This is my first post on Tonmo. Ive been lurking on this website for years at this point but finally made an account recently. I a few months ago decided I want to make an attempt at my first cephalopod. Ive been keeping reef aquariums for over 2 years and would like to think im pretty good at it(mostly specializing in Acros and Clams, I also have worked at my LFS for nearly 3 years) so im planning to attempt an Octopus Briareus, ive just got a few questions and ideas to run though before I start really putting money into.
To start the tank im going to be using is a 48x24x21 100gal aquarium. I plan to drill this tank and only fill it to the 13in mark, leaving 65gal of water volume to create a sort of paludarium look that will hopefully help discourage any escape attempts. I will still have a fully custom acrylic lid siliconed to the top with locks on it as well as sponges covering the output and drain for the sump to eliminate the possibility of escapes entirely. I have a 18x18 trigger systems sump that will have a Tunze Osmolator ATO, Vectra S1 return, and am currently undecided on the skimmer but leaning towards a Nyos 120. The idea is a sort of macroalgae, gorgonian, seagrass, mangrove estuary. With this in mind I idealy would like to use a wavebox such as the Tunze Comline Wavebox but am generally unsure as to if that is safe or could be made safe for an octopus and was wondering if anybody had any ideas or experience?
As soon as I have the tank set up I plan to use a mixture of mangrove mud substrates and aragonite to create a loamy bed for the seagrass (Thalassia testudinum to be specific) and some liverock with different macros from a current set up. Once the tank is set up I wanted to wait 1-3 months before the introduction of an octopus to allow the seagrasses to really take root and the whole system to establish my question is during this time how safe is it to fill the tank with inverts or fish? I will still need to heavily feed the tank to encourage seagrass growth and wanted to know if its be safe to introduced different crabs, shrimp, snails, and perhaps cleaner gobies in hopes of them cleaning or becoming food to scavenge later on, but am unsure if certain inverts or anything would pose a risk to the octopus if they were introduced first? Im thinking mostly like Peppermint shrimp, Saron shrimp, sally light foot crabs, etc.
Im been planning this set up seriously for about 3 months now and while my main concerns are with the two questions posed I'd love to hear any and ALL feedback. I'm honestly not even sure if seagrass is an option or if they'll just be dug up, but any advice is greatly appreciated! I hope to have some exciting updated on this plan in the coming months! Thank you!
To start the tank im going to be using is a 48x24x21 100gal aquarium. I plan to drill this tank and only fill it to the 13in mark, leaving 65gal of water volume to create a sort of paludarium look that will hopefully help discourage any escape attempts. I will still have a fully custom acrylic lid siliconed to the top with locks on it as well as sponges covering the output and drain for the sump to eliminate the possibility of escapes entirely. I have a 18x18 trigger systems sump that will have a Tunze Osmolator ATO, Vectra S1 return, and am currently undecided on the skimmer but leaning towards a Nyos 120. The idea is a sort of macroalgae, gorgonian, seagrass, mangrove estuary. With this in mind I idealy would like to use a wavebox such as the Tunze Comline Wavebox but am generally unsure as to if that is safe or could be made safe for an octopus and was wondering if anybody had any ideas or experience?
As soon as I have the tank set up I plan to use a mixture of mangrove mud substrates and aragonite to create a loamy bed for the seagrass (Thalassia testudinum to be specific) and some liverock with different macros from a current set up. Once the tank is set up I wanted to wait 1-3 months before the introduction of an octopus to allow the seagrasses to really take root and the whole system to establish my question is during this time how safe is it to fill the tank with inverts or fish? I will still need to heavily feed the tank to encourage seagrass growth and wanted to know if its be safe to introduced different crabs, shrimp, snails, and perhaps cleaner gobies in hopes of them cleaning or becoming food to scavenge later on, but am unsure if certain inverts or anything would pose a risk to the octopus if they were introduced first? Im thinking mostly like Peppermint shrimp, Saron shrimp, sally light foot crabs, etc.
Im been planning this set up seriously for about 3 months now and while my main concerns are with the two questions posed I'd love to hear any and ALL feedback. I'm honestly not even sure if seagrass is an option or if they'll just be dug up, but any advice is greatly appreciated! I hope to have some exciting updated on this plan in the coming months! Thank you!
CaptFish has written a detailed paper about about his experience with placing fish in an aquarium with O. briareus. Ultimately, I hope to provide it in a better format but chose to retain the pictures and created an all graphic presentation as the Word document was larger than we can currently accomodate. Clicking on the thumbnail and then a second time on the first enlargement will present the full article.
