new to cephs

[fishkid6692]

it's opinion really. i like both evenly. just make sure your overflows are covered with mesh or something if you plan to get an octo because they will crawl into it. i can't wait until i set up my cuttle tank in a few weeks!!!!

 

[L8 2 RISE]

I was thinking of getting a drilled tank off glasscages.com and setting up my own sump and refugium... lol can I ask why cuttles are better : D? They seem to be harder to come by and harder to care for?

As fish kid said, it's just my opinion, I think they are cooler looking, you see them more, octos are more un of the mill, in other words, everyone knows what an octo is, and has seen one, most people that aren't aquariests don't know what cuttles are. In my opinion, cuttles would be easier to care for because they don't do that whole cooping themseves up with their eggs thing, and from what I've seen, are easier to ween onto frozen food. You also dont have to worry about them escaping. Also, pretty much any tank that is big enough to hold one cuttle can hold two, so they also have interactoins among themselves. You could probably have more interaction with an octo though. Again, it's just personal prefrance. Worry about setting up your tank first, the requirements for both animals are pretty much the same. While the tank is cycling, you can do some more research and decide which one to keep. The other great thing about cephs is......well I guess it's not a great thing is it, but, their life span is pretty short, usually no more than a year, so you could keep cuttles for a year, then an octo the next year.

 

[jamest0o0]

wow, that changes a lot... I was always under the impression that cuttles are much harder than octos to care for... I love having animals that no one has seen to, something that makes guests go wow what is that lol.... anyway I was also thinking of doing what you said about keeping a cuttle the one year and the octo the next..... anyway.... anyone have experience with glasscages.com, I will probably start off with just getting the tank and everything set up one thing at a time... thanks everyone!

 

[jamest0o0]

also what is the chances of these guys shooting ink? and what do you do to get rid of it as fast as possible?

 

[joefish84]

one thing you do have to worry about with cuttles is jetting into the side of the tank and killing itself. also late 2 rise ... octos are very easy to wean onto frozen food. ive actually had more that immediatly take it than not. cuttles on the other hand tend to be alot harder to get to eat frozen foods. also a 50 gallon tank should really only house a couple of cuttles while the same size tank can only house one octo. another thing to remember is that cuttles depending on the age you aquire them can be a pain to raise if you cant keep up a culture of pods and mysids. a newborn cuttle will eat tiny foods for the first month. a very young octo can be fed baby clams and grass shrimp. if you get an older cuttle that is already eating shrimp and crabs then you run the risk of it only living for 5 months or so because they are more than likely a good ways into their lifespans already.

 

[monty]

It's also worth mentioning that while cuttles are less territorial and more social than octopuses, they still produce a lot of waste, so even though they may socially work better in a small tank, they still need a whole lot of filtration to keep the water quality stable, so a large water volume (like a sump or plumbing the tank into a larger system) is very desirable.

 

[Jean]

octos are very easy to wean onto frozen food. ive actually had more that immediatly take it than not.

Depends a bit on species. We've NEVER got ours onto dead food (and we have 77 years of records!) we keep NZ species Pinnoctopus cordiformis and Octopus warringa & huttoni. Even one year when we had a really bad run of southerly storms and we just could not get out to get food, so the octopus had not been fed in a week (VERY worrying, these guys eat several times a day as a rule) he would not touch crabs or fish or even rock lobster from the freezer (thawed and at ambient temp) no matter what we tried. So now we try to have a few weeks supply of crabs in holding tanks!

J

 

[jamest0o0]

one thing you do have to worry about with cuttles is jetting into the side of the tank and killing itself. also late 2 rise ... octos are very easy to wean onto frozen food. ive actually had more that immediatly take it than not. cuttles on the other hand tend to be alot harder to get to eat frozen foods. also a 50 gallon tank should really only house a couple of cuttles while the same size tank can only house one octo. another thing to remember is that cuttles depending on the age you aquire them can be a pain to raise if you cant keep up a culture of pods and mysids. a newborn cuttle will eat tiny foods for the first month. a very young octo can be fed baby clams and grass shrimp. if you get an older cuttle that is already eating shrimp and crabs then you run the risk of it only living for 5 months or so because they are more than likely a good ways into their lifespans already.

wow very good point on the babies only eating pods and mysis.... I never thought about that, what does everyone do to feed babies?

 

[L8 2 RISE]

wow very good point on the babies only eating pods and mysis.... I never thought about that, what does everyone do to feed babies?

we let the experts, paradox and thales ween them onto frozen food, then we do it

 

[jamest0o0]

ah I see... thanks everyone! for now I am going to worry about ordering another tank and planning on the set up, like mentioned above while it's cycling I can do a lot of research on what I plan to get