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What Ceph for a 29 Gallon Biocube

Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Messages
1,740
Hello I've currently been trying to set up a reef tank in my 29 gallon biocube. I have three emerald crabs in there and most of the soft corals I've placed in my tank thus far have been consumed by these crabs. My original plan was to house a cephalopod in this tank but due to issues at the time I decided to go with a reef setup instead. I figure since I have too many crustaceans and snails in this tank to count and it is well cycled that I should just go ahead with the cephalopod. I've been told by several differen sources that I could house both an O. bimaculoides and O. Briareus in this tank. Can anyone give me any recommendations? Please email me at [email protected] Thanks so much. It is very difficult to find info on these guys.
 
Yes I tried with a S. Bandensis once when the tank was still new but that didn't work out so well. I figure that with the small size of the tank and the fact that I'm turning it into a reef tank that another go with a few S. Bandensis would be better then an octo. I'm also working on putting a flow through tank above the 29 biocube to raise the S. Bandensis to a size large enough to not loose it in the tank and also to prevent it from being eating by other animals in the tank. I just have to get the tank drilled first, and finding someone to do that is becoming a major pain. I'll try to post some pics of my tank when I get the flow through system set up so I can get some really good feed back.
 
This is where I found the O. Briareus. The lady that runs this business is pretty good and I've bought from her several times and have never been dissatisfied. I asked her about the O. Briareus that she sold and she said "Hello. They get about the size of a base ball and tank should be close to 50 gal.. 30 can work but is risky.." So I'm thinking that maybe she has a different species and is just incorrectly identifying it her animals. She has a picture on her website but it's hard to tell. If anyone could check it out and give me some feed back that would be awesome. http://www.ccritters.com/catalog/i202.html Thanks
 
Those look like a briareus but she is wrong in telling you its ok to put one in you tank. I have one right now in a 125 gal tank and she seems cramped. she has a 3.5" head or mantle and her arms are 24" tip to tip and she is about 6 months old. you need to look for a dwarf octopus. I think O. hummelincki might be ok in a 29 gal. but I am not sure I just know about briareus.
 
Dana is male, not female :wink:and I think his "HELLO" was meant to make you think about what you wanted to do without insulting you. He is a good, licensed collector but he makes his living collecting critters and selling them and not advising people against what they want to do (he does not have a retail store). He also knows what a briareus looks like and how to tell them from a mercatoris. Unlike Tom, he does collect at least some of them himself (Tom usually gets his from the lobster fishermen or from Dana if they have stuff to swap and Tom has a waiting customer). I wish had checked Dana's site though as I paid much more for Kaysoh.
 
Wow! Thanks for the correction on his/her gender. I always thought he was a she. So embarrasing. I agree though. $25 for any octopus is a really great price. So between the O. Briareus and the O. Bimaculoides, which would you best recommend for a first time ceph owner? I've heard really great things from Bimac owners and their beautiful spots are really alluring. Then I came here and saw the colors of the Briareus. So I'm in between the two. Here's a sight where I got alot of my info on the O. Bimac. Tell me what you think. http://www.longarmlabs.com/longarmlabs82806_007.htm Note the middle section of this states the size of the O. Bimaculoides and states that they get no larger then a lemon in ML (mantle length) and that they can be kept in a 30 gallon. Now I'm not try to argue with everyone here. I'm just putting out the resource to get feed back on how viable this info is for me. Thanks.
 
Oh and speaking of small octo's. Does anyone know where I could get any? So far I've been recommended the O. hummelincki or O. mercatoris. I've seen the dwarfs and all the pictures I see of them are red elongated almost squid like animals. Do they stay red and elongated or do they change colors like other species?
 
This is my current 29 gallon biocube.
 

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Let's do a reality check.

Have you tried to contact "longarmlabs"? If you do you will find that they have not been in business for years. In spite of the name, this is an individual, not a scientific avenue.

