Octopus anyone?

[marie]

Some people should not be allowed to post on the internet...now I want an octopus

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic48530-25-1.aspx

There are some very cool videos to watch

[Tarolisol]

Just how big of tank do you need for an octopus? hahaha.

[Beverly]

Very cool videos Watching it change colours in the first video was amazing!

Octopus are such intelligent animals. I can see the lure of wanting to keep one, or two, or three of them But I couldn't take one out of the ocean just for my own amusement. I think these are animals that are left in their natural habitat. But that's just me.

BTW, did you see the octopus that were caught and eaten on Survivor Cook Islands? I really had a hard time watching that

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

One guy I know in Vancouver has/had an octopus. It's in a special large glass bowl, probably a ball about 2' in diameter. I don't know if he still has it though. I'm also tempted by the cuttlefish. I had an octopus in an unheated 20g with a fibreglass screen top (with lots of heavy stuff on top to keep it sealed). Actually, it was very boring because it hid all the time. I kept a supply of shore crabs which it would grab & engulf. That was cool, but overall, it wasn't a very exciting pet. Had it for about 3 or 4 months. From what I've read, they're not very long lived.

Anthony

[Farrmanchu]

I've heard the dwarf varieties we can get only have a lifespan of 2 years.

[Joe Reefer]

That tank looks very thought out. The lids are pretty cool. I wonder if clyde could make it to the sump some how.

[kwirky]

I think cuttlefish are cooler than octopus . Heard they're the most intelligent of the molusks. Some octopus/cuttlefish are only like 6", so you don't need a large tank, just lots of sump space. I heard you don't need much lighting either, usually just a single NO 50/50 bulb or something similar. The only two thingsthey DO need is a super tough lid (shimek writes of a colleague using 50 lbs of diving weights to hold a lid shut on a 6" octopus!), and EXACT water conditions 24/7. They can squeeze through a hole the size of their beaks! So if you have a 10" octopus/cuttlefish, a space 2mm thick is an absolute escape route!

Oh, and that they have lives even shorter than hamsters. You'll have to buy a new "best friend" every two years.

I think the water parameters could be easy to maintain with a well planned, high tech system like the one above. The low lighting means you don't have any algae screwing around with your pH, and you could probably just run a good fluidized bed filter, followed by an excellent nitrate reactor.

I read of one person's octopus climbing DOWN their 1/2" sump piping, and getting torn climbing inside a pump inside the sump.