What are you feeding your octopus?

[iwun1]

is feeding diffrent kinds of hermits,diffrent kinds of snails,fiddlers,thawed shrimp,the occasional blue leg enough variety? do i need more? less? more shrimp? more crab?I just want to know if my feeding schedule is ok..

 

[lexcanaves]

Hello everyone, I am new at Tonmo
My questions are: what size hermits to feed the octopus? The size of their mantle? A little bit smaller/larger? Actually, how can I determine what is a good size of any crab?
My octopus (I got him last week on Monday) has not touched any of the dwarf blue-tips in his tank. Their actual bodies are about 1/2 inch long. Should I go for a larger species? Doctor Octopus has a mantle that is just over an inch long with legs about 6 inches from tip to tip. Still not sure of the species, though. He was supposed to be a Dwarf, and Animal Mother thinks he may be a Briareus.
I do have some fiddlers on the way from aquaculturestore.com, but hermits would suit my budget better.
Thanks for any input fellow octopus owners.

 

[monty]

Hello everyone, I am new at Tonmo
My questions are: what size hermits to feed the octopus? The size of their mantle? A little bit smaller/larger? Actually, how can I determine what is a good size of any crab?
My octopus (I got him last week on Monday) has not touched any of the dwarf blue-tips in his tank. Their actual bodies are about 1/2 inch long. Should I go for a larger species? Doctor Octopus has a mantle that is just over an inch long with legs about 6 inches from tip to tip. Still not sure of the species, though. He was supposed to be a Dwarf, and Animal Mother thinks he may be a Briareus.
I do have some fiddlers on the way from aquaculturestore.com, but hermits would suit my budget better.
Thanks for any input fellow octopus owners.

to TONMO!

I'm not sure on size, and some octos are just picky eaters. If you haven't already, make sure that the water's OK as well, since that can sometimes throw off on octo's appetite.

If you can, posting a picture over in "ID requests" would help a lot in guessing the species, although if AM has seen it in person he's probably right... and probably more likely to give you a good answer on food size than I am, anyway.

 

[lexcanaves]

I posted pictures and he likened it to the briareus he has now, even though the colors are different. Mine is more of a reddish brown. There are some pictures in my albums I would appreciate any opinions.
And I know what you mean about picky eater, sheesh. If there was caviar for octopuses I'm sure that is all Doctor Octopus would want to eat.
Thanks for the welcome!

 

[lexcanaves]

I forgot to say that my water parameters are perfect-o. That was my 1st worry so I have been testing every other day since the arrival, just in case :/.

 

[tent-tical]

i have an inlimited supply of FREE fresh seafood at my disposal.clams,mussels,crab meat,lobsters,shrimp,scollops,etc.etc.etc.OCTO HUSBANDRY as far as feeding shouldnt be a problem for me...what do you think?

 

[monty]

to TONMO!

Fresh seafood sounds promising, but keep in mind that some octos will only eat live food, and others can be pretty picky, so you shouldn't count on being able to feed non-live food, particularly at first. If the octo is willing to eat it, a lot of that sounds fine: marine crustaceans and molluscs are a fine diet for an octo, but having a source for appropriately sized live crabs, clams, etc, is important in case you get a very picky octo.

 

[chaostheory]

For some reason the LFS gave us some squid. My octopus loved it. I thought that it shouldn't be a staple diet so it was more like a treat.

That was daily.

 

[aristocat]

will a octopus feed on a clean up crew? thats the closest thing I have to fiddler crabs in my area. is there a way to breed live food for a octopus.

 

[Animal Mother]

will a octopus feed on a clean up crew? thats the closest thing I have to fiddler crabs in my area. is there a way to breed live food for a octopus.

Yes they will most likely eat the cleanup crew. You can order fiddler crabs online. A lot of us that don't have access to the ocean use www.aquaculturestore.com for live fiddlers and shore shrimp as they are fairly priced and always good service.

Never heard of anyone breeding their own food for an octopus. Mine ate the hitchhiker stomatella snails until it outgrew them. They breed quickly but they won't suffice long term.

 

[Lime]

Do octopuses eat any kind of worm? Just wondering.

 

[Rthkassey]

My octo is very picky. She will only eat crayfish. She wont touch snails or hermit crabs. But she will devour a crayfish larger than her in less than 20 mins.

 

[octopi88]

is marine shrimp too hard for a bimac to catch

 

[DWhatley]

Do you mean small shore shrimp or something larger?

Shore shrimp are difficult for octos to catch. I have found with several species and sizes of octopuses that they will be happily eaten served freshly killed but very slowly eaten when left loose in the tank.

Regular "eating shrimp" are much slower and hang out at on the bottom substrate. I have placed live 5"+ in with my hummelincki who would eventually eat them (he was fed thawed shrimp daily even with the live food in the tank). The shrimp don't do all that well in an aquarium (I was able to keep several alive for a couple of months but they had a 65 gallon aquarium pretty much to themselves) and I was never sure if Octane caught them while they were alive or simply found them when they died but am quite sure he could catch them if he wanted (ie was hungry).

 

[octopi88]

thanks i think ill just feed him crabs