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schwh01

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A thought crossed my mind the other day... does anyone keep Octopus? I've never heard of it except in public aquaria but got me thinking why not? Of course crabs wouldn't be suitable tank mates and you'd need a small species but other than that I can't see a problem...oh except maybe for their escapology techniques but then you'd just have to cater for that.

What does everyone think. I'm not necessarily thinking I'd like one, although it would be cool, just wondering really....
 

Len

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Octopus are problematic creatures. They will capture and eat just about anything, including fish and ornamental crustaceans. They like to "redecorate" your rockwork by moving stuff around. They have tendancies to climb out of your tank (and die), so the tank must be fully covered with no holes in either the top or plumbing such as overflows. This makes it very hard to keep an octopus in a reef tank (covered tanks, restricted plumbing).

These guys should be kept in species-specific tanks only. But keep in mind Octopus don't live very long, so you might not think it's worthwhile :P
 
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Anonymous

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Matt Wandell has a thread link in his sig. Let's see if I can find it for you...
 

schwh01

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Interesting, thanks for that. Sounds like they're actually quite "easy" compared to some of the stuff we try to keep.
 
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Anonymous

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Your wish is my command. <BONG!>

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=78179&start=0

The only big downside with O. bimaculoides is that they need cooler temps. Keeping the water cold enough for the octo and warm enough for corals and other tropical inverts is a compromise most people aren't willing to make.

There are some tropical octos of course but the most comonly available ones get big. You'd need something like a 100 to properly house one.

Even so, a "reef tank...with an octopus in it" will very quickly just become "an octopus tank...with some corals in it". They knock stuff over, constantly rearrange the rocks, etc. They take a HUGE toll on your water quality. It would be really hard to keep the emphasis on growing and keeping corals with an octo in there.
 

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