What are you feeding your octopus?

[Pattro]

i have a question, I am setting up my 55gal Bimac tank and was wondering if i should set up a small cheep tank from Petsmart for some fiddlers and other food. If so, what size of tank and what types of filters should i use for the crabs, snails, and shrimp? Im looking to keep it as cheap as possible seeing as i just spent a ton of $ on a large tank.

 

[corw314]

My food tank is a 15 gal run by an airpump and bubble filter.

 

[SandV]

i just use a 10 gal... and it is only half way full so the fiddlers can get out of the water

 

[DWhatley]

For my fiddlers, I use a 2 gallon, split in half with a plexiglass divider with a small nano filter and a piece of lava rock on each side. The division is used to keep the smaller ones on one side and the larger on the other as well as to keep from fouling the entire tank if one dies. The lava rock is set against the divider so that if they crawl out, it is into the other side. It may be a bit of over kill but I lost a couple of crabs before doing this and now I never find dead ones.

My shrimp are in two 10 gallons (I buy 500 at a time) with hang on, cascading filters and a net over the intake. I change out the water and filter with each new shipment (roughly once a month - sometimes I am lazy and change the water every other shipment) and only top off with fresh water in between. I use Poly-Filters in the overflow which may help some with my laziness but they are probably over-kill (and expensive) for the shrimp. I have an overhead (not on the tank) regular light fixture mounted about 2 feet over the tanks (they are under a stairway) but I have noticed that they seem to do best if I keep the lights off as much as possible.

I feed both tanks a little Cyclop-eeze every couple of days and have very little maintenance.

 

[marineboy]

So I haven't done very much searching through this thread but just thought everybody might like to know that mussels and snails also make great octo food. i feed my octo a variety of foods including shrimp, hermit crabs, shore crabs, mussels, snails, and topsmelt and out of all of them he loves the mussels the most so if you live close to the ocean you might want to pick up some mussels from your local reef, your octo will truly appreciate it!

 

[DWhatley]

I've talked (via email) to a couple of people about trying to ship barnacles or some other similar small food for my Mercatoris' but no one thinks they will survive shipping. I did find some reasonably priced clams at

Brine & Ghost Shrimp, Feeder Fish, Aquarium Supply - Live Brine Shrimp (my primary shore shrimp supplier)

but they were way too big to even be of interest to the Mercs. Of the six I purchased and now use as substrate cleaners, only one has died in the roughly 4 months I have had them so they may be a good idea for the larger octos (hopefully I will get the opportunity to find out next week ;>).

 

[Nancy]

Marineboy, how large are the mussels and what's the size of your octopus? Does it drill the mussels?

Nancy

 

[SandV]

i have tried mussels with mine and he doesnt really like them... i still have one in the feeder tank...

 

[marineboy]

Well my octo is about 8" in length from the length of one tentacle to the other and a out an 1" long mantle. I always broke the mussels open and then fed them to him because when I just left them in the tank he wouldn't touch them.

And the mussels that I left in there were about 4"-5" in case you were interested Nancy.

 

[fishkid6692]

i'm getting a baby octo soon and it's about 3-4" what should i feed it?

 

[Animal Mother]

i'm getting a baby octo soon and it's about 3-4" what should i feed it?

The answer is in this thread if you would read it from the first page.

 

[fishkid6692]

i read the first page but what is a good website to get baby clams and crabs off of?

 

[cuttlegirl]

Try aquaculturestore.com, they have a variety of feeders.

 

[luigi]

My aculaetus (I think) seems to just like frozen scallops. I have put damsels. frozen silversides, and fresh frozen shrimp in there, and he just throws it back at me. He will however, try to rip the feeding stick from your fingers with frozen scallops.

 

[dsharfin]

Octopus Tank

I have introduced an octopus to a tank with several fish, a bunch of snails, a starfish, and a hermit crab. I think the octopus is too small to eat most of the other animals now, but is there any danger (to the octopus) in leaving the other animals in there until he's big enough to eat them all?