Getting a octupus

[Species_Tank]

HI, since seeing many octupuses both on tv and in person I decided i want one. I know there generall care.
My question is what species thats suitable for the aquarium lives the longest? I willing to get a 100-125 gallon tank for it and also a chiller if neccesary. I also want to know if I could keep a male and a female in the same tank so maybe they will breed and i don't have to buy another?
Also, do you know a good website to buy from?
Thx

 

[shipposhack]

All species fit for a reasonable home aquarium will live 6 months to 18ish months. You will probably get the octo when they are at least half way through their life. Vulgaris and Bimac are both species fit for that size tank that many keep as pets. Another you could consider that I think needs a chiller is Joubini, but I also think he is a dwarf therefore living for less time than regular octos. The other problem with Joubini is they are nocturnal.

People generally do not keep more than one octopus in the same tank. This can lead to fights and probably the death of one or both of your octopuses. In a large size tank it might be possible to breed the octos. Gender is a hard thing to tell though, and most baby octopods are planktonic so they are quite hard to raise. Also people that do have octopus babies usually only have them in captivity because the mother octopus was already fertilized before capture.

Hope this helps

 

[monty]

HI, since seeing many octupuses both on tv and in person I decided i want one. I know there generall care.
My question is what species thats suitable for the aquarium lives the longest? I willing to get a 100-125 gallon tank for it and also a chiller if neccesary. I also want to know if I could keep a male and a female in the same tank so maybe they will breed and i don't have to buy another?
Also, do you know a good website to buy from?
Thx

The most commonly kept species, bimacs and briareus, normally need a tank in the 55-75 gallon range. A vulgaris requires a larger tank, I'm not sure if 125 would be big enough. There are some reports that using a chiller can extend the life of a bimac, I believe vulgaris and briareus wouldn't need one. O. Rubescens is a bit smaller and would need a chiller, but the general rule is that smaller octos don't live as long. One important factor, though, is that if you get a tank-bred bimac, its age is known, while a briareus or vulgaris is more likely to be wild-caught as an adult of unknown age, so even if its total lifespan is longer, it may not last as long in your tank. We don't generally recommend keeping two octopuses together, since often they don't get along, leading to one killing the other or at least both being stressed out. Some people have tried it anyway, and it doesn't always lead to problems, but it often does. Most octos are hard to sex, also, so you wouldn't likely be able to tell if you had a male and female... I don't know of anywhere that can promise to send you a breeding pair.