Hello everyone!

[Octobsession]

Hi, Everyone! I'm Michele, a 28 year old computer tech obsessed with animals in general and octopi and cephs in particular. It's kind of strange...I started off with a really keen interest in snails and their associative learning abilities. That led me to look into the sea where I found manta rays flying gracefully and being gentle and giant. That somehow led me to octopi who have far more advanced intellect than the snails that so impressed me earlier. I then started learning about their ability to change their colors and textures, how well developed their eyesight is, their problem solving skills, and who can fail to get caught up in the beauty of an octopus as it so elegantly moves along the ocean floor? Well, to make a long story short, I fell truly, madly, deeply in love.... with something wholly alien and amazing. From octopi my interests have grown to include squid, cuttlefish, nautiluses, etc. My friends and family think I am completely mad, and perhaps I am. I simply can't go more than a few hours without researching octopuses, finding videos, and just immersing myself in every tiny scrap of info available about these amazing creatures. My goal is to someday keep an octopus so that I can observe it and learn from it all the things I cannot learn from texts and videos. That, however, is a long way off as I have never even had a salt water tank. My plan is to start small, set up a small saltwater tank with some easy to care for fish and then move slowly onto bigger reef tanks with more difficult to care for inhabitants and lower tolerances until after however long that learning process takes I can finally buy a really large tank (say 70-100 gallons or so) and get it cycling for 6 months or a year and then introduce my first octo. In the meantime, I'm looking into conservation efforts as I understand even small changes in the ocean's chemistry can affect these wonderful creatures and that because of various things people are doing to the ocean they have taken a hit. If you have any suggestions for things I should read, watch, listen to, please, please let me know.

 

[monty]

to TONMMO... even if you are mad, you'll fit in fine with this particular type of madness... the "ARTICLES" button at the top of the page good if you haven't noticed it yet, the image gallery is good, otherwise, just poking around or searching should be good. For other sites, there's a lot that's good on "the cephalopod page" as well: Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish, and Nautilus - The Cephalopod Page

 

[cuttlegirl]

When you start setting up your first salt water tank, you might want to start with at least a 29 gallon. Larger tanks are more stable in terms of water chemistry. I have found that the larger the tank, the easier it is to care for... Also, pretty much as soon as you have set up a tank, you wish for a bigger one . If you can afford to start with a 70 gallon, then go for it! Good luck.

 

[SandV]

cuttlegirl is right... we don't recommend that anyone starting a salt water tank start with anything really less than a 55....

 

[dreadhead]

 

[sorseress]

to Tonmo! You're going to fit right in, and believe me, we all appreciate people who like to read and research before they start trying to acquire a ceph.

 

[Octobsession]

Thanks for the link! Can never get enough reading material.

 

[Octobsession]

When you start setting up your first salt water tank, you might want to start with at least a 29 gallon. Larger tanks are more stable in terms of water chemistry. I have found that the larger the tank, the easier it is to care for... Also, pretty much as soon as you have set up a tank, you wish for a bigger one . If you can afford to start with a 70 gallon, then go for it! Good luck.

Wow! That's awesome. I had no idea a bigger tank might be easier as a starter tank I think it would look better too and give me more fish options. I don't know about starting with the 70 gal though... maybe 55? I read that sometimes it's difficult to convert a fish tank to an octo tank because of traces of copper left in the tank if the fish have to be treated for some kind of scale condition (icht I think it's called). What I read said that copper is extremely harmful to octos, but it's in the fish medicine and difficult to remove. Well... so sayeth the Internet. I have no idea if the copper thing is as bad as it was made out to be or if it's even accurate information, but I won't take any avoidable risks of poisoning my buddy. I want his home to be perfect.

 

[Animal Mother]

Yes it is true about copper.