Octopus for me?

bpkid · #1 (**permalink**) 02-21-2005, 11:32 PM

These guys are nice,I've loved them since I first saw one on T.V. I was doing some research and they don't seem really hard to care for.(some of them,at the most)I really love O. bimaculoides,but if anyone has any other reccomendations,say so!Anyone here have experience with octopi?How much does the species I referred to cost on average?

NicoleRussell · #2 (**permalink**) 02-21-2005, 11:44 PM

I looked into it myself and don't kid yourself ---they are alot of work for so many reasons. And they are cooler then you know. They are very smart, and get to know you through the glass..but if you stress them and it's easy to do---they will ink the water and you IMMEDIATELY must change it....and it's no easy task when you have a salt water tank.
There were other pitfalls but I don't remember them right now.
That in itself was enough for me to pass.

JuliusSqueezer · #3 (**permalink**) 02-22-2005, 12:13 AM

They don't just ink up the water, they also are notorious for climbing out of the tank and stinking up the house when they dry out and die. You have to secure the top and do not underestimate their ability to squeeze their rubbery, boneless body through tiny holes.

They are indeed very smart animals. They are a mollusk, related to clams and oysters and other nearly brainless animals...yet they have intelligence of an average 3 year old human child...IQwise. They are great problem solvers. Jaquez Cousteau did a show on them a long time ago. He put a small crab in a baby food jar and screwed the lid on and placed it infront of a wild octopus on a reef somewhere. This "jarred" crab only frustrated the octopus for a few seconds before it unscrewed the lid and got the crab out...pretty cool for a clam with legs.

pathfinder36 · #4 (**permalink**) 02-22-2005, 12:19 AM

Now that's some cool info I didn't know. Thanks JS. =)

Reptscue · #5 (**permalink**) 02-22-2005, 12:39 AM

Funny you bring up their excaping abilities. My husband's friend had an octopus that would climb out of its tank and go into the one across the room and eat the fish.
Hubby still wants one.
Oh just FYI, they are strong. Some can lift up to 40 times their own weight.

NicoleRussell · #6 (**permalink**) 02-22-2005, 02:06 AM

they sound so amazing I wish I was more of a marine enthusiast. I have been interested in marine biology since I was a child but never had a tank...something to think about

Reptscue · #7 (**permalink**) 02-23-2005, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NicoleRussell

they sound so amazing I wish I was more of a marine enthusiast. I have been interested in marine biology since I was a child but never had a tank...something to think about

I here ya Nicole. I've had fishtanks off and on since I was 7 yrs old. My dad was a commercial fisherman and I'd bring things home from his boat.(seahorses, pipefish, hermitcrabs, urchins, sanddollars, and the list goes on...)
Right now we have 2 tanks and we're working on 2 more.

I can't wait.
Sorry, now I'm blabing....

Wrasse · #8 (**permalink**) 02-23-2005, 01:17 PM

I had an Occi.

I called him GT as he had GT racing stripes on his head. The australian form I had doesn't live very long however and we only had 18 months with him.

GT was very easy to keep. I had been told horror stories about their keeping, how they foul the water with the amount of excrement they dump, the inking, the escaping.

He was kept in a four foot x 1 foot x 18 inch tank. We siliconed a rim around the tank and hinged plexiglass to it. This was then latched shut much like a snake tank. The filtration included a skimmer box recessed into the side of the tank (with the plexiglass lid formed over the top of it) which had a very fine grate siliconed into it, to stop GT going down the filter lines. The filtration system consisted of a 20litre sump bucket below the tank.

Our water flow was in excess of 1000 litres an hour and at no stage did we have an ammonia, nitrate/rite or toxic bloom. So we obviously got that right. He did not ever ink.

He did disappear down under the undergravel filter, which had been our first filtration system in that tank and never removed. After he got under it, it did get removed. :P

Tank furnishings were slim, as he had a habit of throwing things around in the middle of the night and the danger of a broken tank was very real. He had a teapot, a cup and an old bottle. He loved his teapot.

We dropped common fish, caught at the local marina in his tank constantly and the little local rock crabs were enjoyed too. It was fascinating to watch him hunt and eat. His entire overall body size was only about the size of a tennis ball, but he could stretch the complete length of the tank.

He became very tame and would sit in my hand happily when I was cleaning the tank or playing with him, however he hated my partner and would recoil from his hand. Possibly because my partner worked with metal and we think the metal dust on his hands would have set up a chemical reaction with the salt water, possibly uncomfortable for GT.

Anyway, GT was great fun. His tank was alongside my computer and we had a lot of interaction. I missed him dreadfully after he died and the tank was retired.

JuliusSqueezer · #9 (**permalink**) 02-28-2005, 01:25 AM

Their ability to escape causes their early demise very often in captivity but in the wild it saves them almost constantly. They are forever getting stranded in tidal pools and if they couldn't crawl out and quickly make their way back to open water, then they would be in big trouble.

They have an interesting life cycle. Both sexes die shortly after reproduction. Males can live a few months after mating. Females live just long enough to see their eggs hatch. Once they mate, they will never eat again. The hatching babies are near microscopic and in fact are part of what makes up "plankton". They can produce up to an estimated 100,000 babies at a time. I don't think it's very feasable to try and reproduce them in captivity. Feeding plankton isn't even the issue. Afterall, sea monkeys thrive and all they are is plankton (brine shrimp). Octopi go down fairly deep to breed and brood ...something like 50 to 3 or 400 feet deep range I think. I don't remember the deep end of the range but I'm fairly sure they will breed at about 50 feet for the shallow end of the range so even to cover the minimum range you would have to have a fairly massive tank to breed them. If you keep individuals that never breed, the most you can keep them alive is about 5 years. Generally though they rarely survive past a couple of years.

Hey wrasse..your little buddy didn't happen to have little blue circles all over when he got mad did he? lol.

chrispaine · #10 (**permalink**) 03-21-2005, 02:10 AM

man, thos things sound sweet... i want one!! any idea how much the cost, and where you get them?

pandora1985 · #11 (**permalink**) 03-21-2005, 03:07 AM

for more info: http://www.tonmo.com/

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