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Time before they eat

Jerry

Hatchling
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Jun 13, 2009
Messages
3
I have a new small octopus. Today is his second full day in the aquarium. He has spent most of this time hiding in some rocks, occassionally looking out. I have a number of hermit crabs as well as two small clams in the tank for his dinner. I have seen him watch them and he may have eaten one, as I can no longer find one of the shells - I guess it is in his cave. I was wondering how much a small octopus (maybe 12 inches with legs and body stretched) generally eat. How often do they eat? How long does it take them to settle into their new home?

Thanks,

Jerry
 
Hi and welcome to TONMO.com!
Octopuses will eat every day or every other day. A newly arrived octopus may not eat right away, or may be very hungry and eat a lot. Sometimes they eat amphipods from an established tank as well as larger prey. It takes a little while for your new octopus to feel at home, so hiding at first is normal. The amount of time to get used to new surroundings and to you varies with the individual octopus, but I'd count on at least a few weeks.

Nancy
 
Jerry,

I would recommend tempting your new critter with either a live fiddler or by placing a thawed or fresh food on a stick or tie directly infront of its den.

Only one of my octopuses has ever eaten a hermit and only one has ever opened a clam (and on each occassion, this only happened once). All have happily hunted fiddler crabs and love clams on the half shell. Even my briareus will not open a clam but takes the meat quickly if presented on a stick or by hand. Shore shrimp (either recently killed or frozen and thawed) hand fed has also been very successful. Thawed frozen shrimp is usually accepted by larger octopuses after they are comfortable in their environment but none of my dwarfs would have anything to do with them and my macropus will no longer eat them.

We have found attaching a zip tie to something that floats and then hanging the food at the end works very well and keeps the live rock in place. With SueNami (briareus), we just float the food at the end of the tie and he will located the float then take the food when he detects food in the tank (we think he is very far sighted and cannot see anything closer than arms length). With Beldar (macropus) we use a bamboo stick stuck in a bundle of straws and touch her arms to the food before releasing it.
 

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