• 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.

what not to keep with a merc.

abate

Cuttlefish
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Aug 24, 2009
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i'm getting a merc. and i need to know what to remove from my reef tank. i've herd that there fine with corals so i'm not going to mention them.
which of the following will have to go?
a coral banded shrimp
a 4 inch peaceful angelfish
some semiagresive anemonies
5 damsels
some nassaries snails
and a (4-5 inch) purple lobster​

please resposnd soon because it comes thursday​
 
Interesting you should say they are fine with corals and I would like to know the source to document some actual examples. If you would not mind, please PM me with a link.

IMO I would remove all fish. A mercatoris is very shy and even if the fish don't attack it, you will likely never see the octopus. Even in a bare tank it will likely take 2 weeks and a nicely positioned den before you will see your little night buddy.

Snails of any type are fine. There is a possibility of some being consumed in the first 2 weeks (or appearing to be, sometimes it is just the shells the octos want and they don't/can't harm the snail) but IME octos prefer other foods and will ignore them after settling in.

The lobster probably won't make it more than 2 days.

Not sure about the banded. Harvey rules the reef and intimidates the trigger fish but I have never tried one with an octopus. I don't believe they could hurt the merc but I don't think octos acknowledge the cleaner critters protection pact.
 
I have never kept a cowfish but these properties would prevent me from putting it in an octo tank:

Longhorn cowfish - Wikipedia

They are such slow swimmers cowfish are easily caught by hand, making a grunting noise when captured. This is the most well-known cowfish species in the aquarium trade.

If severely stressed, this species may be able to exude deadly toxin, ostracitoxin, an ichthyotoxic, hemolytic, heat-stable, non-dialyzable, non-protein poison in the mucous secretions of their skin. It is apparently unique among known fish poisons; it is toxic to boxfish and resembles red tide and sea cucumber toxins in general properties.

I don't know anything about the gobie eel either but in truth, I avoid keeping anything other than serpents, thorney starfish, feather dusters and shrimp in with my merc. That does not mean other thing can't live with them but I know my inverts are fine and the merc is fine. The life span is so short, I don't take additional risks.
 

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