Anyone here with any ceph experience? I am considering setting up a tank and wondering if any club members have kept them in the past. I have a few questions that I can’t seem to find answers to on TONMO.
Thanks,
Joe
Shocking that you can’t find answers on TONMO. Have you tried asking on there? What questions do you have. I researched them a good bit in the past and saw a presentation at MACNA on them. I also drive a work van with octos painted all over it. 
how much live rock per gallon? substrate? how to octoproof filter intakes and tops, etc… I’ve seen some astroturf tricks, but there must be a better way
LR/gallon will likely be a personal choice. Having a significant amount will add to the stability, but significant water changes will be important. I know you don’t do water changes on your other tanks much, but with a predatorial animal like this with such a high protein diet it will be important, especially in a smaller tank.
As far as a top I can’t remember any details that help. sorry.
Well, i guess egg crate in a tight fitting frame with tie downs on top to start, to prevent escape. Octo tanks can be very low light tanks. which will cut down glass cleaning and stuff. Like Jon mentioned, its a high volume waste producing critter. your gonna need a super bio filtration system. I once thought a good method would be a simple under gravel filter with a lift tub piped into the bottom of a covered overflow box. the box could dump open air to the sump. You dont want to make a syphon. but you got to keep the gravel clean with vacuuming. might have a back up slotted overflow a bit higher just in case the gravel gets too dirty and slows the flow.
Joe, have you looked into Cuttlefish? They are less prone to escape, and don’t pose all of the same filtration problems that octos do. Plus, you can keep some of them in “Coral” tanks. I would say reef, but they are more or less the only inhabitants you can have in the tank. Just a thought. We fell in love with them when we visited Atlantis aquarium… they were much more interactive than the octo they had there was… followed me around the tank and were constantly changing colors as they swam.
Thanks Jon, I make sure to change the water as needed for the inhabitants. The live rock question was more if there was a lb. per gallon rule of thumb, like with a reef tank.
Thanks for the suggestion Icy, I really want a bimac but the cuttlefish are pretty cool.
Ken, I don’t think I’m following you on the lift tube tie in, can you explain?
Any thoughts on running a cannister filter?
ew octo i have seen some bad stuff with those.The only way i have seen them not escape was with a dome topped platic top. Second off there dangerous to work with last thing you want is for one of them to get a hold of you while trying to clean the tank. There very strong creatures and very smart as well.
For example he would put a blue crab in a jar. he did this three times with three diffrent jars frist jar had a simple pull off lid . less then two hours he had the lid off.
Second jar had a screw type lid now this took a few hours more but with the same result .
Now the thrid jar was a mind blower this jar had been sealed with crazy glue. he didnt open the jar he wraped around this one and just crushed the glass jar like it was nothing
Second off there dangerous to work with last thing you want is for one of them to get a hold of you while trying to clean the tank.
that is a rather silly thing to be worried about, imho. any ceph we would keep is gonna be fairly small and incapable of really hurting a person’s hand. i have handled numerous octo’s in my tanks way back in the 70’s and more while diving. never had any type of worrisome experience. if they grab your hand what would they do??? sucker the hand? i doubt they’ll bite.
yep they are smart, probably smart enough to not attack something they cannot eat or do not understand.
let some experts chime in here, as i’m working from experience and not much else.
Paul, any recommendations on proofing the tank, filters, etc…? That is my main concern, I don’t want to come home to find a dried octo on the carpet. It will be in its own tank, low lights, what kind of filter is recommended?
My understanding is that the bite is no worse than a bee sting.
i have no ideas on keeping them in a tank if they wanna get out. since the beak is the only hard part of their body, they can get through almost any opening. but people do keep them with success, so there must be ways to do it. wish i could help.
i gave up on octo’s when the last one i had crawled out of the tank, across the basement floor, up the steps, and into the kitchen. put him back, and he inked. back then, no way to clean the tank, and he died. that was my 3rd or 4th loss.
I dont exactly know the size of the octo’s available for pets. if they are really small, egg crate may not be a small enough opening to restrain them. but my idea of using the under gravel filter as a path for over flowing water out of the tank is ok. you just have to set up an over flow bulkhead in the tank wall to make it work. not a syphon overflow. it removes the possibility of the octo clogging up the overflow notches and flooding the tank. or going over the falls to the filter and sump. and the UG filter helps keep the filter working too.
