- Joined
- Apr 19, 2003
- Messages
- 15
I purchased an octopus about a week ago. This is my third octopus in a year, all in the same tank. That is, it is a mature tank. The first octopus lasted a few months; the second, about 6 months. This one lasted a week. Sigh.
I'd like to figure out what went wrong before I buy another. The tank is a 75 gallon tank which uses a Fluval, even though the tank has an overflow built in. There is a lot of macro algae, which helps.
I can think of a variety of reasons why the octopus may have died:
1) I put two serpent stars in the tank with him. They never seemed to attack each other, but the stars did take up some of the under-rock areas that the octopus seemed to like. Maybe they chased him out of his hiding holes. I guess I should remove them from the tank before I get another octopus.
2) The day before he died, he managed to find his way into the tank's overflow, where it was nice and dark. There was only about 3" of water in the unused overflow, so I filled it up with salt water, so he could get out easily. He never did: the next morning, he was dead. Maybe he was sick, and was going to die anyway, or maybe he suffocatedin the uncirculated water. I tried to get him out, but he was pretty determined to stay in there. I'm manufacturing a plug for the overflow now.
3) Unlike the other two octopuses (who wandered all over the tank a few times each day), this one was VERY reclusive. Maybe he was sick, or maybe he was shy.
4) I had an infestation of bristle worms before I bought the latest octopus, and I solved this dilemma by taking the three live rocks out of the tank and soaking them in fresh water for 2 hours before restoring them to the tank. This did kill the bristle worms, but it may also have killed some of the beneficial bacteria. There is a lot of substrate in the tank, so there would have been plenty of surface area for other sources of bacteria.
Any thoughts about what I did wrong? Should I wait a few weeks and try again?
Jon Bondy
I'd like to figure out what went wrong before I buy another. The tank is a 75 gallon tank which uses a Fluval, even though the tank has an overflow built in. There is a lot of macro algae, which helps.
I can think of a variety of reasons why the octopus may have died:
1) I put two serpent stars in the tank with him. They never seemed to attack each other, but the stars did take up some of the under-rock areas that the octopus seemed to like. Maybe they chased him out of his hiding holes. I guess I should remove them from the tank before I get another octopus.
2) The day before he died, he managed to find his way into the tank's overflow, where it was nice and dark. There was only about 3" of water in the unused overflow, so I filled it up with salt water, so he could get out easily. He never did: the next morning, he was dead. Maybe he was sick, and was going to die anyway, or maybe he suffocatedin the uncirculated water. I tried to get him out, but he was pretty determined to stay in there. I'm manufacturing a plug for the overflow now.
3) Unlike the other two octopuses (who wandered all over the tank a few times each day), this one was VERY reclusive. Maybe he was sick, or maybe he was shy.
4) I had an infestation of bristle worms before I bought the latest octopus, and I solved this dilemma by taking the three live rocks out of the tank and soaking them in fresh water for 2 hours before restoring them to the tank. This did kill the bristle worms, but it may also have killed some of the beneficial bacteria. There is a lot of substrate in the tank, so there would have been plenty of surface area for other sources of bacteria.
Any thoughts about what I did wrong? Should I wait a few weeks and try again?
Jon Bondy