Thanks, guys. I think the low water is less about air and more about them not navigating the lip out of the water. Bear in mind that we are talking about a dwarf octo with an armspan of around five inches. At any rate, it may be smarter to just cover it. Any ideas on proofing the inside of the overflow?
Ive never used a HOB personally but understand the principles.
My biggest worry wouldnt be from detritus blocking the hole but from the octo obstructing it. I had a serpent star almost flood my solana because he thought it was a cool place to hang out so i can only imagine what a michevious octo would do for fun!
My suggestion? two overflows on opposite sides of the tank. With a 5" armspan i would like to see him block both at once! lol As far as octo proofing the intakes go use gutter guard. Its plastic, durable, black, and has openings wasy to small for an octo but big enough to not get clogged easily. Its also very cheap, easy to work with, and available at all home stores.
A more simple option would be to run the drain horizontally across the tank. There is a really cool technique for putting gutter guard inside of a pvc pipe to do this. However, im not familiar enough with HOBs to know if there would be any obstacles that i can not think of.
Heres the problem, you got to buy them a HDTV.
not sure if every one knows but they do have a very dark gray pvc. it is called schedule 80 pvc alot thicker and stronger than standard schedule 40 white pvc.
Glen the grey stuff is in fact still PVC just thicker? Made from the same stuff just more of it?
This thread is back from the dead!
I ordered two dwarf octo’s from one of our fine LFS’s (Thanks, guys) but I think that they were just too small and fragile to ship. Both passed in a couple of days. I decided to pay the extra money and order from LiveAquaria (they have a two week guarantee). This one is about 20 times the size of the first two, and has already eaten a few hermit crabs. I am going to try some grocery store shrimp this afternoon. For what it’s worth, it looks like Abdopus Aculeatus which is a diurnal species. I will keep everyone posted on my progress, and put some good pics up later of my escape-proofing and setup.
New Pics!
Resting under her favorite rock:
Attacking the crab:
Eating it:
Back to her spot:
The color and texture changes of her skin are incredible, I will video the next feeding. Awesome!
cool setup, you can barely distinguish the octopus with their camoufalge abilites.
cannot wait for the video!!
Glad you found some good ones. Hey, just be careful with your camera around the tank. They have been know to commit Grand Theft Octo!
Heheh Saw that, Ken.
She is doing well, taking a crab per day and like sto play peek a boo. Pics later tonight!
Joe, are you feeding her local hermits/snails? They would be MUCH cheaper.
[quote=“icy1155, post:72, topic:2657”]
Joe, are you feeding her local hermits/snails? They would be MUCH cheaper.[/quote]
Not as of yet, when the weather gets a little better I plan on trying to pick up my own crabs, shrimp, and snails. So far it has been a little chilly. I am trying to get her onto store shrimp as well, but I think I will be able to feed mainly local items.
Try going to Bowmans Beach at low tide. You should see all sorts of local hermits/snails. If you look around rocks and any oyster clumps, you might also find a grass shrimp or two. There are actually a ton in the Delaware bay, but you need to have some structure there for them to congregate on.
Thanks, Icy. I’ll give it a shot, maybe this weekend. I just gave her a piece of store-bought shrimp, which she took from my feeding stick with no problem.
Any new pics/video? How has it been keeping them so far?
So far, here are my notes:
Far more exciting than I expected, comes out to investigate my hand, plays peek-a-boo, takes food from my tongs, the color and texture changes are truly incredible.
No escape attempts (knocks wood), seems to be in good health. Nitrates are hovering around 15 ppm, skimmer is going apeshot, I have some macro’s in there (thanks, Ken) seems to be working! I will try to get a good video this weekend.
joe would like to see it sunday evevning if ok around 5 30 ish? sounds like he is awsome.
Sure, Glenn. Anytime! Here is a crappy cell video of him eating. Of course the crab had to go to the worst possible location for my camera. You can just see his eyes peeking out from the rock on the left at the start of the clip.
Sweet! Very cool, he looks like he really wanted that sucker!