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octopus for a beginner

well i just ordered my tank the lfs put together a pretty good package.i got a 55gallon reef ready tank, 36in strip light 30 watts, mega flow piping for my overflow, pro clear 175 sump, lifeguard 3000 pump, "heater", a 125 cl protein skimmer,and tubing.Any opinions on the setup is greatly appreciated.:roflmao:
 
can i just throw the fiddlers in the tank along with the hermits and snails i meen its saltwater and the octopus would be able to eat whenever he/she wants.If this isn't possible i think ill get a 10 gallon tank and put a over sized hang on filter get some sand and one of those branches for them to climb and put netting around any holes.The only thing i need to know is how many fiddlers can i get in a 10 gallon tank and can i keep hermits, snails, clams etc with the fiddlers otherwise i think i have my feeder tank all figured out.
 
I wouldn't put all of the fiddlers in there. Some of them might die before they are eaten and will foul the water. You can probably keep 30 or 40 fiddlers in a 10 gallon. You could keep the others with the crabs too if you wanted. I would put everything but the clams and fiddlers in the octopus tank though so you have somewhat of a clean up crew until they're all eaten.
 
Wouldnt i be able to keep the clams in the octopuses tank? Because there good filtartion and they wouldnt do any harm would they?
 
I would be worried about them expelling waste into the tank and/or dying. They are filter feeders and do absorb nutrients from the water but I doubt they would make a dent.
 
I keep a couple (after a week or better in a QT tank to let them purge whatever they were eating/living in before tank life) in with my dwarfs and as food for Octane (Hummelincki). I don't know how much good they do but I do see them feeding and they do no harm AS LONG AS YOU CAN SEE THEM AT ALL TIMES AND REMOVE THEM IF THEY DIE.
 
Im about to get an octopus so i need to clearify some things....Are the hermits and snails from livebrineshrimp.com ok for the octopus? I was told i should go to aquaculture.com for fiddler crabs. Now they seem to be out of business or just down so where should i get my fiddlers?
 
The people at livebrineshrimp.com are good people too but they don't have fiddlers. Also note that Mike doesn't update the website too well and the total cost is usually a little more than what the on-line bill initially indicates. I hoped that meant that Paul was adding hermits to the site but I don't see them yet.
 
So the crabs and snails if i decide to feed them snails at livebrineshrimp.com are safe though right? Also where do you keep shore shrimp if you buy in big lots? There saltwater so is the tank fine or would they dirty it up? one last thing im re-reading the articles to make sure i didn't miss anything and i found that babies are fed mysid shrimp and amphipods were can i acquire the amhipods ? i know you can get mysids at aquaculture.com but where should i keep them if i buy in big lots? if i do needs a separate tank/bucket for them and the shore shrimp can i put them together? also in the bimac care sheet article it says the clam can be put into a bowl does that mean i should open it up for him when hes little?
 
Yes, livebrineshrimp.com is a safe supplier.

Any food in large quantities should be kept in a separate container (a sump is fine but I find it less practicle than a separate tank).

I keep my shore shrimp in a 10 gallon with cascade filter. They will live best in a lower salt content than the octo but will survive in full salt. I have found that adding a little saltwater plant matter to their tank seems to help with longevity. This is anecdotal but it does not hurt. Shore shrimp are difficult for the octos to catch and are really only good for keeping them hunting and a treat (unless you hand feed the shrimp to a small octo like a mercatoris or other dwarf). If the octo is not a dwarf, they are too small to use as everyday food. Raw shrimp from your local grocery or seafood market would be the better choice for a larger species.

Fiddler crabs come in multiple sizes and Paul's second offering on the site should read 20 small crabs instead of 10 crabs. The first offering is for larger ones.

If you put mysis in with shrimp you will have no mysis in roughly an hour (maybe less). Unless you are raising new hatched octos (octos that were hatched in your tank), you will not need mysis. We have yet to establish a way to keep the mysis from eating each other and they seem to die or be eaten (by each other) in a week, regardless of how many are ordered.

Clams are very hard for an octo to open. If you intend them as food, you will likely have to open them at least part way. I keep one in each tank as entertainment and they usually manage to open and consume the one after several months. The thorny seastars I keep are better at getting the clams open and I am never quite sure which one actually opens the clam. It does appear that Bel has managed this on her own but still has not succeeded with the oysters. Mussels are another option and seem to be easier to open, scallops may be the best option and I am experimenting with them now. Here again, these are foods to supplement and provide a change but not a daily consumption item. Any of the mussel group can be kept in the same tank as shore shrimp.

As an asside, counting on your octo to be "little", as in a baby is not practicle unless you have a known source of captive bred (very difficult to find) or can place a specific order from a collector and wait until one is located. The octo's age is more the luck of the draw, with East Coast young being in higher numbers in the late spring.
 
I have an lfs that can supply me with a baby bimac. When he is a baby can he eat a clam if I partially open it? Also, what should he be fed as a baby? As you said I can't keep mysids so can I feed him frozen mysids? As I said before can you tell me what to feed him as a baby and where to aquire these foods? Finally, how often should he be fed as an adult (not a baby).
 
Hermit crabs and small snails should do fine. As a juvenile my O. briareus loved stomatella snails (common hitch-hiker, reproduce well). Try fiddler crabs and live shrimp if you can find them small enough.

Every other day to 3 times a week as an adult should be fine.
 
About food:
I've only had one octopus, but I've had it for almost a year with no problems, and it's a bimac, like you want, so maybe my experience is applicable. I have a wild caught bimac, and she eats pieces of thawed frozen shrimp and scallop from Costco, so food costs less than a dollar per week. I thaw a little piece of shrimp or scallop in a cup of tank water, pierce it loosely on a long skewer, and then wiggle it around in front of the octopus. The octo likes to chase it a little and wrestle with the stick (and me) for a minute, all of which makes it feel like it stalked, subdued, and killed its dinner, so I play along. I feed a cube of meat where the distance along one edge of the cube is about 75% of the distance between the octopus's eyes, and I give that much every two or three days. My tank is cold (63 degrees) so my octo digests slower and eats less per week. Feeding is really easy, and really cheap. When I go to the beach at low tide I grab a shore crab or a muscle as a treat, but the shrimp and scallop make up 95% of my octo's diet. Be sure that the shrimp you buy are marine shrimp, not freshwater shrimp, and that they are raw, not cooked.
 
More about feeding:
How often? The less you feed, the easier it is for your filtration system to keep things stable, so I would feed a reasonable amount (take an educated guess) and then cut back slowly, watching the octo's behavior. My bimac lived happily along side some cleaner snails, and didn't molest them, when I cut back feeding from every two days to every three days, I noticed that my octo was pestering the snails on the third day after a while. I went back to every other day, and slowly decreased the size of the food chunk until the octo started pestering the snails again. Then I increased the size of food one "notch" and was good to go. As the octo grew, I increased the size of the food proportionally, and kept watching the behavior to make sure I was on the right track.
 

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