anyone know anything about keeeping octopus

[SemperFish]

Ive heard that octopi are very sensitive, intelligent and emotional creatures. Personally I dont like the idea of having them in captivity , atleast not on a home aquarium scale. people keep saying they only live 1 or 3 years but I think thats in captivity. In the wild Im sure they live much longer. Any experts out there?
That being said, Im glad youre doing a lot of research ahead of time so that if you do decide to get one you will be conscientious about it.

 

[artemis1]

Ive heard that octopi are very sensitive, intelligent and emotional creatures. Personally I dont like the idea of having them in captivity , atleast not on a home aquarium scale. people keep saying they only live 1 or 3 years but I think thats in captivity. In the wild Im sure they live much longer. Any experts out there?
That being said, Im glad youre doing a lot of research ahead of time so that if you do decide to get one you will be conscientious about it.

They live they same length in the wild. Female lays eggs, starves guarding them, or they just die. Some other species live longer, however the species generally kept in captivity don't.

 

[Zoodiver]

Octos only live 3-5 years (for larger species) in the wild. Smaller don't last that long.
It is true that th beak is the largest 'hard' part, so anything it can get it's beak through is an escape route. They will eat almost anything they can get their arms on. They are also fairly smart. So having a lot of things to climb on and interact with will help.

As far as keeping them - water quality should be great. Give areas of low and high light, lots of caves and some open sandy bottom as well. Some will only take live good right away, so be ready for the work in switching it over to prepared foods.

 

[VLDesign]

Here is my experience with octos..

I have owned and cared for the California octo O.Bimaculoids <sp> and an O.Briarius <sp>
both live up to a year at the most in captivity and in the wild.
They will not escape the tanks like advertised.
They can have tank mates that are not going to eat them.
I've kept mine with Damsels and clowns before and each just ignored the other.
A species only tank is the way to go to be safe until you get used to what they interact with the best.
Very clean water is important so a protien skimmer that is 2x the recommended size is suggested.
RODI water is not required.
They like to play so you have to keep them busy with new objects.
They will explore and move around everthing in the tank to suit their needs.
These 2 species grow to about 2' arm length (MAX).
They need to eat a lot of food to grow up in such a short period of time.
They are not for beginners. Run a salt system for several years before trying an octo.
Most octos the pet stores carry are indonesian octos that are probably about 3/4 of the way through their life span so if you get one that lives a few months that is about right.

Ok I think that is about all I can brain dump on you.

Hope that helps.

 

[alcohologist]

my experience more or less tallies with what VLD's mentioned... except i've never tried having tankmates with octs. my dad once took in a domino damsel from my uncle, put it in the oct tank, and poof.
they really have the best personalities, too. and the colour-changing is spectacular.

 

[Moontanman]

just wondering cuz when i was getting feeders yesterday i noticed they had a small octopus. i was thinking about getting him but i know nothing about them except they need salt water. so any info would be great.

Ocotpus are not the hardest animals to keep but they are not exactly starter animals either. Get some experience in marine aquariums first, I used to keep octopus every year, I scuba dived and I would catch one in the spring and keep it until the fall. They don't live long, usually less than a year. I kept one in a tank with a couple dozen damsels and they got along great until one day I got up and all the damsels were gone! the octopus decided that night to methodicly eat every last one of them! I even had an octopus crawl from one tank to another to eat a lion fish! To keep an octopus from crawling out line the top of your tank with indoor outdoor carpet, they will not crawl across carpet. of course like most intellegent animals they can mkae a lier out of you as well but once I started using the carpet trick I never had one crawl out again.

 

[VLDesign]

Ocotpus are not the hardest animals to keep but they are not exactly starter animals either. Get some experience in marine aquariums first, I used to keep octopus every year, I scuba dived and I would catch one in the spring and keep it until the fall. They don't live long, usually less than a year. I kept one in a tank with a couple dozen damsels and they got along great until one day I got up and all the damsels were gone! the octopus decided that night to methodicly eat every last one of them! I even had an octopus crawl from one tank to another to eat a lion fish! To keep an octopus from crawling out line the top of your tank with indoor outdoor carpet, they will not crawl across carpet. of course like most intellegent animals they can mkae a lier out of you as well but once I started using the carpet trick I never had one crawl out again.

Agree on the astro turf to keep them from exploring.