regenerate? The marine equivalent of paint drying?)
 
What about a seahorse? I have heard mention of limited success with a seahorse and an octi, is this true? I would like to know the specific type of octi and seahorse if possible. I also have heard on numerous occasions that sea cucumbers do well with octos even though they do the whole gut throw thing it is still okay because the octos dont bother them. On some other thread it said that some octos will tolerate animals better than others and it largely depends on the temperment of the octo as to what animals can be placed in the tank with it. Is this true?
Lots of questions at once...sorry!
 
I think that I have read on here that "pipefish" are safe with octos... They are in the same family as seahorses, though they are different...
 
I wouldn't put either seahorses or pipefish in with an octo! The seahorse family on the whole are somewhat delicate and water quality is a real issue, with the amount of waste that an octo can produce you'd just be asking for trouble....plus these fish are poor swimmers...I think they'd be lunch!

We keep our horses with snails and small weed fish nothing much else ( once or twice with a juvenile midget octo but as soon as it reaches 5cm mantle length it's moved cos they start to harrass the horses)

Our octos we keep with urchins, large stars (up to 50cm diameter), large slit limpets and occasionally wrasse.....too stroppy to be bothered by the octo but only eat shellfish themselves.....oh and crabs (but they're prey for octo!). Any signs of stress and they're immediately removed.

Cheers

J
 
Thanks for the info on the seahorses, I had no idea they were so picky about water quality. Kind of an expensive animal to replace as well, not really a good "wait and see what happens" kind of deal.
Anybody have anything on the cucumbers?
 
I have kept cukes with cuttlefish but not with octos, one point worth noting that is that if an octo were to pester a cuke it can throw out its guts and polute the whole tank... best avioded I'd think
 
Hi Jean,

I didn't realise they'd changed the name back to breviculus :shock:. I've just been to Spencer & Willan to check. Before I did this whole orange roughy thing I was into NZ shells in a big way. Those tropical foreign ones may be shinier but ours are so much more... exclusive.
:smile:

Matt
 
i have heard of octos being put with corals but i am not 100%sure about that i would do an investigation on that one as i have heard that they can be put with corals numerous times
 
Matt Jones said:
Hi Jean,

I didn't realise they'd changed the name back to breviculus :shock:. I've just been to Spencer & Willan to check. Before I did this whole orange roughy thing I was into NZ shells in a big way. Those tropical foreign ones may be shinier but ours are so much more... exclusive.
:smile:

Matt

Yeah it's a b%&@*r ain't it, I remember when i was just about to hand in my 4th year dissertation and one of the academics came along and said BTW they're changed that!

AAAGRH :mad:

J
 
Jean said:
I wouldn't put either seahorses or pipefish in with an octo! The seahorse family on the whole are somewhat delicate and water quality is a real issue, with the amount of waste that an octo can produce you'd just be asking for trouble....plus these fish are poor swimmers...I think they'd be lunch!

i thought i recall someone (maybe waaaaay back in the day) posting pics of a seahorse coexisting and sometimes even anchoring onto an octo.... or am i going prematurely senile?
 

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