• 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.

Refugiam prep, tank make over, and a new chapter!

You are pretty much into preference rather than best practice territory so reviewing more tank oriented literature or forums for ideas and experimental results will give you a better idea of how you may want to proceed. Some people really like their refugiums to be small display tanks, some use their sumps. I gave up on using the sump as a refugium because of the additional work and lighting requirements. If your refugium is also your sump I would recommend not using sand to avoid complications with the pumps.
Got it! Thanks! :smile:
 
Just found out that I've of the corals should to me as a mushroom coral may actually be a plate coral- are these safe to have? They do say that they are semiggressive and can sting other corals. A fellow hobbiest wasn't certain if they were safe for octopus.
 

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You may have a Ricordea mushroom vs a plate coral. A plate coral will have a hard skeleton in the shape of a disk (plate). A Ricordea mushroom has no hard parts but will attach to a piece of coral or rock. Check out the pictures I have linked and see if either match your coral (I suspect the Ricordea). Unfortunately, Ricordea do sting and are not recommended for an octopus tank.
 
Well shoot- good and bad there: the coral in question does not fit under either of those catagories and the closest photo I have to what it looks like is labeled as a 'blue hairy mushroom'. So that's good. I can't think it stings- my starfish has laid an arm or two up next to it a few times when she is in the cave next to it.
BUT I do have a two Ricordea mushrooms that sounds like I need to find homes for.
Is there a lists or a site you can recommend to help know what to ask for in regards to mushrooms? Its crazy trying to get them all figured out as to what is what.
 
I don't know of a good site or even names for the common mushrooms that are definitely OK, however, any mushroom that does not have little tentacles should be fine (there are only a few, usually red/orange, blue or pink - could not find an image but they look like the red and blue with an almost smooth surface).

Ricordea fall a bit on the iffy side. If you want to try leaving them in the tank, pay close attention to the octopus when it climbs over them (much like you are doing with your starfish - not sure starfish can feel the stinging though). If you see a react, then rehome the coral. Sometimes you can place a mildly stinging animal in a place the octo doesn't venture but this is difficult to second guess.
 
I don't know of a good site or even names for the common mushrooms that are definitely OK, however, any mushroom that does not have little tentacles should be fine (there are only a few, usually red/orange, blue or pink - could not find an image but they look like the red and blue with an almost smooth surface).

Ricordea fall a bit on the iffy side. If you want to try leaving them in the tank, pay close attention to the octopus when it climbs over them (much like you are doing with your starfish - not sure starfish can feel the stinging though). If you see a react, then rehome the coral. Sometimes you can place a mildly stinging animal in a place the octo doesn't venture but this is difficult to second guess.

What about leathers? I have a large sarcophyton elegans I was given and then a smaller frag of some kind of yellow finger coral. Will these be alright if spaced out?
 
To my knowledge, all leathers are octo safe, at least for the octo. Many leathers don't like to be touched so any in an octos regularly travelled path with not open and feed as often as it should.
 
Yay! That's awesome news. As I really like my leathers. If I have to part with a few of the mushrooms I wouldn't be heartbroken. But my leathers...
Thanks for your help D.Whatley.

I was supposed to get cuttlefish tank raised in this week but they did not show up at the lfs. So maybe next week. The waiting game is on. Meanwhile I keep working on making the tank the best for the next ceph that comes my way.
 
Oops, I failed to remember that you are planning on cuttles. You can keep more variety since they don't climb around on the corals. Your ricordea should be just fine. I envy your large leather!
 
Thanks! Yeah I'm pretty stoked on that one. Its really awesome.
So-now on the cuttlefish topic: I know you mentioned on my tank you didn't think I need to remove any rock but how do I know if I have enough room for them to navigate around? Does this tank look alright for them?
Do I have too many hairy mushrooms? (currently I have 3 spread out).
I also am trying to get more decorative macroaglae in place of coral since there are a lot of debates as to what is really safe besides the three known leathers I have.
The long pieces of rock I can always move, rearrange or pull out I figure. But I wanted to ask as it does provide a lot of crannies for them.
Also any advice on this setup is much appreciated as I am trying to balance between a decorative tank as well as a nice habitat for cephs. (taken into account I'm leaning towards a cuttlefish this time as that's what seems to be more available over here currently)
 

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You definitely do not have too much live rock. When you get the cuttles, they will be very small, no bigger than the first joint on your pinky finger. If you get eggs and hatch them yourself, newborns are smaller than a woman's pinky nail and are usually kept in a breeder net until they get larger and are eating well. Mine only grew to the size of my thumb but they can grow somewhat larger. They hover a lot and like to hang around in open caves so the more the merrier.
 
I kept my cuttles in one of the little mesh nets used for platies and mollies from hatching right up until they hit the 1.5" mark. I had 4 of them survive out of 5 eggs. And they ate about $60 worth of mysid shrimp per week for like......months? I had even more rock than what you've got there, so you should be fine. I also had leathers, mushrooms (including ricordia) and a few LPS corals and didn't have issues with them. Anything I felt was questionable though, I ended up throwing into the sump temporarily or re-homing.
 
This does help me.
Along the lines of how much to plan spending a week- how much did you know to feed them and how often?
Also- were you able to transition them over to frozen food or did you stick to live?
 

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