Lfs

Fat Homer · May 4, 2019

Im with you on that one

MrsE88 , would love to get into salt one day but definitely need to start with the basics before diving into something like Octopus or any corals etc...

Gourami Swami · May 4, 2019

MrsE88 said:
The level of intelligence octopus have fascinates me. The blue rings are so cool too.

Salt intimidates me, haha. But I do want to get into it at some point. That might not be till my kids are older though. And I would start off with less sensitive stock first just to get use to the maintenance and care

Octopus are truly amazing. I'd recommend you read the book "the soul of an octopus" by sy Montgomery, if you are interested in them. Easy read and lots of cool anecdotes about the author's time studying octopuses. They are difficult to care for in captivity, because they bring the Houdini term to a new level, far beyond any other fish. Need a literally airtight aquarium to keep them, which is why the one pictures is sitting in an underwater container in the tank.
Salt is not hard at all! Honestly I though to would be for years too until I tried it. It's a lot of fun too, I'd recommend a small soft coral nano reef to start off. Unless you are doing a larger SPS dominant reef with tons of corals, you can more or less do the same amount of maintenance as fresh. And you don't even need much equipment. But like most things, it can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be!

twentyleagues · May 4, 2019

I did salt for years. Became a second job. Growing corals, breeding damsels selling on forums setting up at frag swaps.....i miss it. I miss all the cool critters I had. Never attempted the octopus though.
The key to a really successful salt system is like any water box its filtration. Skimmer is key in a salt tank gotta remove the vocs. With a good skimmer you can accomplish a lot in keeping salt water.
And yes its not that hard but if you plan on a large sps dominant reef be prepared for alot more work then a fowlr tank and more equipment too.

islandguy11 · May 4, 2019

Gourami Swami said:
Octopus are truly amazing. I'd recommend you read the book "the soul of an octopus" by sy Montgomery, if you are interested in them. Easy read and lots of cool anecdotes about the author's time studying octopuses. They are difficult to care for in captivity, because they bring the Houdini term to a new level, far beyond any other fish. Need a literally airtight aquarium to keep them, which is why the one pictures is sitting in an underwater container in the tank.

There are some who say it's arguable that Octopi are the most intelligent of all animals, with more complex cognitive reasoning and deduction capabilities than even dolphins, chimpanzees or ravens. They can think in the abstract and have amazing memories too boot.

Gourami Swami · May 4, 2019

islandguy11 said:
There are some who say it's arguable that Octopi are the most intelligent of all animals, with more complex cognitive reasoning and deduction capabilities than even dolphins, chimpanzees or ravens. They can think in the abstract and have amazing memories too boot.

Yeah I have read that as well, and their ability to solve puzzles is second to none in the animal kingdom (after humans of course)

TwoHedWlf · May 4, 2019

Fat Homer said:
Im with you on that one MrsE88 , would love to get into salt one day but definitely need to start with the basics before diving into something like Octopus or any corals etc...

My dream fish(Of the moderately reasonable dreams) would be cuttlefish. There are a couple captive bred species.

Never going to be available here though.

Fat Homer · May 4, 2019

^ I’ve seen them for sale over here in the past... they are cool looking critters...

My other ultimate but more realistic S/W fish would be a Dragon Moray along with the faithful boxfish...

TheReefer · May 4, 2019

MrsE88 said:
The level of intelligence octopus have fascinates me. The blue rings are so cool too.

Salt intimidates me, haha. But I do want to get into it at some point. That might not be till my kids are older though. And I would start off with less sensitive stock first just to get use to the maintenance and care

Saltwater is relatively easy, you just have to be patient. Let everything cycle very well and thoroughly, get live rock, get a sump, and make sure you have a nice abundance of copepods in there (if you want to go for more smaller sensitive fish like mandarins) and you're good to go, though keeping corals is harder.