• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

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bassman

Blue Ring
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Joined
Nov 13, 2006
Messages
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Hello all, glad to have found this site. I am looking forward to learning as much as I can about the world of ceph's.

I just bought a octopus yesterday and it is my first one. The salesman told me it was a "octupus cyanea" but I have my doubts. Mine looks nothing like the pics I have been able to find.

He is about the size of a small egg (1.5") with tentacles roughly 4-5" long, he changes colors very quickly and so far likes to hide during the day.

Right now he is living in my invert tank. My invert tank is a 20 gal tank that shares the same water as my 55gal SW tank, 55 gal sump and 20 gal refugium. All are plumbed together. I have removed all my inverts from his tank and put them in my QT for now.

I am planning on having a new tank made and I am looking for suggestions. The tank will be approx. 50 gal with two bulkheads built into the back. The lid will be custom made and physically attach to the top of the tank with a removable, lockable door.

I guess I am looking for suggestions in the water flow area. How much is recommended? Also I normally place my bulkheads about an 1" down from the top of the tank but I am considering placing the input 1/2 way up the tank wall as the tank will be much taller then it will be wide. My thinking is that with the input at the midway point it will stir the substrate more and keep the entire water column moving. Any thoughts/advice/do's and dont's?
 
Welcome bassman! Glad to hear you're working on a new tank for your octo. Be sure to visit the Ceph Articles section (check the top navigation of this site) for plenty of do's and don'ts!
 
Thank you very much, I will be sure to look at all the articles I can in the days to come.

One other thing I wanted to ask about was air. When a person designs a air tight lid, sorry escape proof (pretty much the same thing LOL) how does one keep a good supply of fresh air in the tank? Is the water oxygenated via the water moving through the sump etc?

Thanks.
 
:welcome: I'm not really in the tank-keeping department, but I would expect that any system that has enough filtration to handle the bioload would easily oxygenate the water more than enough as a side effect. Also, though, a lot of octo-proofing involves things like fiberglass screen that blocks squishy, muscular solid things but not liquids and gases...
 
monty;82641 said:
:welcome: I'm not really in the tank-keeping department, but I would expect that any system that has enough filtration to handle the bioload would easily oxygenate the water more than enough as a side effect. Also, though, a lot of octo-proofing involves things like fiberglass screen that blocks squishy, muscular solid things but not liquids and gases...

Thanks for the welcome. I figured my water would be fairly oxygenated by the time it arrived back in my octopus tank. The lid I am planning will be air tight, however as the wheels turn I may add a few tiny holes for ventilation.
 
cuttlegirl;82644 said:
:welcome: Good luck with your new friend. Are you a musician? We have quite a few musician/ cephalopod fanatics here.

Thanks for the welcome and your best wishes.

Yes I am a musician, I play bass guitar and sing lead vocals in a local cover band (rock). I am about to start another project with some players that write their own music as well. Should be fun.

What other types of musicians can be found here, do you play?
 
sorseress;82667 said:
:welcome: and good luck with your new friend. Have you named him yet?

Thanks so much. Not 100% sure on the name yet but I am leaning towards Bert LOL. He's so shy I haven't been able to get a feel for his personality yet. So far if I want to see him I have so sneak down to his tank in the dark and use a flashlight. It's only been 2 days so I am hoping he will "come out and play" more often once he's settled in more.
 
bassman;82662 said:
Thanks for the welcome and your best wishes.

Yes I am a musician, I play bass guitar and sing lead vocals in a local cover band (rock). I am about to start another project with some players that write their own music as well. Should be fun.

What other types of musicians can be found here, do you play?

The other musicians will come out of the woodwork soon - Tony (Tonmo) is a musician and there is quite an eclectic bunch of others. I play violin (although not professionally) and am married to a composer and jazz pianist.
 
:welcome: sounds like you have yourself a nocternal octo maybe you could snap some pictures at night and post them in the ID section.
Good luck with your new buddy
 
If your buddy only comes out at night so far, it might stay that way. That's the only time I see mine, and I've had him over a month. A red light to illuminate the tank helps and doesn't seem to bother him much.

On a side note I'm a musician as well. Singer/guitarist for a local band, and amateur pianist.

Welcome to you and your 8 armed buddy.
 
Thanks so much everybody. Wow there really are alot of musicians on this board, very cool.

I am hoping mine will start to come out more but it's not looking good so far, LOL. Day 3 and still no sign of him, except for midnight last night.

I am going to have to set up a night cam to enjoy him LOL
 
cuttlegirl;82672 said:
The other musicians will come out of the woodwork soon - Tony (Tonmo) is a musician and there is quite an eclectic bunch of others. I play violin (although not professionally) and am married to a composer and jazz pianist.
Hey, I'm a musician! Cuttlegirl, you've made my day. :headphon:
 
Welcome to Tonmo!

Octopus cyanea? I've never heard of that one before. And as for him not coming out, how much stuff do you have for him to hide under/behind/in? Because I've heard that the more places to hide the more secure they feel and the more they'll "come out and play".

And As for music, I play electric guitar in a local Christian heavy metal band.
 

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