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GPO octopus raising for a movie in Korea (need info to do it properly)

Joumils

Hatchling
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Jun 18, 2019
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Korea
Hello everybody !
I am totally new at everything about octopus and even keeping fish and water animals.
I am going to direct a short movie here in South Korea. To make it short, for the story, a child will bring an octopus from restaurant tank to the sea side. It will be their road trip to the sea side before he freed the octopus in the sea water.
So I knew about this intelligent animal and I was really interested since long time. We are going to shoot the movie at the end of August.
I plan to have an octopus at beginning of July to know more about this animal and to do everything properly for the sake of the octopus during the shooting of this movie.
So I need to know how to make it perfect for the octopus to be good and in good health. In korea they sell 2 kinds of octopus, this one 문어 - 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전 which seems to be the Giant Pacific octopus and this one 낙지 - 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전 which seems to be the octopus minor.
We will do it I guess with the Giant Pacific Octopus, which is better to shoot image and more intelligent and less scared from what I heard.
It's really hard to get information here to breed one of those octopuses since those octopuses are usually in some tanks from restaurant or market where they await to be eaten. I heard that they live not more than one week in those kind of overnumbered octopuses tanks.
I went to some pet fish and aquarium shop without getting much more of good informations.
Then I went to one of those shops and here is what the guy said (though he never sold any Octopus he seemed to know a bit about it). He said that it should be only one by tank (as I read also here), he said that it is possible to give some dry food (I remembered I read somewhere around here that it was not so much possible) and if we don't have a cooler he said to put a small fan in the water or even use a real fan in front of the water (but I guess the octopus will go out of the tank). He said if we don't have purificater if we change 2/3 of the water one time a week it will be okay. And just to add special salt for this.
So I am a bit scared because there is no way fro me that I do it wrong and something happens to the octopus.
I would like to know what you think about the way he proposes to keep the octopus.
To precise: I would like to get one (from the restaurant shop or fish market) and keep it for one month only maybe and then bring it back and freed in the sea water. And then get one more and this one will be used of the movie, and will be keep also one month. Or maybe I will take only one for 2 months... It depends how it grows fast. It should still be quite small and stay small. So those conditions of living will be for 2 months before to be freed back into the sea.
So all the advices I can get to prepare a good tank for the octopus would be really helpful.
We cannot buy the more expansive materials and tanks and we have to do it cheap but we have also to do it properly.

Thanks a lot

Joumils
 
Welcome to TONMO! Unfortunately the proper keeping of an octopus requires several months of forethought, research and planning, including the proper cycling of a tank to ensure you're creating a suitable environment. That said, I personally am not a ceph-keeping expert; I hope others will chime in and provide any guidance on how to achieve your goal without harming the octopus.
 
I have kept a number of octopuses and confirm @tonmo 's concerns. There are also polluting bacterial issues with keeping anything from the ocean and then releasing it back to the wild (some aquariums use only local filtered sea water and only populate their tanks with animals from the same area and do successfully release animals but it is not a safe idea for hobbyists).

A couple of us have tried to "rescue" Octopus minor from our Korean fish markets with no real success but those animals, in addition to being kept in over crowded conditions, are shipped in very, very cold water that likely negate any real chance of success.
Here is a link to one of @davelin315 's attempts and another to my short lived experience
 
Hello,

First of all, thanks Tonmo and DWhatley for your answers.

First, yes I really understood that having octopus is really difficult to manage. I allready read some articles, talks on your forum, or some books or papers that I managed to get and it is actually a bit scary for me who never had any aquarium in my life. But whatever happens I have to manage this. If the cycling of the tank needs time to be well set up then maybe I should find one which is allready set up and get it like this ( I don t know if it is actually possible but I am running short on time and need to find solutions) so of course if there is another option I should take it. To remind, my aim, i'd not keep those octopus for years but at most for 4 weeks.
I need even really basic knowledges about the most important materials to make this possible. As I said the guy from the aquarium proposed me some cheap ways, but I do not want to follow them if they are not proper (like puting a cheap fan in the water to cool down the water, changing the water every week to make it good instead of having a purifyer, etc....

DWhatley when you speak about bacterial issues. This apply also if for example the octopus has been taken away from yellow sea for example, then kept in captivity then released in Yellow sea ?
And also as I read you tried to keep "octopus minor" that were held previously in bad conditions. As I heard, "octopus minor" are heaven harder to keep than "giant pacific octopus". I wonder if it's really true, but I guess so then. That was also one big point that made me consider to go with GPO.
And from what you said about octopus minor makes me even more scared, I should do it the simpler way.
Thanks again for your messages. For me who never experienced aquarium and sea animals keeping every advices and messages can be really helpfull yes.
 
It will help a lot if you can locate a tank that is well established. Even with a well established tank you will need to do water changes (removing and replacing the saltwater. If you have evaporation, you will need to add fresh, NON-Chlorinated water).

The Korean octopuses we have kept were shipped to the US as food so something local may be in better condition. If you are near the coast, you might consider going to the dock and buying directly from the fishermen.

For either animal, you need to keep the water temperature below 49 degrees F (9.5 C). If it is warm there, you will not be able to use just a fan. Octopus minor may be able to tolerate a 10 degree higher temperature.

It is unlikely you will find a baby GPO but even a young one is much larger than Octopus minor and would need a very large aquarium. Here is an outside link with facts about the GPO taken from some of the experts.
 
Hello again,
Thanks a lot for your advices.
- If I understand well it is almost "necessary" to have un established tank right ? I will check it it is possible. The established tank can be brought without water inside ? In casz I don't find established one the octopus would hardly survive ?
- about fresh water there is mineral water source coming from mountains near by where I live I guess it will be okay

-i am 2 hours from the coast and 1 hour from the market where they sell them alive. I am wondering also how I can manage to bring them from there. Can they survive for one or 2 hours in a bag ? It is quite too much right ? Another problem to solve..
-when you speak about 10 degrees more tolerate by octopus minor I assume you speak about 10degrees Fareinheit and not Celsius

- I will check your link thanks and I started to read the book "Octopus the ocean's Intelligent invertebrate" also...

Thanks a lot



It will help a lot if you can locate a tank that is well established. Even with a well established tank you will need to do water changes (removing and replacing the saltwater. If you have evaporation, you will need to add fresh, NON-Chlorinated water).

The Korean octopuses we have kept were shipped to the US as food so something local may be in better condition. If you are near the coast, you might consider going to the dock and buying directly from the fishermen.

For either animal, you need to keep the water temperature below 49 degrees F (9.5 C). If it is warm there, you will not be able to use just a fan. Octopus minor may be able to tolerate a 10 degree higher temperature.

It is unlikely you will find a baby GPO but even a young one is much larger than Octopus minor and would need a very large aquarium. Here is an outside link with facts about the GPO taken from some of the experts.
 
With enough oxygen and temperature control, a 2 hour journey should be fine. Note the "with enough". You would want a very large plastic bag filled with about 2/3 water and 1/3 air (oxygen is better though but unlikely to be available). Place the bag in an ice chest to maintain temp. A cold pack taped to the top (not touching the water part of the bag) will also help.

If you buy an established tank you will need to keep all the rocks and sand wet with the tank water but you can use new water when you set it up at its destination. You will want to wait at least 2 weeks and then test for ammonia and nitrite (both need to be 0) with the new system running before trying to place an animal into the tank.
 

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