Take out a ruler and look at how large he states the mantle size could be. He is actually over stating the size but I don't know where you would find a 20 cm lemon (about 8" or closer to a cantelope). Hold the ruler up to your tank, measure out 8" and then add a foot of arm. Do you really think an animal that size would live in there? In truth the 8" mantle is the size for a bimaculatus and a bimaculoides can only expect to reach a 5" mantle but the arm length of over a foot is correct for bimaculoides. The measurements are for an octopus at rest, it can stretch its arm double that length.

You can continue looking for someone to say or partially say what you want to hear but this is one forum that will speak from experience, complete with individual journals and keepers of animals in a home environment. You must decide who is really giving you proper advice and if you want to listen.
 
skywindsurfer;143333 said:
Wow! Thanks for the correction on his/her gender. I always thought he was a she. So embarrasing. I agree though. $25 for any octopus is a really great price. So between the O. Briareus and the O. Bimaculoides, which would you best recommend for a first time ceph owner? I've heard really great things from Bimac owners and their beautiful spots are really alluring. Then I came here and saw the colors of the Briareus. So I'm in between the two. Here's a sight where I got alot of my info on the O. Bimac. Tell me what you think. http://www.longarmlabs.com/longarmlabs82806_007.htm Note the middle section of this states the size of the O. Bimaculoides and states that they get no larger then a lemon in ML (mantle length) and that they can be kept in a 30 gallon. Now I'm not try to argue with everyone here. I'm just putting out the resource to get feed back on how viable this info is for me. Thanks.

"No larger than a lemon." I've seen some pretty large lemons. I've seen some pretty small ones. The info is not viable for you. At least not in the sense it's being related.

Octopuses like to do more than sit in one spot and be looked at. They like to do stuff like climb up and down and through and over and under, and jet around and swim. Stuff a medium sized octopus just will not be able to do in a 30 gallon tank.

An O. briareus in a 30 gallon is like a Great Dane in a broom closet. Mine was in a 75 gallon and it was fairly limited on how it could move about the tank because no matter where it went it could touch top, back, front, and bottom everywhere in the tank, as well as stretch out and touch both sides (48" OD). I raised it from the size of a nickel. It didn't take 6 months for that octopus to grow far too large for a 30 gallon.

We are people who do it for fun and for the love of the animal and some of us even do it for the love of bonafied science and research, and we'll straight up tell you, "good idea, bad idea" and the suggestions made are typically by people who have done it and have been doing it for years now. Collectively there's at least 50 years worth of octopus keeping experience (way more I'm certain) among the frequenters of this forum, so good luck finding an indisputable conflicting resource.
 
Thank you for all of your input. I just want to say that I am not trying to step on anyones toes or upset anyone here. I have never owned an ocotpus before and I'm just trying to get all the facts together from what I've found around the internet. I do appreciate all of your advice and I know that this is a really reliable source. I'm sorry if I have affending anyone here with my ignorance. Given the pictures I've sent, Would I be able to keep one or two S. Bandensis in this tank? "Note" I plan on removing the anemones and fish before doing so and I'm plumbing a nursery tank to raise them up in first.
 
skywindsurfer;143379 said:
Thank you for all of your input. I just want to say that I am not trying to step on anyones toes or upset anyone here. I have never owned an ocotpus before and I'm just trying to get all the facts together from what I've found around the internet. I do appreciate all of your advice and I know that this is a really reliable source. I'm sorry if I have affending anyone here with my ignorance. Given the pictures I've sent, Would I be able to keep one or two S. Bandensis in this tank? "Note" I plan on removing the anemones and fish before doing so and I'm plumbing a nursery tank to raise them up in first.

1 S. bandensis at best. They jet around like a squid when they get startled, can potentially fatally injure themselves jetting into rocks, glass, etc. Need LOTS of space. Would work for about the first 3 months, then they'd need a bigger home, and that's assuming you hatch them or receive them as hatchlings.
 
You could get away with an Abdopus aculeatus in a 30 gallon.

After keeping the one I had, in a 60 gallon cube... I'd never want to restrict their ability to move around. Bigger really is better. If you're serious about it go all in on a bigger tank, then your options are much better.
 

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