Plus, i would have a big fuge.
As a diver in the navy and i worked at SEA World in orlnado for a many of years. My encounter with them was never good and granted my expreience has been with much larger ones in the size range of 4 to 6 ft. True story i was doing a recovery on a f-16 in the IO in about 65 feet of water and the aircraft was in the water i would say about four days when me and abot 3 other got to the aircraft i was to remove the black box and missle controls.
So i get to the cockpit and began to look it over and i had had to get under the control panel to cut two wires and i had a octo under there and i spook him and he shot ink but was cornered no where to swim off and i was in
a fight with this thing for my mask he was wraped all my head and neck and he breaked my face mask and cracked the upper top ridge with ease . If it wasnt for my other partner seeing my leg waving like something was wrong i would have been dead. After i got top side i had sucker marks all over my head and neck with a wet suit on. So there very powerfull
That is crazy!
HOLY crap, why did you have to cut wires.
The weapons control wires had to be cut or unscrewed easyer just to cut them it alot faster. Funny when a aircraft goes down or removing bodys from man overboards and crashes and yes when murders at sea its crazy how fast sea life moves in to to ethier set up a new home or eat the flesh. I have seen it all . i recall find a saloir after 3 day we found him with his life jacket still on and he was ina upright postion from the helio figure he still might be alive they droped me close to him i when i get up to him he was palewhite semi greyish color i knew he was dead so i pull his life jacket and gave the sign for the hoist or basket they lower me the basket i go to put him in the basket he had no lower body shark bit him in half .
Still have questions about filtration. From Tonmo, “The octopus can produce three times as much waste as a fish of a similar mass so the filtration of an octopus aquarium has to be three times over spec for a tank destined for fish only!”
So do I need to plan for three times the mass of the octo or three times the tank capacity? If I get a dwarf, that would be like having three damsels in the tank. Does that mean I need a skimmer and live rock? Or a giant superfilter with de-nitrator and phosban?
Joe
If it were me i would keep it as simply as possible. I would keep the tank BB and free of everything but “toys”. I would focus on heavy mechanical filtration. Something easy like filter socks or floss that can be incorporated into the return. For biological i would build a giant DIY denitrator that was rated for 2-3 system size and call it a day. Waterchanges with the occasional siphon would make up for the rest. For the drain/return check these out.
http://www.juliespetmarket.com/manufacturing-manufacturing-suction-screen-cover-p-7864.html
I just ordered a couple for a project im starting. Looks like the should keep an octopus out no problem. Put two drains on opposite ends of tank to keep the little guy from blocking one.
Thanks, Shawn. Didn’t you build a denitrator a while back? Do you have specifics on the construction? I’d like to try it.
Anyone know if you can drill a 55?
In my opinion denitrators would not be a good idea on this type of system. I think they would work in a large stable reef tank where you have 4ppm nitrates and want to get it closer to 1-0ppm.(of course using a good test kit) You can spend $400 on a dentrator to bring your Nitrates from 55ppm to 50ppm, but I don’t think the octo will care and I would gamble you wouldn’t notice the difference in algae growth. In my opinion you don’t need a dentrator.
I think filter socks should only be used by individuals that can replace them once or twice a week. If you have said in the past that you will do water changes once every other week and have found that you can only do them every other month then I would think again about trusting yourself to replace the socks. We use a good bit of filter socks are Armco, but most of the time they are at accounts where they can have the maid replace the socks or they pretty much stay at home and have the time to replace them. If not replaced often enough they will build Nitrates in the system.(and in my opinion worse than large sponges or a small amount of bioballs.)
I would use a large skimmer, carbon, phosban, and frequent water changes. Would also be good if you could get one-two massive pieces of LR the octo couldn’t possibly move for a center piece décor/filtration.
There is no rule of them though Joe. The amount of waste is doing to depend on the specific type of food you feed and how much. X pieces of krill 3cm could lead to Xppm Nitrate if left in the water without being digested. Even if you had that info you might find Just Fish sells krill at 4cm long. And on any given day what is your octo going to find and digest. Your octos digestive system may be thrown off due to the amount of light or the temp of the water……. As with anything in this hobby too many factors. You’re going to have to get the thing and see what works for you. It might be painful, but I would recommend running a lot of tests on the Nitrogen cycle for the first couple of months.
We’ve had the talk about drilling 55g over and over again. 95% of the time it won’t work.