Octopus and fish tanks

[ZEEEW]

Hello all



We are considering a 100 gallon or so fish tank and are looking at a lion fish or two, and/or some octopii. Anyone have suggestions or experience with octopii, heard they only live a couple years or so? Are they easy to breed in captivity?

Can they go with a lion fish?

What about fresh water octopii? Not with a lionfish of course!



Eric

 

[Chris N5CWM]

I had a 150 gallon saltwater tank when I lived on Guam

(95-98). Caught my own fish, usually puffers (trainable)

and small reef fish. I once went snorkeling at night and

caught an eel the size of a pencil, and an octopus that

was very small, it's body the size of a med size marble.

The eel got out after a couple days and I didn't realize

it in time. The octopus was cool to watch at night, since

during the day it was hidden. I kept it for a month and

let it go back in the ocean so it wouldn't eat my fish. I

didn't want to starve it since I didn't know at the time

all I had to do was keep shellfish in the tank to feed it.

The lionfish will eat your smallest fish since they are

predatory. Cool looking though! That's about all I

know about them, since I never had one in my tank.

I usually had 10 fish in the tank on average and would

keep them for a couple months then return them and

catch replacements.

Do some research on the www, using a search engine

such as http://www.google.com/





-Chris

 

[dmurdock]

depends on how big the the octopus is... if it can reach the top of the tank, it will get out trying to get back to the ocean...

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I have no experience with Octopus but I had a couple of Lionfish in the past and plan on it in the future. Since a Lionfish is a very posinous fish you pretty much have to plan your tank around it. I got stung by mine once when cleaning it and it wasn't a fun experience by any means - can't imageine what it must be like for a small fish. I'm guessing that an Octopus wouldn't have much of a change in the tank with a lionfish but that's just a guess. What I did was had an anemonie with clownfish in the tank with the lion. The anemonie protected the clowns and the lion stayed away from teh anemonie. I lost one anemonie because it climbed the wall and got burned on the heater and lost one lion because a clown ventured too far from the anemonie and he choked on it (fed him goldfish on a regular basis) - but my last lion lived for 5 years and my last anemonie for 4 before I sold them because of circumstances. If you decide on an anemonie in the tank put stands on your heater so it's far away from the side of the tank so the anemonie can't burn itself on it. Lionfishes are incredible to watch - IMO one of the most beautiful creatures in the world - can't wait to have one againi! But you do have to develop your tank around them. I had a 75 gallon octagon tank for the lionfish, the taller octagon tank was better for displaying a lion than a square tank IMO.

 

[JR2]

I just watched a show on the octopus last night on the Discovery channel. They only live two years max and there size is dependent on the amount of food they have. Their food conversion rate is amazing, something like 70% (ie if they eat 1 lb of fish they gain . 7 lbs). It would be way way cool to have a small one in a tank but you would have to have it very secure, as they will get out of the smallest hole you can imagine. Good luck... and send pics if you get one.



I had a turtle once... small fresh h20 one. He was cool and almost as much fun to watch as any fish I have seen. I also had a buddy that had a sturgeon in in tank. That was one freaky fish to watch.





Edit for spelling...

 

[Rotty]

I have had a couple of salt water tanks and caught all of my own fish. Make sure you keep a tight lid on the tank. If it thinks it can escape, it will try. I had a nice 2. 5' brown spot eel, I forgot one night to put the rock ontop of the lid. I found the eel the next day on the floor quite shriveled up. :{ Good luck.

 

[kchristopher]

Originally posted by Chris N5CWM

I had a 150 gallon saltwater tank when I lived on Guam

(95-98). Caught my own fish, usually puffers (trainable)

and small reef fish.

What can you train a puffer fish to do?

 

[Utah Willie]

I would suggest you keep a tight lid on any tank you have an octopus in. While diving off my sailboat off Catalina Island in Southern California, I caught a small octopus and brought it up to the boat and threw it aboard (into the cockpit) while I removed my fins. As I climbed the ladder I caught a movement beneath me. It was the "pus" squirting into the kelp. It had found the inboard mounted O/B motor's opening and climbed right over and into the water. In less than a minute! They are smart little critturs.



Lionfish..... We got a call for a rescue (Sta 36, LACoFD. . sister station to 127s{Engine and Squad 51} of "Emergency" fame)of a man bitten by a lion... Roll everything... . both engines and the squad..... call the Sheriffs to meet us there!



Upon arrival we found a guy holding a hand and shaking with pain and fear. Upon questioning, he related his buying a very expensive tropical fish which he placed into his aquarium only to have his resident lionfish take a shine to it. Placing his hand between the two resulted in his being hit by the lionfish fins which caused the withdrawal of his hand and the loss of his new purchase.



A call to the appropriate authorities suggested a very hot water submergence of the affected member to neutralize the poison.



We left the patient nursing a scalded hand, one less fish and the sounds of great sighs of relief that no "lion" had to be subdued.