reefs reefs
Member
I want to keep one but dont no if they r to hard to keep. I have 6 years experience in salt water what do you guys think tank size and all that stuff
I have kept three different species of octopus. They are awesome and probably the coolest saltwater item I have ever owned. Very few octo's grow to the large sizes being talked about. Most species will comfortably live there lives in tanks that are 65 gallons or so. The larger species such as Vulgaris are pretty easily identified so just make sure you search for a small - mis size species. There are dwarf species that can be kept in a 20g tank. The tank is the first thing you will need to research and construct. You cannot use powerheads and it must be 100% escape proof. If there is a hole slightly larger then there beak they will be able to escape. There are no reliable places to get a sexed octo so it is just luck whether or not you get a male or a female. In most cases you will never know until the female lays eggs. They are very short lived. For the most part the life span is only 12-18 months. With that being said most octo's collected are already 1/2 to 3/4 through their lifespan and will only live another 6-8 months. I had 2 that lived for 6 months and one that lived for 8 months. All mine turned out to be fertile females and all layed eggs. Unfortunately most baby octo's are larval and proper food requirements are hard to maintain in order to raise babies. I only know of a handful of people who have successfully raised the babies. Once the female lays the eggs she will protect them for a short period of time and then she will pass away. They are very cool but take alot of work to properly set up a tank for one and you will need great filtration or massive water changes because they eat alot. Another issue is feeding. About half will take to prepared foods while the other half will not and a source of live food will need to be aquired. I found a few places to get bulk fiddler crabs and would order 100 fiddlers that would last about 2 months. So, if you get one that needs live food you will also need to set up a container to hold the live food.
Hope that helps a bit.
I stand correct; you buy it to watch it die in a few months in your very own little arena. So it should stay in the ocean to survive.