• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Preparation for a new pet

aratuk

Hatchling
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Oct 24, 2007
Messages
2
Hello all. I am strongly considering the purchase of an octopus.
I've read the equipment list on this site, and other things besides.
I'm wondering if there might be any benefit or detriment to using actual seawater, as I happen to live a hundred yards or so from the Gulf of Mexico. Of course I understand that it would need to be attended to and perhaps modified as any other source of water would. But I'm curious, does the closed environment of an aquarium differ enough from the open sea that you need to simulate the quality of seawater artificially? For instance, is it necessary to keep certain microorganisms found in natural seawater out of an enclosed environment for an octopus, or might they do something like help cycle the tank more quickly?
 
:welcome: to TONMO!

It seems like a lot of people use actual seawater, but that there are some things to watch out for, usually that collecting water coastal communities and industries and water outflows can be contaminated with all sorts of things. I know most public aquariums run pipes quite a distance offshore to get the water to circulate to avoid these sorts of things. I'm sure the experienced aquarists will have a lot of specific recommendations on this.
 
you would need to go at least 5 miles off shore to get uncontaminated water...I live close to the ocean as well and i considered getting my own seawater but, i didn't because it would probably be contaminated. I buy filtered seawater from my lfs for 50 cents a gallon so its not too bad..
 
simple;103629 said:
you would need to go at least 5 miles off shore to get uncontaminated water...I live close to the ocean as well and i considered getting my own seawater but, i didn't because it would probably be contaminated. I buy filtered seawater from my lfs for 50 cents a gallon so its not too bad..

I guess it's pretty likely that the water near me is far from safe, with the well-known hurricane here a couple of years ago pulling into the ocean so many things that shouldn't be there. And that probably holds even beyond the barrier islands where I was thinking of going for an initial supply, to get the right salinity past river runoff. There's a DuPont plant nearby, anyway, and shipbuilding and all that. It's sad. I live right around the corner from a largish marine biology lab, where I know a few people I might get good water and even castoff equipment from. They'll be a very good help if my octopus ever gets sick, like a nearby hospital :smile: Thanks for your perspective.
 
aratuk;103632 said:
I guess it's pretty likely that the water near me is far from safe, with the well-known hurricane here a couple of years ago pulling into the ocean so many things that shouldn't be there. And that probably holds even beyond the barrier islands where I was thinking of going for an initial supply, to get the right salinity past river runoff. There's a DuPont plant nearby, anyway, and shipbuilding and all that. It's sad. I live right around the corner from a largish marine biology lab, where I know a few people I might get good water and even castoff equipment from. They'll be a very good help if my octopus ever gets sick, like a nearby hospital :smile: Thanks for your perspective.

The local marinebio lab will probably know a lot more about the local water quality than we can guess... even if they can't give you water, they might be able to advise you on where it is or isn't safe to get some.
 
usually large marine labs use seawater that they filter and pump from pretty far off land, I'm sure that if you ask they can probably give you some for a small fee or perhaps even for free
 

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