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Looking for bimac!!

91lxstang

GPO
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Apr 24, 2006
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Im new to the octopus world and i am trying to find a bimac online to buy and cant. Does anyone know where to get one? Also i have read that a 30 gal would be plenty for a bimac cause they do not get very big but i have a 55 gal that will be just for him/her... is that too much? also i have another question, my tank has over 100 pounds of live rock in it, about how much is good cause i dont want the octo to hide all the time so i want alittle bit more than minimal live rock for him to feel comfortable... the tank used to be a reef tank so thats why i have so much live rock... i cant wait to find one! also if u suggest any special equipment please tell me cause i work at a pet store and can get anything i want easily... my set up is an allglass 55 gal with a 48 inch compact flourescent with actinic and daylight bulbs, a seaclone 150 protein skimmer, rena xp2 filter, glass top custom rigged to cover all of the openings, 2 all glass 200 watt heaters. I can get anything else i would want... and does anyone suggest running a sump cause i may switch to a 90 gal with one overflow and run a sump for another octo that will be a larger species. money is not too musch of an issue cause i want my octo to have a good a comfortable home with no dangers and so on.... help would be very appreciated!!!! thanks alot everyone, i cant wait to have one for myself!
 
Unfortunately there are no bimacs available for the foreseeable future! A few years ago a number of online stores sold wild-caught bimacs. Then a company called Octopets came on the scene aquaculturing them and people stopped collecting wild ones. Octopets has since closed--that's why there aren't any available.

There's a lot of us that share your grief :wink:

Dan
 
Hmm, I found 2 octopuses for sale in East Hanover, NJ at a LFS. They didn't look like bimacs, the owner thought they could be vulgaris, but wasn't sure. Price was $90 each, in case anyone is interested.
 
lockburn said:
Hmm, I found 2 octopuses for sale in East Hanover, NJ at a LFS. They didn't look like bimacs, the owner thought they could be vulgaris, but wasn't sure. Price was $90 each, in case anyone is interested.

Could you mabye get their phone number or store name at least?
 
Hi
and thats a nice home for an Octo :smile: no such thing as too big. Rember they are evolved to have the ocean as their play pen.
everything sounds good. since your set up was a reef tank copper and other impurites in the water should not be an issue.
Set up is solid (recheck all the holes)
The bimac on the other hand is an issue.
as was covered our only source of captive bred bimacs and cuttles is out of buisness :frown:
So we kind of take them where we can find them and hope.
good luck
 
well, if you guys/gals have another reccomendation for a similar or even unsimilar octo that i can house in that tank than let me know cause im am open to all ideas. also, im going to be upgrading to a 90 with one overflow to replace my 55, and also an extra 220 for who knows what lol......but as i said whats another species that would be good?
 
Thats kind of the problem
you buy and you hope but you are never really sure whats coming
Id say a 90 is big enough for almost anything that is commercially sold
(Octo wise if you get a cuttle of the right kind even a 90 is to small)
 
i dont understand what the poblem is ? lol im not tryin to be mean i just didnt understand what u were tryin to stay
 
what about a vulgaris(spelling?) ive been reading alittle bit and also like them.... would a 55 gal be ok until i get the 90?
 
91lxstang said:
what about a vulgaris(spelling?) ive been reading alittle bit and also like them.... would a 55 gal be ok until i get the 90?

Hi,

A young O. vulgaris might be OK in a 50 but it would not only outgrow that size it would outgrow a 90 almost as quickly! Keep in mind that octopuses are short lived animals and are certainly among the fastest growing animals on earth.At maturity a vulgaris is almost 5 times the weight of a bimaculoides. That means it will need a good deal more space and a lot more water volume to keep up with its larger appetite and metabolism.

A thought or two about octopus availability in general. Since the demise of Octopets it's pretty much a crapshoot! From what I've seen here and on other forums, most of the octopuses on the market were obtained as bi-catch in the course of collecting other things. That, coupled with the fact that most octos look alike to a non-expert, means that most of the time you won't know what you're buying. There are a few species that are pretty distinctive:

1. Bimacs (O. bimaculoides and O. bimaculatus) can be identified by the 'eyespots'. Unfortunately, these guys live in areas with little collecting for the aquarium trade so they're not going to turn up very often. I suspect that someone with a small boat could easily collect O. bimaculoides using bottle traps but I haven't heard of anyone doing so.

2. Blue Rings are very distinctive but they have some very serious downsides as pets.

3. The Mimic and Wunderpus species are also distinctive but neither is very well understood and that makes their husbandry a matter of guesswork. Further, it just isn't known whether their populations are robust enough to support their being collected for the home aquarium market.

Tampa Bay Saltwater http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/index.html occasionally has octopuses for sale and they do seem to differentiate between small species and the much larger O. vulgaris. It's at least possible that they could sometimes have O. briareus which is a species that some folks have successfully kept at home (a 90 gallon tank would probably be best). Even if you didn't know the exact species you got from TBS you would at least know where it came from and what conditions it was used to.

Acquisitively yours,

Alex
 

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