Newbie here

Ash

Cuttlefish
Registered
Joined
Sep 17, 2007
Messages
17
Hi everybody,

I was a little scared of registering as I bought by octopus on a whim, not a good move, then of course I find out that most of what the retailer told me is bollocks of course. :banghead:

So anyway, I'm in Townsville, Australia (North Queensland) and have only had a salt water tank for 6 months or so (a little nano-reef, approx 35l or 9gal) - so there is problem two - a tiny tank! *awaits flames*

I have had aquariums for quite a few years breeding cichlids & whatnot so I am familiar with the nitrogen cycle, water perameters, maintainence etc - so I'd like to think I'm not the worst person to have bought the little guy, who was rescued from a live rock collection I believe.

Apparently the little guy I got is a local reef species (collection point of the live rock is near Cairns), which in the LFS' experience usually only gets to 15cm/6" long overall - this guy is about half that.

On the negative side, thus far the little guy (I called him "Seth" the cephalopod) does appear to be nocturnal & he hasn't eaten the piece of krill I've left for him near his cave.

I'll post an ID thread shortly & hopefully see what the little guy is before I get to attached to him & need to take him back.

Cheers
Ash
 
Hi and welcome to TONMO.com:welcome:

Even if you did buy your little octopus on a whim, at least you have a cycled tank to put him in for the moment. That's going to be a very small tank as he grows, even if he proves to be a dwarf (unless he's adult size right now). You need to think about getting a larger tank.

You asked on the ID thread about how to view him at night - you're right, use a red light.

He will like crustaceans such as crabs (the general favorite), shrimp. He's eat snails and is probably small enough to like amphipods.

Nancy
 
:welcome: I also think it's great that you read enough to find out about the issues on your own... I assume you've found the "ceph care" section under the articles tab at the top, but I'll mention it just in case.

A lot of octos will only take live food, so maybe you'll need to get an appropriate sized crustacean or something. Did they say it had eaten krill pieces in the store?
 
They suggested I try the krill but did warn me about live food - getting small crabs from the rocks at low tide is easy, it appears he took a hermit crab last night & ignored the krill


I do have a tank 3x the size planned, though I don't think I could have it ready & cycled in the time frame I'd be likely to need it in, so I might take him back to the store if/when he grows.

I posted a couple of better pics in the ID thread, I think I'll have to invest in a red light so the camera will (hopefully) focus in the dark
 
I have found a 65 flourex (type of outdoor florescent) with several layers of semi-transparent red film work extremely well with one of my dwarfs. I have three in a tank with a red LED and two with the flourex. The ones in the LED tank tend more toward the dark side of the tank when they come out but the one of the the two in the more brightly lit, smaller tank with the flourex lighting is quite active when the ambient light is extinguished. The light give great viewing but miserable photography.
 
I ended up getting a little PCB with three red LEDs mounted to it for night viewing from Jaycar (I guess the Aussie equivilent of Radio Shack?), it works great.


So I just saw him out & about & thought I'd drop in a hermit crab & see what he would do - well he pounced on it immediately & ate the little guy, awesome! At least I know he is feeding now
 
Welcome to Tonmo, and may I say that your attitude is wonderful...but you need to go slap the lfs owner with a rancid herring.
If you can get marine snails, as Nancy said, they will usually like those too...they eat the snail, and then sleep in the shell.
Be careful, though...once you start keeping cephs, you become addicted!
 

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