- Joined
- Jul 18, 2005
- Messages
- 80
Hello,
I only recently learned of this site and have been enjoying the posts here - mainly the Octopus Care forum so far.
I'm a docent at the Fiero Marine Life Center in Port Angeles, WA. As such, I've spent a good deal of time talking with the public about octopuses in general and about the GPO (Enteroctopus dofleini) in particular. As most of you probably know, it's impossible to discuss these animals without becoming fascinated with them.
At present, I'm in the early (and possibly permanent) planning stages of a home aquarium for local cold water species. Since the planned tank will be fairly large (200 -300 gallons), I'm exploring the idea of keeping either a Red octopus (Octopus rubescens), a Stubby squid (Rossia pacifica pacifica), or maybe one of each since they have different habitat preferences. Concerns are mainly predation and, for the octo, escape proofing. I'm not planning to have any animals that would prey on either of these cephs and I hope that their own prey can be mainly confined to the easily available shore crabs and small shrimp that are local to this area. I've been told that O.rubescens is a champion escape artist - even compared to other octos! To make matters more difficult, I'm pretty much committed to using an algal turf scrubber to maintain water quality. The ATS design works best if mounted above the display tank where it acts as a dump bucket surge device. Escape proofing such a set-up is going to be a design challenge to say the least.
In the meantime, I look forward to learning from and contributing to the forums here.
Temperately yours,
TPG
I only recently learned of this site and have been enjoying the posts here - mainly the Octopus Care forum so far.
I'm a docent at the Fiero Marine Life Center in Port Angeles, WA. As such, I've spent a good deal of time talking with the public about octopuses in general and about the GPO (Enteroctopus dofleini) in particular. As most of you probably know, it's impossible to discuss these animals without becoming fascinated with them.
At present, I'm in the early (and possibly permanent) planning stages of a home aquarium for local cold water species. Since the planned tank will be fairly large (200 -300 gallons), I'm exploring the idea of keeping either a Red octopus (Octopus rubescens), a Stubby squid (Rossia pacifica pacifica), or maybe one of each since they have different habitat preferences. Concerns are mainly predation and, for the octo, escape proofing. I'm not planning to have any animals that would prey on either of these cephs and I hope that their own prey can be mainly confined to the easily available shore crabs and small shrimp that are local to this area. I've been told that O.rubescens is a champion escape artist - even compared to other octos! To make matters more difficult, I'm pretty much committed to using an algal turf scrubber to maintain water quality. The ATS design works best if mounted above the display tank where it acts as a dump bucket surge device. Escape proofing such a set-up is going to be a design challenge to say the least.
In the meantime, I look forward to learning from and contributing to the forums here.
Temperately yours,
TPG
I am envious of your line of work! And your home tank plan sounds awesome!
