just a few ?'s

[Colin]

To be honest, i only ever check on the chevron every couple of weeks and its been that way since about 1998. (i got her in 1996).

Anyway, this thread spurred me on to having a quick look and she had shed her skin and was in a bitch of a mood! This is the 1st shed since about may 02...


want to try and lift this girlie up?

 

[XenoMorph2049]

Shes beautiful! I have to get one! The last time my cobalt molted, i though it had died. It wasnt in its hole, so after removing the molt, I proceded to clean her tank. Was I in for a surprise! I use a herp water dish w/ resiviour and a sponge in it for her water. As soon as I picked that up I realized she found a new hiding spot! I was only a few milimeters from a nasty bite! But the blue was INCREDIBLE! so brilliant and deep. Ever seen a Vietnamese Sun Tiger? Nice coloration. And im still trying to get my wife to let me get the bird eater..............almost there!

 

[XenoMorph2049]

Ok. Doing a little more reseach on the subject, I was trying to pick tankmates and came up with a few more questions. Would a large lionfish be endangered in a octo tank? In replacement of snails, would a few chiton work? They have an incredible resistance to removal and a very hard shell. Im also looking a a pencil urchin and a serpent star.

I just moved my Niger trigger and convict worm goby to my 75 last night. WOW! Both were cowards in the 29 I had them in ( both still small ) and as soon as they hit the 75 it was a completely different story! they virtually never hide now and have become much more social!.........Now to get a small white tipped lion, a frog fish, a drgon wrasse, and a regal tang and Ill be set!..........This tank is to tide me over untill I set up the octo tank...........still trying to figure out EXACTLY what I want before I start ordering anything.

 

[NickA5582]

Lionfish or the octo will be eaten, I'm not sure but either way you shouldn't have a lionfish with an octo (Joel_ang's cuttlefish ate one.)

 

[Nancy]

Hi Xeno,

A few comments about your proposed octo tankmates:

Nick is right, the lion fish is a bad idea!

Go ahead and put snails in. Your octopus may much on some, especially in the younger months, but won't eat all. I have four still working on my algae - of course, I used to have five!

The pencil urchin works. It's colorful (mine is a handsome burgundy color) but it has eaten a lot of my coralline algae, especially since it's grown larger. You can feed it a bit of fish or shrimp, so that stops the coralline algae eating for a couple of days.

Some people have put in serpent stars with success.

What I didn't realize before I kept Ollie was that your tank is quite different with a small and growing octopus, who doesn't disturb his enviroment very much. But as it grows, it starts moving rocks, running over things and makes a considerable impact on the tank and everything in it - and has fun doing it!

Nancy

 

[XenoMorph2049]

Thanks Nancy. What about chiton? Are they just another variety of snail or could they cause problems? The last "specialty" tank I had was a seahorse. He was awsome but the just dissapiered! His mates were a arrow crab and a sand sifting star along with a few snails. My LFS said the star ate it!.......I find it unbelievable because the star isnt typically a "predator", and the crab wasnt big enough. My suspicion goes to one of the "snails" we have in the tank. It is one used as a sand sifter and has the "hunting tube" Ive seen on some snails...........My next tank for seahorses will have only algae snails and pipe fish. I didnt want to risk the same thing with my octo.

 

[Colin]

Hi XM

I have had chitons in my cuttlefish tanks before and they were fine, but i dont think that they ate much algae compared to astrae snails, they were locally collected and i cant say i have ever seen chitons for sale.

As for the brittlestar/serpentstar, yes they are opportunistic and i had one that would catch feeder goldfish once the saltwater slowed them down a bit so i would blame that for the sea horse. However, i have kept stars and octos together and as long as they are at least a similar size there is no problem, but i have seen serpent stars trying to steal a baby octos food.
BUT, i wouldnt expect a sand sifting star to do that, so chances are the arrowcrab as they will eat slow moving fish and shrimps etc.

Also, no fish or mobile invert should be kept with an octo, its all usually treated as food!

 

[XenoMorph2049]

Thanks Colin. Yeah, I thought she was nuts when she said the sand sifter ate it..........................I lost a lot of respect for her on that one. About the chiton, yeah, there impossible to buy around here, but I made good friends with a lady who owns a shop about 45 min from me, and she hooks me up with them, along with dead/dying sea fans for the seahorse to pearch on. She is helpful, but cares enough about the animals to not let people walk away with a mistake............Now if she was only closer........ I ALMOST bought a bat fish from her, but she advised against it because of the dificulty of keeping them. Cute little bugger andf extremely social.....wouldnt eat unless you hand fed him!