fishkid6692;112756 said:
i've had a hummelincki before. but she died of old aged. i only had her for about 2 months. but will someone please tell me the tank requirements? how big to mimics and wonderpus get? are they harder to take care of than other octos?
Given your experience, and from the way our private back and forths regarding keeping cuttles went, I think you should steer very far away from any exotic ceph. The exotics shouldn't be collected in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others, and the ones that do get collected should only be kept by people/institutions that have the time, money and other resources to try to breed them.
I know that it is terrible to be told that you shouldn't get an animal you are interested in getting. I know it would have bothered me when I was starting out or even middling. At the same time, I am very thankful to those who steered me towards easier to keep animals in the beginning, so that I built up a good set of skills to keep and breed more exotic animals nowadays. I can't even begin to tell you how many tiny tips and experiences I have learned over the years have made it possible to have the success I have been lucky enough to have.
There are a ton of animals that make better 'learning animals' than any exotic and probable endangered cephs. These animals deserve our learning everything we can about marine husbandry before even considering keeping them at home.
My standard disclaimer about wunderpus:
The size of Wunderpus photogenicus (or almost any other 'exotic' ceph) populations in the wild is unknown, and it is unclear what effect their collection will have on those populations. Little is known about what they need to survive in the wild, and even less is known about what they need to live well in the aquarium. After much wrestling with this issue, I urge even experienced ceph-keepers to think long and hard before bringing one into the home aquarium. Many cephalopod enthusiasts feel that the wunderpus shouldn’t even be collected for the trade at least until more scientific research has been done on the species. Though I agree with this sentiment, it seems the sad realty of the Marine Ornamental industry is that these animals will continue to appear in the trade. It is my hope that those that read about them are interested in these animals, but do not rush out to buy them and make the effort to get them into the tanks of people prepared to give them the extensive care they need simply to survive.
I refer to these threads because they are going to tell you what you need to know. If you aren't willing to do the research yourself you absolutely do not need to even consider the possibility of owning and caring for such a delicate species. The information is there, but you need to read it for yourself instead of asking other people to recycle information that has already been posted.
