How to set my lights for octopus tank?

[sensei]

Thanks DWhatley,

I thought you somehow tighten the nylon bag to the koralia, but in the nylon looks all loose, that mean you just place the pump in the bag and then you attach the pump with the magnet to the glass???

there is no need to put something to tighten the bag like it is a guard for the pump?

you have never had problems with octupus inpecting pump with ths bag as shown in picture?

2.- my 70g tank has 3 acrilic covers for the whole tank. acrilic is thick so each cover is somewhat heavy ( around 2 pounds), but I just lift them up and there is no clip or safe to avoid lifting them up. what do you think?
is it necesary to secure them somehow to block lifting them up??

thanks again

 

[DWhatley]

I do zip up the bag as tightly as it will go. I don't have the magnets attached to this one so the whole thing is encased but you can use the zipper to close the bag in front of the positioning post to leave the magnetic base free.

I would definitely weight down the corners if you do not secure them in some other way. I have used acrylic hasp locks with success (be sure there is no metal on any locking mechanism your may use) . The hasp locks can serve as hinges as well as locks if you set them up to work that way.

 

[sensei]

DWhatly,
I am not understanding how to use the acrylic hasp locks on the acrilic tops that I have in dt.
you use two per lid?
can you post a picture please??

2.- how much and how ofter should I feed the octopus??
I ask becuase he would eat every day if I offer him but I have read the some feed everyother day? is there a problem to feed him every day?

Thanks

 

[DWhatley]

The hasps are in two pieces. One is a long flat piece of acrylic with a slotted hole and hinge. The other is a square with a half circle set at 90 degrees. The hinged part is fastened to either the tank or the lid and the square to the opposite so that the slit slides over the half circle. There is a hole in the half circle to allow for a pin to lock the two pieces together.

 

[DWhatley]

As you may have seen already, quantity and frequency of feeding varies with species of octopus, octopus activity levels and octopus age. My preference was to offer a small amount of food daily. If the food was rejected then I would offer again the next day. If this became routine, then I offered food every other day. Anecdotally, coldwater species may take better to more food less often.

 

[sensei]

Thanks DWhatley,
now going back to the original question on how to set my lights:

would it be fine if I run a light skedule in the bluer spectrum for around 3 hours and then some hours of just red??

I need light to be sure coralline in live rock stays alive and recieve enough light, but I am not sure if octopus do not mind the blue spectrum?

I have read that blue lights may irritate octupus, but I am not sure if that information is correct becuase in the deep areas of the sea the light is more in that spectrum.

can you please coment about it??

can you also tell me what is your light skedule in your octopus tank?
what spectrum and how many hours please.

thanks again

 

[DWhatley]

You can run daylight+ lighting for a normal day period without ill effect but you may not see the octopus during bright lighting so you will want to schedule your most intense lighting periods when you are either not home or don't care about seeing the octopus. Ambient light is fine for times with low light but I do recommend red light during all dark times.

 

[sensei]

when you say daylight + lighting, you mean more of a whiter spectrum?
do you know if they like more the 20k or bluer spectrum?

I am not sure I understand when you say:
"I do recommend red light during all dark times"

when you say ALL dark hours you mean dark hours I want to enjoy the octopus tank correct? not all night correct?

I already placed more live rock in octopus tank and made caves.
please look at photo and let me know if there is something else I should do to improve his habitat.

thanks a lot

 

[DWhatley]

The rocks look nicely stable but you may need to make your "caves" less viewable. If you can see the octo when it does not want observation, it will be stressed and will try to create a better hiding place.

We don't have any clear best light color. My suggestion of artificial daylight is whatever brighter light color you choose. I do recommend leaving the red light on all night. Even though red seems to be a color they don't recognize/see, we really don't (again) the light frequency and personal observation shows that they can detect red vs no light. By leaving the red light on all night, it does not seem to create stress (as would daylight) and allows them to accept it as darkness. If you also have a period of true darkness, I have seen a nocturnal choose to only come out at that time.

 

[sensei]

Understood about the lights, I will experiment and see what happens.

regarding the "caves less viewable", you mean placing a rock in front to block the vision inside the cave or someting much more drastic, like doing a cave the opens to the back glass that is black thus the cave can not be seen?

do you have any pictures of " ideal caves"??

would only one cave less viewable make it?


Thanks