octopus food

[clownfish]

I was wondering if you could keep your live food in the octopus tank and just have the octopus when he is hungry eat some food?

 

[corw314]

When they are new I like to have a few food choices in with them so they can eat as needed. As they adjust, once the stocked food is gone, I find they start hunting and associate us with the food. I keep a 15 gal run by a Aquaclear 500 as my feeder tank.

 

[Colin]

One reason not to keep feeders in there full time is because they will increase the bioload on the filters and if for some reasons they died they can pollute a tank quickly.

 

[corw314]

This was our collecting today. Should last about 2 weeks.

 

[sneegs]

Hi Carol,
If this many crabs will last you about two weeks, I was just wondering how frequently do you feed and how many at each feeding?

 

[nini]

would feeding octos goldfish be a good idea?
how much do they eat?

 

[Jean]

would feeding octos goldfish be a good idea?
how much do they eat?

NO!! Goldfish are too fatty (as are all freshwater fish!) plus if the fish has been treated with copper it will kill your octi!

Crabs, shrimp, clams etc are the BEST food for an octi!

J

 

[nini]

thank u jean

 

[cthulhu77]

"pets or meat"

yep, stick with saltwater animals for saltwater octos...now, if you had a freshwater octo, you would have no problem.

greg

 

[nini]

is there such thing as a freshwater octo?

 

[Nancy]

Hi nini,

Greg is joking. We had a big discussion of this some time ago. There are freshwater versions of many saltwater species - shrimp and lobster, for instance. Yet there are no freshwater octopuses....too bad!

Nancy

 

[Mizu]

Odd
Megas is existing off an almost completly freshwater Crayfish diet.
every third day or so i make him eat a thawed shrimp but thats about it
i catch the crayfish right out of the creeks near where i live.
Megas actually ate one that was 4 times his size or so. it was very interesting to watch Megas tactics.
and Megas is getting BIG hes grown a lot and like i said on and almost exclusive freshwater Crayfish diet.

 

[nini]

cool, sounds like a great diet to pick up on
thanx mizu

 

[clownfish]

no not may octopus will flurish on that diet you realy should feed saltwater diet.

 

[Nancy]

I don't think you'd want to risk the possible long-term effects of feeding freshwater creatures to an octopus whose natural diet is crustaceans and other animals found in the ocean. Jean mentions that freshwater animals contain too much fat for an octopus.

Octos seem to enjoy crawfish and an occasional one probably won't hurt - the crawfish move fast and the octopus enjoys hunting. If the crawfish do manage to hide, they won't live more than a couple of hours. Be careful to remove the uneaten parts as soon as possible.

Nancy