What are you feeding your octopus?

[Guerrund]

I hear all about crabs and mussels to feed for your octo.. what about lobster?

 

[corw314]

One of my past octos dined on a lobster leg along with us on my sons' bd! He looked like he was alittle confused over how big it was but he did eat some!

Carol

 

[Guerrund]

I hear about this "feeding stick"... whats this? I thought you could hand your octopus some food or drop it into the tank if its alive.

still i would be wondering what it would look like for an octo and a lobster to have at it!

 

[Colin]

its normally better in some cases to keep your hands out of the cephalopod aquarium, it can introduce unwanted items into the aquarium and at least can save any accidental bites!

the feeding stick is normally a thin rigid plastic tube or wooden stick which can be used to wiggle dead food and make it appear live... great way to get animals onto eating dead food.

 

[pauls]

What sort of food to octopus feed on?

hi
am still wondering what do these things feed on? can you let me know please.

paul

 

[Nancy]

If you look back through this thread (start with the beginning), you'll find many examples of what people are feeding their octopuses.

In short, the favorite food is usually live crabs of an appropriate size for the octo. Shimp and other crustaceans are also well received. One of the easiest foods to buy is frozen raw shrimp, which you thaw and offer whole or in pieces, depending on the octo's size.

For younger octos, hermit crabs and small snails can be used. You can move to fiddler crabs and larger crabs as your octo grows. If you can find or buy live crabs, these can be frozen and pieces of the crab offered to the octo. (It's impossible to find frozen raw crab for sale).

Nancy

 

[Colin]

Looks like a pale coloured briareus to me??? Any bluish tinges in there?

 

[BENABEHENRY]

We are feeding Stumpy a variety of frozen (I defrost before feeding) things, he seems to like prawns the best, then flake (which I believe is shark) and whiting. I try and alternate every week - so he dosent get bored with the same food

mandy

 

[Naomi&Joe]

Just put this on another thread, but I suppose it belongs here too.

This is what stage we are at with Groove Machine;

We've had some peppermint shrimps (pretty red things) in the tank for ages now - waiting to be octo food , plus a few crabs of various sorts - mostly hitchhikers on live rock cos we never bought them. I reckoned that they would keep him going for a few days at least.

When he was in the LFS before we bought him he was eating freshwater shrimp (yes - i've seen the posts now about these not being nutritional enough for marine beasties) - about two per day. We bought a handful of these, and put them in our freshwater tank. I thought he would eat our peppermint shrimps and crabs first, and then I would start putting the freshwater shrimps in. The first day he ate nothing as far as I know, the second day I found the remnants of one of the weird nocturnal worm things that lives in the live rock, and the third day I found the antenna of a peppermint shrimp. I thought he was eating away at the peppermints, but tonight have dicovered that the rest of them are just hiding well! I put him a freshwater shimp in tonight and it lasted about 8 seconds before being devoured.

I have tried him on frozen (but defrosted) Krill and raw Tiger Prawn, but so far no joy - not sure what to try next

 

[BrettMagellan]

My octopus will eat almost anything and it seems everything I feed her makes a mess of the tank.

I used to feed mine crabs that I collected from the beach. Mostly green, blue, and hermit crabs, but there shells pollute the tank and its hard for me to put my hand or net in there to fish them out because Lolo (my octo) will attack me.

I also used to feed her goldfish but they have a poor nutritional value and are fatty so I don't use those anymore.

Now I feed her frozen cleaned smelts and frozen uncooked cocktail shrimp.

 

[oscar]

lucky you - an octo that takes frozen food!

 

[timo049]

Depends on the size....I go to a bait store and get live shrimp and blue crabs...just drop them in the tank and Simon can have a snack when ever he wants..he also likes the turbo snails

 

[tridacna]

My Octo eats hermit crabs, convict tangs, crabs and snails. All are live. probably has been eating other things aswell but its hard to know what little critters are already living in the tank.
There is a peppermint shrimp and a coral banded shrimp that live with him in harmony. Im surprised he has not sampled one of them yet. I thought they would be the first to go. Im going to try some frozen shrimp. I have never actually seen him eat anything. I only see the bones from his night time feeding parties.

 

[Naomi&Joe]

Groove Machine is now eating live saltwater rivershrimp that I can get from a shop a couple of hours drive away, and they live in his tank and the water change tank quite happily (until eaten obviously). Very handy. And they are cheap too.

 

[Ocho]

Hey everyone,

I am looking for a good supply of live saltwater inverts to feed my octo. It's interesting to know what you guys are feeding your octos, but I'd really like to know where you got it from. If someone could direct me to some reliable online sources or local store/beach in Los Angeles that would be very helpful!

Thanks!