Octopus husbandry

[Manta]

Hi all

Looking for some advice. I will of course read as many threads on here as possible but to get the general gist of things, a few questions.

We're going to use an octopus to 'clean up' the LR in the tank, as suggested by a leading expert over here. The octo will have a 200g tank to itself with the aim of dealing with small crabs/mantis etc. Water quality will be at least very good.

What is the truth regarding escape attempts i.e. do they make a bolt for it at first opportunity? (I've kept a Snowflake Moray and despite its reputation it never once made a break for it). Our tank is open topped with a fair amount of bracing and two corner boxes with access into cabinet/pumps (photo below). Escape is our main concern - what's your experience?



TIA

[Manta]

Should have added folks, I intend to plug any decent sized spaces with filter floss.

[binaryterror]

Well, I have my 4" Bimac in a 2.5g covered with mesh in my 55g. He got curious, and put his tentacles through there, and then pushed to try and see what it was. But after that, he hasn't tried to open the top at all. I think they are just curious, and when they find out that it's better to stay in, then they should stop trying to escape.

[Manta]

Thanx for reply binary, still trying to decide wether this ideas worth it or not.

[Altpers0na-old]

from another forum here at RC.

Originally posted by Gonodactylus


Years ago before they were common in the aquarium trade, I found a local importer who had a large blue-ring (H. lunulata). I bought it for a lot of money and spent several days photographing it. I decided to video tape a predation sequence of a blue-ring killing a stomatopod. I had a fairly small G. smithii about 50 mm and figured it would make a nice colorful prey item. The octopus was about 30mm mantle length. I set the stomatopod up in a cavity and introduced the blue-ring. It quickly detected the stomatopod and started to approach. I expected the G. smithii to flee and the H. lunulata to chase it down, but that didn't happen. The stomatopod lunged at the blue-ring and stabbed it with both dactyls right between the eyes killing it almost instantly. Expensive lesson learned

Roy

Food for thought.

[Brock Fluharty]

Wow...

[binaryterror]

^^ Wow... That is insane! I would never have thought of that happening with an octo! But Manta, I would suggest a glass top, with duct tape to cover up any other holes. I am not worried about mine escaping, but I would also be heartbroken if he did decide to get out. So I just used the safe method.

And about the mesh I am talking about, I bought like 10 sheets of it from Michaels. I bought smaller sized, and bigger sized mesh. Here are some pics:

This is how I taped up the back of my tank:



This is the really fine mesh

[Pico Keeper]

Eggcrate works too, just use reptile tank lid clips to hold it down.

As for the Mantis killing the Octo... WOW is all I can say to that. But I've heard of people using Octo's to kill Stomapods on various occassions. That may have been a freak occurence.

[Altpers0na-old]

video in the mantis forum.

[Manta]

Geez, that makes the decision easier, incredible story. Thanx for input everbody. Difficult to find any info over here as keeping octo's not the done thing and most of the big lfs I have talked to are sceptical. Got another month or two to decide anyways.

[Thales]

Originally posted by Manta

We're going to use an octopus to 'clean up' the LR in the tank, as suggested by a leading expert over here. The octo will have a 200g tank to itself with the aim of dealing with small crabs/mantis etc. [/IMG]

This is now generally thought to be a bad idea in the ceph community now a days.

Colin Dunlap is in Scotland and is one of the ceph community 'experts. Check out www.tonmo.com for more octo info.

[Manta]

Thanks for link Thales, I'll check it out.

[OctoMonkey]

Hello,

My ears were burning!!!

Hi Manta

I'm sorry to learn that adding octopuses to new aquaria to rid the live rock of nasties is still being recommended. It really isn't all that practical and that's especially so regarding the species of octopus available in the UK.

Who is this 'leading expert'?

There are a few of us in the UK who are interested in cephalopod husbandry but not all that many. It is difficult to get species suitable for captivity. Part of the reason is, as you said, that you wont get taken seriously... dont worry about it!

Open top tanks is a no no with octopuses, even species which are not so keen to climb out like O bimaculoides will on occasion.

In the UK you are most likely to come across O bocki, a dwarf that rarely settles into captivity and is very shy and nocturnal.

O aculeatus, always sold fully grown with only a month or two to live, diurnal but cant imagine it fairing well with a half decent sized stomatopod.

And of course Hapalochlaena species are still sold here too.

Where is the live rock from? Many places 'cure' the live rock over here before you get it which also reduces the chances of getting mantis shrimps etc.

And lastly, octopuses are very sensitive animals in their own right. They need fairly exacting conditions to do well and a cycling tank with fluctuating parameters is far from perfect water quality! Last thing you want is for an octopus to climb in a hole in live rock and die where you cant find it!!!

Hope that helps

Colin

[Manta]

Thanks for excellent reply Colin, by expert I meant reef 'expert' and not ceph expert, the idea was from an article written about David Saxby.

LR is partly shop held stuff from UDA/Calico and partly mature LR from tank breakdown.

[OctoMonkey]

Your LR should be fine, both Andrew at UDA and Dave at calico hold their rock for a while before selling and i would be surprised if anything comes out of it like a stomatopod... nothing to necessitate an octo anyway

Hope your tank goes well

cheers
Colin

[Manta]

Thanks Colin.