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staying on the side

alexfevery

Cuttlefish
Registered
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
25
Hi,

Ive just added a few fish and a large starfish to one of my octopus tanks. all of a sudden he now will not use his cave and spends the entire day and night stuck to the side of the glass in the corner, there is plenty of hiding spots for him but he wont use them. Ive never seen an octopus do this. also, he seems to try and copy the exact shape of the star fish which is stuck on the side right next to him, and he seems to always stay next to it. anybody know what could be going on?

alex
 
sorry i should have mentioned that, that was the first thing i tried. I took out the starfish and he goes back in his cave, the fish dont bother him, but the starfish does for some reason, even though it moves about an inch every 10 minutes and looks just like a rock, He folows it around staying to is right and always holds his arms in the exact same position as the starfish. Myquestion should have been, is there a way to keep the starfish and octopus in the same tank that anybody can think of.
 
Lots of people have kept starfish and octopuses together. Sometimes the octopus will be a little rough with the starfish, but generally they can live in the same tank.

Nancy
 
alexfevery;81717 said:
What, just cause I have some experience I can't ask questions too?



This is me, still speechless. Wow.
My comment had nothing to do with the starfish gambit at all...I usually keep serpent stars in the octo tanks. Fish? Fish? What??????
 
thanks for the replys.

"Sometimes the octopus will be a little rough with the starfish, but generally they can live in the same tank." Nancy

aprently not these two, the octopus killed it while i was away from home. he seems to be hiding in his normal place again but
RIP starfish :frown:,
he must have been chewing on it or somthing.
Ive kept octopuses and certain kinds of fish together succesfuly but id never tried starfishes before. Ive found that pretty much any fish that you can net up in a tide pool will get along with an octopus fine.
 
I find that very, very, very, very, very, very hard to believe.

Fish have a tendency to "mob" an octopus, much like doves or starlings do to a hawk, driving it to distraction...and in the confines of a small tank, lead the octopus to odd behaviour.
 
I have a chocolate chip starfish in with my O. Aculeatus....I didn't think it was a big deal either....till the octo saw it.
REALLY pissed him off, and did the same mimic you were talking about earlier. spent a few days trying to pry the starfish off the glass, and also moved his den. they've been fine since, but it was weird at first....perhaps it's the shape of the star.
 
"Fish have a tendency to "mob" an octopus, much like doves or starlings do to a hawk, driving it to distraction...and in the confines of a small tank, lead the octopus to odd behaviour."

not in this case, im sure because ive tried keeping these kind of fish with octopuses before. and I kept them out of his tank for 2 days, and he still was follwin the starfish, it was definately the starfish.

Im not sure what kind of starfish it was, it was redish with hairlike stuff on its back and little white lumps.

also, what kind of starfish have people tried sucsessfuly with octopuses? Id like to get one, I guess I should probably buy a certain species though, I want one that does not grow beigger that 5 inches in diameter and that the octopus will get along with?
 

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