small octopus?

[Jean]

You can't put an octopus in with all corals, only with ones who a) don't sting and b) tolerate low light levels and remember every living thing you add to the tank increases the bioload! so be careful how much you add!

J

 

[a dustball]

Would getting a bunch of shrimp and keeping them first work too? So I know there's coral and that's a living being, but what exactly is living rock and what does that do?

 

[Animal Mother]

Live rock is basically fossilized coral with lots of living organisms inside and out. It contains bacteria that is extremely beneficial to your filtration. Quality live rock is very porous and lightweight, and will bring lots of surprises with it. Some good, some bad. Copepods, amphipods, isopods, macro and micro algaes, sometimes corals, sometimes crabs, shrimp, and on occasion octopuses.

 

[a dustball]

wait, so if you get live rock, things come off it, and live in the aquarium, or do you mean when you order it?

 

[dreadhead]

A lot of little critter's live in and on live rock, when you add the rock to your tank all those little critter's come with it.

 

[a dustball]

ok thanks.

 

[a dustball]

So also is there any kind of, crab, clam, shrimp or other animal I could buy and put in my tank that the octo won't eat, preferrably one that helps clean and stuff?

 

[dreadhead]

seastar?

 

[Redoc]

You could have a pencil urchin, a starfish, brittle star. I have a pistol shrimp that came on my live rock and some how it's avoided being eaten but thats not a recommendation its just luck.

 

[a dustball]

don't the starfish reproduce by themselves? So after a while I'd have a lot of them in there?

 

[a dustball]

...looking at other posts, a lot of them have something about mysid shrimp, what are they? Food? Cleaners?

 

[Animal Mother]

Food.

 

[dreadhead]

Food, usually for small or young octos or cuttle's.

 

[a dustball]

Ok, and are they just released in the tank or only put in for the use of immediate consumption?