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new tank

Smizzelpus

Hatchling
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Jun 15, 2014
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5
Location
Eugene, Oregon
hi i am building up equipment for my first octopus tank and had some questions about what i will need and what will be the best for the species i want, i plan on trying to find an A.aculeatus from a breeder. so far i have a 75 gal tank, an in tank aqueon 200 watt heater, a fluval 45-80 gal air pump with two outputs, a thermometer, a hydrometer, and i plan on getting the finest grain of aragonite i can and mix it with a blue colored sugar sand. my aqua scaping is all planed out and i have tuns of ideas for puzzles it can solve but i'm curious as to what would be the best canister filter and protein skimmer for my tank size?
 
Depending on the room you have, a sump with a filter sock is better than a canister filter for an octopus tank, more because the sump will accommodate all the things you don't want in the display (skimmer - VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, ESPECIALLY FOR INK, filter, heater - you don't want this where the octopus can touch it as they don't understand heat and burns) and to make it easier to make the tank escape proof. An octopus can squeeze through any opening that is the size of its eye (the actual restriction is the beak but you can't see that and the eye will be roughtly the same size).

I am afraid you will not find an octopus breeder for octopuses of any species. There was an attempt at providing captive bred and raised bimaculoides about 10 years ago but the company failed and an educational facility that also did some limited bimac breeding (possibly O. mercatoris as well) that is also defunct. Currently there is a small breeder for cuttlefish that can be purchased through Live Aquaria and that is about it for Cephs. Your best bet for sourcing A. aculeatus will be Live Aquaria when the have Indonesian animals in stock. These are most often Abdopus but not always aculeatus and occasionally a medium sized (about the same size as aculeatus but very nocturnal) Macropus.

There has been NO success raising A. aculeatus from hatchling to adult (21 days is the longest survival I know of) so this species is strickly wild caught. On a rare occasion member have been successful with a few O. mercatoris and O. briareus (very few with the later) but survivors are few and far between and not in the commercial arena. The difference in any success is the first month of the lives of the hatchlings. A. aculeatus is a "small egg" species and the new hatchlings spend a month or so as pelagic animals swimming in the plankton before settling. The animals where we do see success are "large egged" and the hatchlings become benthic in the first day.

There is a collection of links to extended information posts for new octopus keeper assembled in the Octopus Care forum in the sticky Posts with Info for New Octo Keepers that should help with some of the questions you have asked and a number you have not yet known to ask :wink:. One post lists the most commonly kept species and gives a thumbnail sketch about each one. Be sure to read the part about the "box of chocolates".

The animals we can keep in a home aquarium do not appear to be quite as mentally robust as the Giant Pacific Octopuses displayed in most public aquariums though O. vulgaris may be close (but not easily found) and most medium sized species can learn to unscrew a jar lid but few will entertain themselves with "toys" (note that each animal is different so there is some variation and mine have made a liar out of me more than once). Many will become interactive if you are willing to spend a lot of time with them (often just sitting in front of an apparent empty tank). You will get a better idea of how different species act/interact by reading through some of the journals. There is a set of stickies at the top of the Journals forum titled List of our octopuses with the different years listed. The more recent years have links to the journals.
 
thanks and ya everything i have read so far has said the same thing as far as the tank, a sump is the way to go but i read from a few other source that a canister would work. i do have room for a sump but will have to do some maintenance on my tank location so the tubes can reach the tank also what size sump & potien skimmer would i need for a 75 gal tank
 
I have no technical advice on the sump. We always go as big as the stand will accommodate and still fit the skimmer. That more often than not ends up being an older tank we have that is no longer in use or is the one the larger tank is replacing :roll:. The more water volume the better but the most important part (especially since your tank is nicely sized) is to fit the skimmer, filter sock, return pump, heater (and chiller pump if you happen to use one) and still be able to do maintenance easily. For the skimmer, height is a limiting factor as you will need enough room above the tank to accommodate height of the unit AND be able to remove the collection cup (this varies several inches depending on the skimmer design).

Protein skimmers are expensive and there are various quality levels (not necessarily determined by price when looking at the lower end units). We have a whole thread in the Tank Talk forum about skimmer choices with no definitive "best" but reading over it may help with deciding which units to look for. Typically, doubling the water volume of the tank will give appropriate sizing as the ratings are for low waste tanks. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule though and most people have found that the Coralife skimmers are more correctly rated and my favorite of the low end skimmers I have owned (I have never owned a high end skimmer but I have owned one that was twice the cost and has been replaced with a Coralife that does a better job).
 
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i dont have a tank stand but i do have a raised area that used to be a spare bed and is hollow underneath, it stands 3 feet off the ground and is properly supported but access to the underpart is limited due to the sofa chairs in my room, that is why i ask, it would be easier if i could have it next to the tank
 
and in retrospect if i did go with a canister filter what size would i need, given i have read that with octopus you should double or triple the size of your skimmer from what it normally would be for your tank size but im not positive if that goes for the filter as well.
 
The sump can be anywhere you want it as long as you can exchange the water between the tank and the sump. Some people have them in their basement with the display in the floor above but it requires a hefty pump to return the water at that height distance. Keep in mind that you will be pouring your top off water and your new saltwater after a water change into the sump. Salt creep and splash are hard to avoid. You can fashion a top over the sump but not easily since you have to go around all the equipment and hoses. We keep our sumps open to facilitate CO2 H20 exchange since the octoproofing for the lids minimizes the exchange in the display.

edit: post did not finish as I lost internet for a short time.

I only have one canister on an oddball tank so I am no help at all with sizing there. @corw314 uses a canister on her 75 and may be able to help.
 

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