I’ll throw up some pics of Loue Key soon. Its a marine reserve down in the keys that we dove on. Beautiful. Not much in the line of corals around here… I have only found 2 species of hard corals, some gorgonians, and sponges. Kelegih has seen Cinnamion polyps (Protopalythoa grandis) while she was diving, but I haven’t been that lucky.
lol ok how how this ?Why bother to go thru all of this for something that lives 6 mths to a year ?
Camo-Pus!
[quote=“jjhanson, post:42, topic:2657”]
lol ok how how this ?Why bother to go thru all of this for something that lives 6 mths to a year ?[/quote]
Does the shorter life cycle make the animal less interesting? Or more? I think more. There are a good many folks here passionately involved in growing out corals, something that (to me) is about as interesting as watching grass grow. Now if you can find me a coral that will take food from you, change colors on demand, or open jars to get to its food, I may rethink my position.
Well put Joe.
Your going to hand feed a octo? lol good luck with that one.Yea so it does change color and will ink up a strom and eat crabs from a jar but the other 90 percent of the time it hidden or in one spot for days on end just like coral.
[quote=“jjhanson, post:46, topic:2657”]
Your going to hand feed a octo? lol good luck with that one.Yea so it does change color and will ink up a strom and eat crabs from a jar but the other 90 percent of the time it hidden or in one spot for days on end just like coral.[/quote]
Have you kept one?
i agree as well. atleast you have done research and know what needs to be done to better the chances of keeping it for as long as possible
No i have never kept one but 14 years in the navy as a diver and 3 years as a diver at Sea World (orlando) i have nothing good to say about them. Hell even Sea world got rid of them because your dealing with something with mood swings and there dangerous. I also worked at the Bailtimore Aquirium as well there we arent paid it all volunteer status only and they had them for almost three year mainly as reserach and decided to not to keep them there because of bad exp.
So if you gave me a choice work in shark tank or a tank with let say 4 octo i will take the shark tank hands down. Hell i would take working SnowFlake and Klondike( SeaWorld polar bears) tank over a tank with octo in it.
But go for it really plz dont let my opinion of them sway your judgement.
[quote=“jjhanson, post:49, topic:2657”]
…your dealing with something with mood swings and there dangerous. [/quote]
Perhaps the danger you refer to is in the diving more than the animal. Every source that I’ve consulted has listed their bite as akin to a bee sting, with the exception of the blue ring octopus, Hapalochlaena ssp. I won’t be keeping any of those.
[quote=“jjhanson, post:49, topic:2657”]
But go for it really plz dont let my opinion of them sway your judgement.[/quote]
I shan’t. PBJ!
The beak is strong enough. Like i said in past posts i had one break a face mask with ease .But i am sure you not dealing with something that big. I think it cool get it would be a awsome show and tell for a meeting
Heres an info page plus places to buy em.
http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/sources.php
If you could get a pair, you could breed them, and not have to buy more when they get old and die in a couple years.
I dont know kaptken i liked your idea about the cutllefish better.
There are a small percentage of hobbyiest that i feel could and should keep challenging animals. Contrary to what some people think, i personally dont feel that a person needs a phd in biology to discover something new about an animal or to have success with its rearing. One of the things i like most about this hobby is the wide range of intelligent people it attracts. Compared to some animals i feel that keeping a dwarf octo is pretty basic and think Joe will be just fine. Heck, i think keeping a blue ring is not an issue for some people including a one or two of our own members. I think Joe will be just fine.
Hm i think we are misunderstanding me here. Never said dont do it. Was speaking from my own exp.Granted i have never kept one due past bad exp with them in the wild. But dont let a vendor try and bs you into a sale of of without giving you the good with the bad.
Even being new i have been bsed into somethings that i didnt need or wasnt compatable w with a reef or i wasnt asked by the vendor the questions that need to be asked.
Then again that why i am on this website.
So plz i am not saying dont do it i am saying be carefull who your dealing with on a octo.
Set the tank up tonight, 55 gallon, around thirty-five pounds of live rock. I may add more, waiting to see how it looks when the dust settles. I still have not decided on whether to run a sump, any suggestions? I like the idea of hiding the heater, but I’m still concerned about how to escape proof it. If I go sumpless, I can lower the water level a couple of inches to deter escape attempts. Open to any ideas!
Joe - I might be missing something but in my mind there are three things that need to be escape proof: top opening, return, and drain. Here is what i would do for each.
Top of tank - get a piece of glass cut to the exact dimensions of the opening. You can buy a pack of screen door clips at lowes or home depot for $2. Screw the screen door clips into the plastic trim around the top of the tank using short screws. I use this method for latching glass doors in my DIY vertical vivariums. The clips are little pieces of plastic about the size of a fingernail that sit flush on the trim and glass. You then spin the clips 90 degrees to either hold down or release the glass. You can buy a clear plastic self adhesive tab used for glass canopies from just about any LFS for $2 to take the glass off.
Drain - I would use the drain cover that i linked to ealier in the thread.
Return - I would think using the locline flare nozzles would be sufficient.
I have 0 experience with keeping these guys and i hope im not underestimating their abilities to escape but the largest opening in the tank using the above methods would only be about 2-3mm tops.
Shawn,
I think you pretty much have it covered, the only problem is the tank is a standard 55, and not drilled. So the top will be no problem, but trying to escape proof a HOB (think U-tube) overflow will be a trick. I think if I were to cover it entirely in netting it would clog far too quickly and I would have a flood. That is why I’m considering going sumpless. If I do go sumpless, the conventional wisdom says that a two inch lip around the top coupled with the water level being slightly lower would keep the critter(s) in the tank. Sorry I wasn’t more specific. Any thoughts on how to seal off the inside overflow? I would have to seal the edges of the box up to the lid on the tank. Maybe I’m making this more complicated than it need be.
Quick story to make you think 2x about using the air gap as an anti-octo deterrent. I had a roommate who used to work at a LFS that kept an octo. One night an employee forgot to silicone the top of the tank closed when he left. During the night, the octo crawled out of its tank into nearby tanks for a midnight snack. When the owner came in in the morning, the octo was back in its tank, but over 400$ of reef fish were missing. The octo had crawled from tank to tank out of the water, eaten the fish, and at the end of his all-you-can-eat buffet, it crawled back into its tank to sleep it off. (The 400$ came out of the employee’s paycheck). Octos have no qualms about short exposures to air to achieve a goal.
exposure to air for a long time doesn’t daunt them either.
referring to my story on pg 1 of this post,
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.