Are these tankmates safe?

[rcl]

I am planning to add an octo to my tank very soon (as I have gotten the temperature down to 74-76!!) and am wondering if the following will have any chance of survival with him --

Mud whelks
a 4 Stripe Damsel and a Domino Damsel
Fighting Conch
Sand sifting starfish

Also I am wondering about feeding (with the clams from octopets), would I be able to throw a few of them in this tank so that he can 'hunt' them naturally, or would he simply eat as many as he could find and overeat/overstuff himself?

Thanks, and also if anybody can recommend a fish or other cleanup crew style tankmate I would appreciate it. Success AND failure stories welcome

Robert

 

[Nancy]

An octop belongs in a species tank and those other things you have belong elsewhere, with the exception of the starfish.

The clams can be put a few at a time in a shell which serves as a dish.

Amphipods are also good to have in your tank, because the little bimacs are raised on those, too.

I like small crabs as scavengers - blue legged are the smallest sold around here. I also found an order of shore shrimp from Florida made excellent scavengers and are they for your octopus to catch when it gets older. Snails are also good. Your octopus will eat both crabs and snails, but probably not all of them.

If your little ocotpus is under three months old, plan to offer food more than once a day. You worry about building them up, not about them overstuffing themselves. They need to eat to grow.

Nancy