Thread: new to octos!
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Old 12/06/2007, 07:59 PM
Animal Mother Animal Mother is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Texas
Posts: 102
You don't want a Blue Ring. Even if kept responsibly (they can kill you) buying them only encourages the collectors to get more, and perpetuating the market of a an animal that is deadly is ridiculous.

That being said, there are several different species that can be kept in a 55 gallon tank that show beatiful colorations, textures, and patterns.

Look for Bimac, Briareus, Abdopus aculeatus, or the Caribbean Two-Spot O. hummelincki. Lately the most common dwarfs in the US seem to be O. mercatoris. They are very nocturnal and shy, but have been kept together in small communities successfully, as well as bred. As for other species though, keeping them with other octos is not recommended. They are very territorial and live solitary lives.

Be aware that some octos are solely nocturnal and you may never see them out in the daytime. They shouldn't be kept with fish as fish will only become prey or harrass the octopus into hiding, stress the octopus, and lead to its death. Some people do successfully keep them with fish, but in order to enjoy the full nature of the creature, it should be kept alone. Non-carnivorous starfish make good tankmates, and are about the only other creature that won't harm or be eaten by an octopus.

Seal the top of the tank and any filtration so that the octopus can't squeeze into any spaces that might lead to certain death. They can easily squeeze their body into the most unbelievable places.

Run heavy filtration as they are much messier than a similar sized fish. 3 times your tank size is the most commonly recommended goal for octo filtration.

All that said, dwarfs are only going to live 6-8 months, and most other commonly kept species are only going to live 1-2 years at best. This is from birth, not collection, so unfortunately you may quite possibly end up buying an octopus that only has a week or two to live. Bimacs are the only species currently being offered as captive bred.