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About to buy briareus

Joined
Mar 25, 2009
Messages
8
Hey all i'm new here but i've been reading up on everything. My girlfriend is set on geting an octopus for our 150gal. It's fully cycled and only has live rock in it now. The tank used to be a reeftank with 2-250w MH's and a couple T5's and a very strong closed loop.

We were wondering if we could have any starfish in the tank and what kind of cleanup crew if any can we have. Also what fish could also be in the tank.

Also, for substrate i'm planning on using CaribSea Tropic Isle Tahitian Moon Sand http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/instant_aquarium.html

it says it's not Burrower Friendly should this concern me?

I've hunted the forums and searched for the answers but haven't found anything Thanks for your help
 
Hi and welcome to the site!

I don't think that's a good choice for an octopus. They have soft skin, so you don't want sharp edges on your sand. In the chart on the link you sent, it describes this sand as not being "soft belly safe", but there are plenty of other choices that are "soft belly safe". I'd go with one of those.

Also, you won't need such bright lights for an octopus.

Avoid the starfish. Better to choose a pencil urchin or a brittle star. We've found that starfish can attack octopuses. Also no fish - some will attack the octopus and the ocotpus will eat the others. You can have snails (but some might be consumed while the octopus is young.)

Nancy
 
Thanks for the insight. I was afraid of the sand not being safe. I really want to go with some type of black sand but it's very hard to find.

Will the lights be too much even considering a briareus is more of a reef friendly octopus?

Also I have a very strong Closed Loop which currently has a 2" input and 2-1.5" outputs pumping around 6000gph will this strong flow affect the octopus more than regular fish?
 
Thales has mentioned he feels that octos don't need a strong current but I do not know of a case where current has been a problem. They are very strong animals and current strength does not seem to have effected any of my octopuses. At times mine will intentionally sit in the strongest part of the current (directly in front of the pump).

I am not sure what you mean by closed loop. One other member uses the term so I suspect it is now an accepted term that has been applied to a form of aquarium circulation but a true closed loop system would not be something you put in an aquarium, it would be for circulation wholly contained within the pipe work (like for heating using solar panels).

As long as you have no impeller that can be accessed by exploring arm tips you should be good. The one exception we have been finding is that the Koralias seem to be constructed in a way that the medium sized octos have not lost arm tips and many of us use them to create more flow.

For clean-up my very favorite are the thorny stars. These are not fully reef safe but don't bother the corals recommended for an octopus tank. They are brightly colored, diurnal and excellent at locating any food that is hard to reach or not visible. Second, I like to keep 1 serpent per 25-30 gallons in any of my tanks. They are nocturnal but will learn feeding time. Mine all move to the front about 15 minutes before feeding time. The orange one in SueNami's tank will check out any movement in front of the tank (shadows) at almost any time. Lastly I also like brittle stars but recently observed an issue that will cause me to quaranteen them during acclimation. They cannot harm (avoid the green ones though) an octopus but they can cause stress and are pesky. The red ones are particularly active and attractive.

Forget about sea hares for algae, they will be consumed. They usually starve after the algae is removed anyway (I had a terrific one for about 6 months that I moved from tank to tank but eventually, all my tanks were hairless and he would not eat anything else offerred. I am trying a much smaller Caribbean one now that is supposed to eat lettuce - NOT in an octo tank - so I am hoping to be more successful with this one).
 
Thank you for all the help. I was wondering if you had any pictures of a thorny star. I found the other's but I didnt find any thorny stars on any online fish stores. I just want to makesure that I pickout the right stuff for this tank.

Basically a Closed Loop is where the pump is external and the imputs and outputs are plumbed to the tank to avoid the heat and bulkiness of powerheads.

I would really like to keep some fish in the tank with the octo. Since it's a 150gal and briareus's are not that large are there any fish that could stay with the octo. Would a pair of clown's and anemone be possible?
 
They show up in a lot of my octo pictures (many are eye-popping bright) but this video (with the star on the front cover) is one of my favorite octo/thorny interactions. Serendipity just could not stand not being the center of attention (or so I anthromoriphize).

Ken is out of them right now but Lynn may have some if you need a source.
 
Kalypso's tank has the black tahitian moon sand. Can't say I ever saw any issues, and he for sure dug in it.

Clowns would peck the octopuses eyeballs out most likely. The anemone would sting the living crap out of it. They like to explore everything.

Plan on the octopus being the sole inhabitant of the tank other than clean up crew. If you want a cephalopod community, get cuttlefish.
 
I would really like to have a few fish with the octo since this is a 150 gal tank is there any sugestions on fish I could possibly keep and fish to avoid? I'm planning on eventually buying some corals for the tank as well.
 

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