-
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.
Pygmy Atlantic Octopus care
- Thread starter Hannahhhh
- Start date
Those of you with small tanks, how do you deal with water changes after your octopus inks? Everything I’ve read says that necessitates a full water change, but I’ve never done a full water change since I would worry about loosing too much beneficial bacteria.
Also what are your best tips to avoid inking?
Also what are your best tips to avoid inking?
Your bacteria will be in your substrate and none that matters in the water HOWEVER, changing the water WILL change the temperature, salinity and PH to some extent and can be disastrous. Fortunately, O. mercatoris almost never ink and when they do it is relatively easy to suck out with a turkey baster. They are not likely to ink without a lot of provocation so it is not common to worry about it if you are away. That being said, if you can fit a small protein skimmer into your setup, it would be very beneficial for ink clean up.
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2019
- Messages
- 282
DWhatley is right with these tips. A skimmer goes a long way towards improving water clarity with ceph tanks even without inking events. I also agree that usually for most small inking events they can be cleaned up with a turkey baster or a careful siphon. The best thing to do if you are concerned about taking water out of the tank, would be to have a sump or reservoir underneath the tank that you can use to top off the tank if you remove some water from it. This way you can be sure that you aren't changing pH and temp and salinity etc.
A note about water changes- generally its good practice to not remove more than about 10% of your system volume in one water change. Also, when you do a water change, the water that you add will need to be slowly added back to the system to ensure you prevent things like wild swings in pH or temperature. If you are more curious about the mechanics of water changes I can go into more detail if you'd like.
A tip about preventing inking events: When you interact with the animal, move slowly. The majority of times I have made an octo ink was because I was moving too quickly inside the tank or I scared the animal by walking by too fast etc. The other time that I've had an octopus ink is when I am moving it from tank to tank. You probably won't be doing this much, but if you ever do have to move your octopus with a net, make sure to support the net from the bottom with your hand as you move the octopus (eg. one hand on the net handle, one hand underneath the net supporting the weight of the octopus). This is because octopuses don't have any internal support structure (like our bones) and they lose the ability to support themselves when they are out of the water. Supporting the animal inside the net is a good way to keep them comfortable when moving the animal from tank to tank.
A note about water changes- generally its good practice to not remove more than about 10% of your system volume in one water change. Also, when you do a water change, the water that you add will need to be slowly added back to the system to ensure you prevent things like wild swings in pH or temperature. If you are more curious about the mechanics of water changes I can go into more detail if you'd like.
A tip about preventing inking events: When you interact with the animal, move slowly. The majority of times I have made an octo ink was because I was moving too quickly inside the tank or I scared the animal by walking by too fast etc. The other time that I've had an octopus ink is when I am moving it from tank to tank. You probably won't be doing this much, but if you ever do have to move your octopus with a net, make sure to support the net from the bottom with your hand as you move the octopus (eg. one hand on the net handle, one hand underneath the net supporting the weight of the octopus). This is because octopuses don't have any internal support structure (like our bones) and they lose the ability to support themselves when they are out of the water. Supporting the animal inside the net is a good way to keep them comfortable when moving the animal from tank to tank.
Thank you, all of that is super helpful information. Do they tend to get startled when you turn the room lights on, or is that ok? I don’t have dimmers in that room, so I can’t bring the lights up slowly.
I also wanted to ask how you guys go about interacting with your octopuses? Mine is still extremely shy, but he's still adjusting to the tank. Is there anything I can do to encourage him to be interested in me? I have multiple hermit crabs living in the tank at the moment, but once he finishes those off, I will try to feed him by hand, although I am assuming he may be to scared of me to eat while my hand is near him.
From my observations, they do see red light but it is much dimmer than any other color. With my dwarfs, I left a red light on all night so that there was darkness but it was never complete. My most successful O. mercatoris was an animal that would come out regularly at 9:00 PM and expect to be fed. He would get quite active and Neal would call me down from my office with, "Someone is waiting on you!". Other mercs have been a little interactive but not as personable as Sistrurus
Can anyone give me suggestions on enticing my new Pygmy octopus to eat? He has multiple hermit crabs living in is tank but I don’t believe he has eaten any. He’s still super shy and afraid of the feeding stick (and everything) at the moment. How long can he go without eating before I should be really worried about him.
If you can find some small fiddler crabs, they seem to be a universal food. I have had great difficulty getting dwarfs to eat thawed frozen shrimp until I reduced the size of the offering (about eye sized). Freshly killed shore shrimp are also a good option.
I will look into fiddler crabs. In the mean time, do you suggest sticking the small shrimp pieces on a feeding stick or just dropping them in? And also, how long is normal for a new octopus to go without eating? He arrived on Wednesday.
Definitely use a stick, you don't want rotting pieces of shrimp creating ammonia in the tank.
I would not worry until you are sure it is about 2 weeks but do try daily. However, it may be that the animal is in senescence and will not eat again.
I would not worry until you are sure it is about 2 weeks but do try daily. However, it may be that the animal is in senescence and will not eat again.
Ugh I hope not. Anyway to find out if he’s in senescence aside from just not eating?
The typical signs are not coming out of the den (or aimless wandering), a very grayish white coloration most of the time (vs bright white or other colors), not eating, in females, the mantle will often be floppy but lack of coordination is true with both sexes. However, since this is a newly introduced animal, there is no good way to distinguish acclimation from senescence.
