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octopus for a beginner

I keep my shore shrimp in a bare bottom 10 gallon with an oversized hang-on filter (I completely change the water and filter with each new batch but only feed and top off as needed inbetween) and my clams either in another similar bare bottom tank or in the sand in some of my other aquariums (might as well get the filtering benefits). The clams need to be easily visible but the ones I get from Brine & Ghost Shrimp, Feeder Fish, Aquarium Supply - Live Brine Shrimp (live stock, near the bottom) have only met their demise at the arms of Octane - many after months in my sump. You will probably want to put the clams in fresh saltwater for a day or two before putting them in a tank with fish or an octo as they are filter feeders and you don't know their prior environment.

I keep my fiddlers in a couple of two gallon nanos with an exposed climbing rock and nano filter. A taller tank than what I use would be better but if you keep your climbing rock to the center, most of them will stay INSIDE the tank - usually:oops:
 
"I keep my fiddlers in a couple of two gallon nanos with an exposed climbing rock and nano filter. A taller tank than what I use would be better but if you keep your climbing rock to the center, most of them will stay INSIDE the tank - usually"

Similar sort of thing, but I have to weight the lid. My cat finds fiddlers just fascinating, and until I caught on that she was breaking in and hooking them out I was most mystified by all the sad, battered little crabby corpses I would find around the house! :roll:
 
hermits

are the hermits and snails at livebrineshrimp.com ok to feed?and can someone please tell me if hermits snails and fiddlers the occasional blue leg crab is enough of a variety?This is kind of random but i just wanted to know if the octo eats the shells of the crabs and snails..and you said you should put the clams in fresh saltwater before you put them in a tank is just like a bucket of saltwater ok if there just there for like a day?
 
iwon1,
Cephs don't eat any of the shells. I am not sure how long it takes a clam to fully cycle so I usually keep them in a bare tank (bucket should do fine but they will need moving water and I would suggest some kind of overflow filter (any of the cheaper overflow filters should provide enough circulation and filtration).

The variety that you feed your octo will depend a lot on the octopus. Amost all will eat fiddlers but after that each octo is different. Octane will eat frozen shrimp for between 4 and 5 days straight then won't touch them. I keep a clam in the tank try to be sure there is a live fiddler available for him to hunt. On the days he won't take the shrimp, he will usually open a clam and I have noticed that I need to add hermits and a few shore shrimp again.
 
Sorry,
Yes, Octane will eat the frozen shrimp in a day or two after he has had a change of diet. When he refuses the shrimp, we feed extra crabs and I always have a live clam in his tank. If I have larger hermit crabs or larger shore shrimp, I will put these in the aquarium to give him something different until he decides the shrimp taste good again.
 
Clams and how an octo will open them depend a lot on the octo and the clam. There was an experiment performed with a larger octopus (I don't remember if it was a GPO or Vulgaris, I believe it was the former) and different difficulty levels (some artificial, some natural) of opening. The octopus used different methods depending upon the situation. Octane will position himself so that he has leverage with live rock or the powerhead post and pulls on the clam until it is too tired to resist. What happens "under the covers" I am not sure since the clam is totally enveloped in his webbing but I know he does not drill into the shell and that the hinges are still in place after he eats the meat. He does not choose the clam as food very often and the energy expended to open it may be the reason, especially since there is easier food available.

The dwarfs do not even attempt to open this kind of clam (I keep them in one of the tanks for clean up crew) but I don't know what they would do with an easier to open, thinner shelled variety.
 
im not sure

i went to my lfs and asked questions about the octopus tank i would order and he said you dont need a sump because it would tare apart the overflow.Is this true?Any advice on what i should do with the mechanical filtration is very helpful.:baby:
 
iwun1;116138 said:
i went to my lfs and asked questions about the octopus tank i would order and he said you dont need a sump because it would tare apart the overflow.Is this true?Any advice on what i should do with the mechanical filtration is very helpful.:baby:

Wrong. Plenty of people use sumps on their octopus tanks. Matter of fact, it's easier and more practical to octo-proof a drilled tank with an internal overflow than it is to octo-proof a tank with a bunch of hang-on-back equipment or an external overflow.

If you get a drilled tank, then that's one single escape route without any pumps that can be screened off to limit access to very small particles. If you use HOB equipment, that's multiple pump intakes to make octopus-safe with multiple return lines to seal off. You're still going to need powerheads to increase the circulation in the tank, but they won't provide any potential exits for the octopus.

I have HOB equipment on my tank and it is a pain in the butt and it makes the tank look ugly. I tried several different methods to rig an external overflow and I kept running into the same problem. Flow restriction. I scrapped it and took the intakes off of my pumps, placed screen inside over the hole where the impeller sits inside, and replaced the intakes. The water level is low enough that the returns from my skimmer and HOB refugium do not enter the water, so they don't get the octopuses attention, but a rubber band and some more screen fixes them just in case. I use absolutely no mechanical filtration, except for the chaetomorpha macro algae in the refugium that grows thick enough that it acts like filter material, collecting any debris that may be sucked in. Mechanical filtration tends to only catch and hold waste particles that will still deteriorate and ruin your tanks water. I would advise to use it only if you need to run carbon, and if you do so, make sure and change out the filter sock or cartridge every couple of weeks.
 
Ok so i think that ill get a sump but im confused how to set this up.Can i get a built in overflow so the octopus wont mess with it or can i get a hang on and seal it off i know i would still have to do sealing for both...My lfs said i should just run a canister filter with a uv sterilizer and try to get a protein skimmer in is this enough Because i always thought you needed to get a huge sump for cephs any help on what i should do for the setup is still greatly appreciated!:smile:
 
The idea for a ceph tanks filtration is aim for 3 times more than necessary for a typical fish tank. I would go with the built in (internal) overflow. Octo-proofing an external (hang-on) overflow can be a pain in the butt.

If you can get a sump set up, go with the best skimmer you can get and put it in your sump. Personally I would forget about the UV sterilizer and canister filter, and just use a section of the sump for live rock and macro-algae. You dont' need a "huge" sump, but the biggest you can fit under your stand the better. It will be easier to fit everything you want in it, and it will increase the water volume of the entire system that much more, thus diluting any pollutants that much more.
 
Yes. You can buy a "window screen repair kit" at Home Depot for pretty cheap, about $7 for something like 30' x 3' of it. You can use a piece of that over the overflow drain entrance, or this is how I made an octo-proof internal overflow.

octo-proof-overflow-drain.jpg

It's an extension of pvc, same diameter as the rest of the overflow, with tons of tiny holes drilled in it and an end cap on it to close it off.
 

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