Interaction?

[Adiver]

hello everyone! ive been a menace around here for a few days and i NEED to know some answers!

what the HECK do you DO with your octopus? watch it? feed it? i would love to hear some stories about what you do with your octo and things you give it to play with.

thanks!

-anna

 

[Squidman]

If you have not found this on the forums already, I heard it could take over a month for a skittish octo to explore his tank.

Ever the pessimist,
-Squidman-

 

[Squidman]

Oh, and feeding octos is fun(or so i hear; i don't have one). You can watch it mutilate a shrimp or crayfish.

Watching them is fun, too. The incredible camouflage they can use is great for observation. Active ones jet around their tanks.

-Squidman-

 

[Adiver]

yeah i heard that too! but can germs and stuff from your hands hurt them? like when your feeding him/her?

 

[Nancy]

You can touch them and play with them. First you have to gain their trust. The younger ones love to play tug of war with a feeding stick and are VERY strong, even the little ones. Some will chase your fingers if you run them over the outside of the glass.

Sometimes they will greet you by bobbing their heads. My bimac eventually learned to wave.

Maybe the most fun is just watching them.

Nancy

 

[Adiver]

do you buy feeding sticks or do you mean like a popsicle stick? do you know if germs from your hands can hurt them? thats AWESOME ^ i think that octos are AMAZING creatures! im visting one tomorrow and im REALLY excited!

 

[Nancy]

No, germs from our hands don't seem to hurt salt water creatures, as far as I know.

A feeding stick can be made from two long thin wooden skewers or acrylic - even plain wooden chopsticks. Just something to offer food with.

Even after you get your aquarium, the cycling will take about 3 months, so you have some time to wait before you can get your octo.

You asked elsewhere about water - you can buy RO (reverse osmosis) water or even better RO/DI water from your LFS or elsewhere and add the salt to the water yourself. Some LFSs sell salt water, but often the salinity is too low and you have to add additional salt.

Nancy

 

[Adiver]

so...i went to my LFS today..guess what??? they lost the octopus..he escaped through a pipe. BUT i still got to see their store octopus who was a VERY small baby named Willis. He was SOO cute! My LFS had a mimic in last week which i would have LOVED to see. But the guy who was talking to my mom and i gave us lots of info. They have their own salt water and the SMALLEST tank they have is 58 gallons which i thought implyed that they were looking out for the fishes benefit. The problem is that they said a "reef redy" (thats what i interpreted it as) for like a 58 g would probably cost me $2000...but it would include everything i need apparently. my mom was getting into it as well, and was talking about them doing matenince once a month or once a week depending on the size of the aquarium...so im pretty excited. What other animals will be ok with an octopus? anenome? sea cumbers? nudibranchs? any ideas!

thanks!
-anna

 

[Colin]

Hi Anna,
Octopuses dont mix very well with other creatures... most become food! But there are the odd few that get away with it including starfish and Sea Cuces like you mentioned.

On a a side note, if you are putting hands in any aquarium you should always rinse them in fresh water first and dont use any soap products... avoid putting your hands in too much though, it can upset skimmers etc. Thats why many of us use feeding sticks.

Cheers
Colin