• 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.

alphaceph

Cuttlefish
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Moscow
Bought two blue-ringed octopuses 2 days ago. I have 125 liter reef tank& Over-spec bubble magus curve A9 skimmer, live rock, BioGro bacteria supplement every week etc. Currently water quality is as follows: pH ~8,1, ammonia 0ppm, nitrite ~0,05-0,1 ppm (increased after introduction of octopuses), nitrate 5-10 ppm, salinity 1,025. Water temperature is 22,5 C(hope that it's not too high for these species, as I suppose they are more tropical ones).

Nitrite of 0,1 is a big concern for me, how long can they tolerate it ? Also, is pH 8,1 ok or its supposed to be 8,2 ?

As you can see on the video, one octopus crawled on the back of another, probably they try to breed(hope so)... After that one of them became always hidden in cave of live rock, another one is much more sociable, wandering in the tank during the day. I feed them with frozen shrimp, however recently I have bought severall camel shrimps and anemone crab for my babies :wink:

What do you think guys of my water specs ?
 

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Hi! I moved this thread to the Exotics forum, because (as I'm sure / hope you are aware), these octopuses are extremely dangerous - a bit can cause severe illness or death.

Where did you buy these from? How long have you been keeping octopuses? BRO journals are very rare here!
 
Hi!) yes, I know about tetrodotoxin in its beak... actually I’ve bought diver gloves and feed them only with pincette.

I have bought them at local store, the owner made the delivery specially for me)
I had octopus marcopus for 3 months, until it escaped while tank was open(I was actually sitting on sofa and didn’t saw him crawling on the floor...) Now there is no holes at all to escape)
 
Hi! They are doing ok, each of them found its favorite places under the rock. During this period of time they ate 1 big anemone crab, 1 hermit crab, I've been trying to give them frozen shrimp, however they grab it, and after several minutes throw back... I have 5 camel shrimps in the tank and one sexy shrimp - they are all still alive, probably they're too fast to be caught by BROs.

I still have 0,1 ppm nitrite according to JBL test kit(however API shows 0 and Salifert also shows approx. 0).Nitrate 5-10 ppm. Other parameters are ok.

As I have some corals in the tank, I also add Seachem Plus and Trace solutions with micro elements, that include some small amount of copper, but I think it doesn't expose any risk to my octopuses.

Today I'am going to buy them 1 more anemone crab.
 

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This is the example of how they throw back a frozen shrimp, probably the size of a piece must be smaller.
 

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Hi! They are doing ok, each of them found its favorite places under the rock. During this period of time they ate 1 big anemone crab, 1 hermit crab, I've been trying to give them frozen shrimp, however they grab it, and after several minutes throw back... I have 5 camel shrimps in the tank and one sexy shrimp - they are all still alive, probably they're too fast to be caught by BROs.

I still have 0,1 ppm nitrite according to JBL test kit(however API shows 0 and Salifert also shows approx. 0).Nitrate 5-10 ppm. Other parameters are ok.

As I have some corals in the tank, I also add Seachem Plus and Trace solutions with micro elements, that include some small amount of copper, but I think it doesn't expose any risk to my octopuses.

Today I'am going to buy them 1 more anemone crab.
Most of this sounds great, but copper is a huge no-no when it comes to cephalopods. They have copper in their blood and use it to bind oxygen to their bloodstream. Any trace amounts of copper in your system can and will kill your animals. I would recommend adding a copper absorption media asap to keep your animals safe. I can provide a link to what I use if you'd like.

Copper... Is it really that deadly?
Here is a link to another TONMO conversation about copper in ceph-tanks. One of our moderators shared some insight they have from 10 years of experience. Copper is bad.
 
Most of this sounds great, but copper is a huge no-no when it comes to cephalopods. They have copper in their blood and use it to bind oxygen to their bloodstream. Any trace amounts of copper in your system can and will kill your animals. I would recommend adding a copper absorption media asap to keep your animals safe. I can provide a link to what I use if you'd like.

Copper... Is it really that deadly?
Here is a link to another TONMO conversation about copper in ceph-tanks. One of our moderators shared some insight they have from 10 years of experience. Copper is bad.
Thanks for the article, today I made 10% water change and added Seachem Prime, which according to the instruction removes heavy metals. Also, I noticed that my PO4 levels are at 0,05-0,1 ppm, is it a concern for BROs ?

Nitrate was 10ppm before water change.
Nitrite 0,1ppm
 
Added carbon in external filter
They ate one more hermit crab
Last two days they spent most of the time hiding in the rock in different places
Water quality is the same
 
Your phosphate levels seem fine, I wouldn't be worried about them at that level. In addition to adding carbon to the external filter you could also add a mesh bag with a small amount of CupriSorb (this is one brand recommendation, but there are others available). CupriSorb more specifically targets copper in your water, and actually changes color if it is absorbing copper, so you will have an easy visual indicator if your system has a lot of copper remaining. Seachem Prime will probably be fine for you but it is really only designed to remove trace amounts of heavy metals found in municipal water (per their product support).
 
Guys, do you think that BROs will catch camel shrimp ? Since almost 3 weeks, they didn't eat any of them. Big concern for me, as I noticed shrimps eating coral polyps.

Tried to make a trap with a food inside of a bottle - they don't get into it.
Hope octopuses will eat those evil shrimps, as I can not catch them...
 

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