• 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.

[Old Board Archive] Always Hiding?

tonmo

Cthulhu
Staff member
Site Owner
Joined
May 30, 2000
Messages
11,267
Location
Pennsylvania
Always hiding?|cortinads|1037052475||0|
Hey everyone, I new to the site. I had a few questions about my newly acquired octopus vulgaris. I have had it for about 2.5 weeks now and he is extremely shy. Only once have I never seen him swimming around, the rest of the time he stay in his cave. I have him in a 25-gallon tank with 40 lb of live rock and a 2.5 in soft sand bed. The aquarium is about 5 months old and is in a relatively calm room. The octopus is about 2 months old and was missing a one leg (started to grow back) and another damaged leg when it was purchased. It eats well, 3 crayfish, 1 shrimp, 2 small feeders, 5 small sliver sides, and 2 hermit crabs, (maybe some of my clean up crew as well). The tank lighting does however put out about 130 watts of light, but the live rock provides plenty of dark caves. Water quality is high with no detectible NH4, NO3, NO4, Cu. The temp. is at a steady 76 degrees. I tried turning off the lights all-together for about 2 days and coved the tank with towels but he still hides. I am concerned that it will never get comfortable enough to come out. I don't want to remove any of the rock to expose him. I just want it to feel comfortable in his environment. Is there anything I can do to help him adapt? Has anyone had an octo hide this long? Any suggestions?
Thanks
phil


Re: Always hiding?|mr_fish|
My O.vulgaris, is 6 months old, but still spends a good deal of time hiding. I think your lighting may be a little too bright. My aquarium is illuminated with a 15w Gro-lux type tube. Tubes which emit mainly Red light will look quite dim to Octopus. This provides more than enough light and does not upset the Octopus. I found that when my Octopus is well fed you it spends much more time hidden.
Even though it is very tame, it is still easily frightened. So make sure there is not too much activity in or around the aquarium.
I would try reducing the lighting levels & feeding.
I'm sure it will come out more in time.

J.Scott

Re: Always hiding?|cortinads|
thanks J.Scott,
I will do what I can with the light. Can I replace one of my white 65 watt with a true atinic 65 watt bulb, thereby, having two 65 watt atinic bulbs? About the feeding, how often should I be feeding it?
thanks
phil

Re: Always hiding?|mr_fish|
I would steer clear of actinics for nocturnal species. They give out light mainly in the Blue part of the spectrum. This will look bright to marine species as Blue light penetrates further through water than any other part of the spectrum. I use the dimmest tube I can get with plenty of output in the Red part of the Spectrum, Either Gro-Lux or Aqua-Glo are good for this.
I feed my vulgaris once every day, but only small amounts. This is normally 4 frozen prawns from the local supermarket about 1-2" in length. Make sure their defrosted before feeding. I often give it 30 live shrimp each feed about 1" in length. It gets other foods as well but these are it's favourites.
They will eat almost as much as is offered. If you keep it a bit hungry it will be much more active.

J. Scott
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top