Ceph safe decorations/toys

[silverarm]

I'm in the process of setting up a new tank for an octopus and I was considering putting in some colored glass jars or vases both for hiding places and decoration. Does anyone know if the additives used to color the glass are safe?

Also, what other things are good to use or avoid? I know that food grade PVC is OK, and I've heard of some plastics like leggos or cat toy balls (minus the bell of course). What about resin sculptures?

 

[Nancy]

Hi and welcome to TONMO.com!

Given my own experiences, I'd be very wary of glass. Even a small octopus is very strong and gets even stronger when older. They can and will move large rocks and everything else. There's a real danger that the glass would break and cut your octopus. It's too risky, even if it is pretty.

Food-safe plastic, plastic kid's toys (with no sharp edges or metal parts), and clay flower pots can be used. Pretty shells make nice decorations, too.

As far as I know, resin is Ok. A few of our ceph keepers have put it in their ceph tanks - however, I've noticed that some of the resin sculptures have sharp edges -avoid those.

Nancy

 

[Jean]

I'd also avoid anything with a narrow neck. Young octis grow very rapidly indeed and we had an instance where a young octi ate a meal, retreated to it's bottle (with a narrow neck) and sometime during the night tried to leave but had grown and got stuck. The neck of the bottle prevented the poor wee guy from expanding his mantle and he suffocated.....absolutely devastating! So there is a limit to how small a space they can squeeze through

J

 

[silverarm]

Thanks for the advice and the welcome! I guess I'll stick to the PVC that I already put in there among the live rock, though I think I'd better glue down the bigger rocks to avoid any avalanches. I might nickname it Squish, but I certainly don’t want it to live up to the name!

I found the perfect resin Cthulhu statue to put in there. I was going to throw in some small ruin sculptures so that my octopus would have it’s own little city of R’lyeh to rule over, but I don’t know if I’ll have the room left after adding so much rock! I guess I’d rather err on the side of healthy environment instead of style.

Jared