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10g Merc

Omega

GPO
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Nov 30, 2009
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This was a 10g feeder tank to hold foods for an octopus for my 110g tank buuuut my 110 is holding fish for my mom temporarily and will probably keep me from having a large octo this year. So i took one of my cycled feeder tanks and tweaked it. And i know almost everyone who is opening this is planning on saying something about water quality in a 10g. the sand bed is at least 3 inches in most of the tank, ~20lbs of rock, and the kicker is a fluval canister filter rated for a 100g tank =]. It had been attached as an extra filter to my larger tank but im pretty sure my sump can handle the two fish without it lol. I'm guessing that adds 3-4 more gallons of water to the tank so i probably have about 10 actually gallons of water if you were to remove all the sand and rock and filter. I also plan on changing small amounts of water daily rather than a gallon every few days to help not sway water qualities all at once . sorry if the pictures dont post right, first ones ive done on here

I put a small pvc setup under the rocks im not really sure if thats something the octo will like, I haven't seen many of the pipe setups you guys have in your tanks.

Here is a shot of the lid, its plexiglass with a hinged door and lock


A shot of the tank in normal light, you can see shells and marbles I added hoping they will give it some amusement.


And here is a shot of the tank with no ambient light whatsoever


-is the red light too bright?
-should I add a sea star in with the octo my larger tank has a serpent star and brittle star, would they be bothered by the light?
-any other suggestions would be appreciated.
 

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I only tried one plastic pipe in my merc tank and that was an experiment with a red tube sitting out in the open to see if it attacted them and removed enough light so that it might be used as a den. One of the three went through it once as I recall (I think there is a photo somewhere) but that was the extend of its use. My mercs have tended to take dens a couple of inches off the bottom (which may have been why the red pipe was rejected). Sleazy's barnacles are almost mid tank so you might want to add a barnacle cluster or another piece of pipe in the arch between the two rocks.

A merc will not fight your lid but you will need to keep it covered since you have no overlap at the top and have a full tank. We have found that a 2" overlap around the top and lowering the tank about 2" is all that is really needed for a merc.

My red lighting is pretty bright in Sleazy's (also used for Sisturus and Wiley) but you do need to give it places to avoid the light so more rocks or habitable shells are highly desirable. I lost two different animals after two weeks that I feel may have died because they did not have adequate places to hide. The theory is conjecture but I am now very careful that they have plenty of dark places.
 
Would a dark ceramic mug work as a nice hiding spot? i have several i was thinking theyd be merc sized. ill try and track down a barnacle cluster though, itd give the tank some form of decoration too.
 
A mug will be way too large. Your merc will likely have a mantle smaller than the first joint on your pinky and its choice of den will not be much larger.

Oh, and you CAN put a surpent star in the tank. I also keep a few shore shrimp to encourage some hunting (adults rarely catch them but it does give a little movement to the tank - be warned that they do try to pinch you just a little when you are trying to feed the octo though - no pain, just annoying). Peppermint shrimp will likely survive too for a little color. There is a yellow sponge that does not like light (Ken calls them yellow frilly sponges) that can add some interest. Any kind of interesting snails or hermits may or may not become dinner but give movement. If you want both in there, be sure to get snails with an operculum or the hermits will very likely kill the snails. Snails with a trap door seem to survive fine with them, however and are less likely to be eaten by the octo as well.
 
I have some dried barnacles around here somewhere I got when i still lived on the coast..guna try and track them down for dens. When you acclimated your mercs did you have the red lights or did you introduce the 24 hour lighting after a day or two?
 
I acclimate in ambient light in my kitchen and have the red lights on when the octo is transferred to the tank. Since they arrive during the day and I have a lot of uncurtained windows, there is no available darkness.
 
IME 2" (from behind the eyes to the tip of the mantle) would be a very large merc. 1.5" is pretty normal. Arms are usually 1.5 to 2 times mantle length.
 

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