Octavian O.briareus - new to octo keeping

loneracer05

Blue Ring
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Jul 14, 2009
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well first let me say hello everyone :smile: i started looking into cephalopods awhile ago and doing research i know a good amount about keeping them. my friend wanted one since she started keeping saltwater fish but none were available and i knew they were hard to keep.

present day we found a supposed dwarf octopus in a lfs and they were going to kill it because no one wanted him and it was getting expensive to feed it :frown: so we decided to take him under our wing and put it in a 29 gal biocube. i just finished escapeproofing the tank this after noon using 1/16 in mesh and some new abs plastic sheeting. im 99% confidant he cannot get out.

the lfs said he does not require a heater in his tank nor a chiller bc the room is kept at 70* +- .5* the tank is staying stable at 68*.

i only have afew questions now about keeping it

1) how can i ID him to know for sure about his temp requirements? i can provide a pic later this week i know some1 can help online but are there things i can look for to determine species?

2) how big of a bit of food is safe for him to eat i know he can consume atleast 1 full silver side but is that enough? what about crabs how big is safe?(declawed ofcoarse)

3) lighting for him is one standard 65w actinic power compact good?

i think thats it thanks alot guys i look foward to making new friends here :smile: oh yeah he is aprox 22 inches armtip to armtip and i have seen him color morph to whites browns reds blues and greens if that help ID

sorry i posted this in the wrong section before
 

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22" for any measurement is NOT a dwarf. Let's hope I am wrong on my first guess from your description or he will outgrow the 29 in less than a month. Does it say out during the day? Do you see green reflective sparkles on a white background, particularly when a light is direcly shining on it? Is there a lot of webbing all the way down the arms? Does it have a pronounced circle below each eye (some but not all of the time)? Do the arms appear to have stripes or bands (short way)?

Click on the List of our Octopuses 2009 in the Journals and Photos forum and use the links provided to see photos of identified animals to see which one is most representitive of this little guy.

Most octos can easily eat anything half the size of their mantle. Any live crab is good. Disabling the claws (amputating the upper claw) give more food value than removing them.

68F is likely too cold but lets get an ID. 72-75 is safe for most octos but any of the normal can take a short term bit of cool more easily than over warm.
 
his mantle is 3-4 inches if memory serves. he is at my friends so im not 100%...he is new to the tank so im not to sure about his day night schedule just yet ...his blue green color is like irredesant (sp) it some times comes on while he is redish brown clay color or white and mainly on his head and mantle a few specs on his arms. i dont think it had a pronounced circle below each eye and no stripes on the arms she is sending me a pic when he comes out from her phone ( not very good but the best it can be in the mean time till i cant get one on my phone
 
well im lookingg and im pretty sure it is not a W.photogenicus lol..... and i dont think its a O.hummelincki but not 100% come to think of it as i make my way down the list hes not looking to much like any of these guys to me but i am very new at cephs. still only about a year into reef keeping but i do alot of research and i know i rushed into this guy but i did not have to much choice in the matter :frown: guess ill hafta wait for pics foor a better id
 
Sounds like a O. Briareus. which is too bad because you need a much much larger tank to keep him. maybe someone on here will take him for you.


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Thank you for giving this octopus a home. I hope you can find some way to keep him - it does sound like O. briareus, which is uausally a lively species and fun to have around. Have a look at the jounals of briareus keepers.

Nancy
 
Not that I have any personal experience, but skimming over the basic articles I think the tank needs to be minimum 50 gallons. I'm sure someone far certain will chip in though.
I'm purely speculating here because I'm new, there might be something I'm overlooking, but even if you swapped the 29 gallons of water to the new tank (if that's possible) it would only be 3/5s full right? There wouldn't be any more cycled water? Might be a simple solution to that if I'm right though. :oops:
 

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