Questions from a Newbie...

[centuryegg]

Hello all, Im a new Octopus keeper from Singapore. Just aquired my octopus on Wed. Size from head to tentacle is about 3 inches. Species unknown as LFS refer to it as red octopus.

Anyway would like to ask some questions and appreciate your time and responses.

1) How much do I feed the fellow? I was feeding it one grass shrimp a day, however a LFS owner told me not to feed too much cos it will lead to overfeeding and premature death.

 

[Nancy]

Hello and welcome to TONMO.com

Congratulations on your octopus - any chance you could post some pics for us?

It's hard to know how big your octo will eventually grow without knowing the species. But if it's accepting the shrimp, go ahead and feed it. It's important for young octopuses to get enough food (assuming yours is young).

I've never found anything yet to substantiate the overfeeding/premature death theory. If someone knows of some real research done in this area, please let me know. My own experience is that my octo would refuse food if I gave her too much. A lot of people do some free feeding,where they keep live crabs or shimp in the tank to supplement other food.

Hope that helps,

Nancy

 

[centuryegg]

Thanks Nancy! Will try to take some pics... its going to be hard to do that though. The fellow is hiding in a hole in the live rock and only comes out after dark, in fact it shrinks rite back the hole once it detects light. In fact it gave me a bloody scare the next morning after I got it. I thought it disappeared from the tank, checked all the seals and found that nothing broken so wondering where did it disappear to until I saw it sticking the tip of its tentacle out.... Anyway to make it come out of the burrow?

Should I increase number of live rocks?
Or get a low light flourscent tube? Those dim blue ones?

 

[NickA5582]

Most octos are nocturnal or it may be shy or getting used to its new envoirement. How much rock do you have now, and what size is your tank?

to TONMO, CenturyEgg!

 

[Colin]

Welcome to TONMO.com

 

[Melissa]

Welcome, centuryegg!

Melissa

 

[joel_ang]

to TONMO.com centuryegg!!

Century eggs rock! Most LFS here know nuts about cephs and talk quite alot of crap, so don't always listen to them. Looks like you've got a dwarf octo, they have short lifespans though ~ 6 months from birth, and are nocturnal.

Look around and you might find a cyanea (day octopus) though they get big. Ever thought of trying cuttlefish?

 

[KalihiBoy]

to tonmo

 

[centuryegg]

To Joel, pardon me but are you very sure that the octopus I have is a dwarf octopus? Not meaning to sound rude but cos Im looking for research materials to learn more about the invertebrates in the South east asian region and trying to identify and know the care requirements for many of the creatures that pass through our LFS especially those at Pasir Ris (To foreign friends here, Pasir Ris is a designated area in Spore for Aquaculture, there are about 4 to 5 large Marine LFS there) I would really appreciate if you could share your sources of information esp if there are pictures....

I agree that most LFS owners know nuts and talk bull.... One even told me.... "Why you want to keep octopus haha.... this kind of things only for children to play like toy... haha" and gave me a u must be stupid or childish look......

Haiz.......