Nautilis, cuttlefish or octopus

[Carl]

I'm curious if anyone has tried and successfully kept a Nautilus, Cuttlefish or Octopus?

 

I was at the National Zoo today, and watched the Octopus feeding...and was wondering what it would take to have one myself.

 

-Carl

[tonkadawg]

I was up at Exotic Aquatics (http://www.exoticaquatics.com/) maybe a year ago and they had 2 nautilus's in one of their tanks. Was kinda weird at first, but seemed pretty cool. Definitely no way I would ever own one though - just too creepy.

[eddi]

I had an octopus years ago, when I did not know any better. I kept it for about 6-7 months and had it eating pieces of shrimp and squid. Despite their notorious ability to escape even the slightest opening, mine never crawled out. It eventually died, I am sure due to poor water quality or parameter imbalance; I knew very little back then.

 

Octopi are fascinating and very intelligent creatures. I would love to set up a spieces tank and try again, but probably never will.

[scott711]

talk to OUSnakebyte (mike). He works at the zoo in that exibit.

[davelin315]

Nautali are deepwater specimens that come up from the depths at night to feed. They are typically a colder water specimen and from what I understand, are somewhat difficult to keep. No personal experience here, but they have a tendency to ship poorly as far as I have heard.

 

Cuttlefish are not long-lived and I think that the specimens that are typically more suited to home aquaria live only for one year.

 

Octopi are cool to have, but it all depends on which one you get. I have had 3 different octopi in my hobby experiences. One was possibly the coolest thing I have ever owned, a blue ring octopus, which also happens to be incredibly poisonous and a rather poor decision (this was back in college and I had to sign a waiver to get it). It was the coolest octopus I have seen, and this includes seeing a couple of mimic octopi and a similar species to the mimic that had the black and white stripes. This one, though, only survived for a few weeks and then died. It took me hours to decide how to actually remove the body for fear of toxins being released into the water... I have also had a couple of regular octopi, but it's hit or miss with these. You don't always know what you're getting and this can impact how much you'll see the octopus and how long it will live. I had one that lived for a few months until a friend was taking care of it and unplugged the entire system (this killed just about everything I owned at the time as the temperature dropped down to the 50s). The only problem with this guy was that I NEVER saw it.

 

There is a species called, I think, the Atlantic red day octopus, not sure if this is the bimac or not, but that's supposedly the best to own. Not sure what's available anymore. There used to be a site dedicated to octopus husbandry that sold them as well as food sources for them or egg cases, but not sure if they still exist or not. Can't remember the name...

 

Also, I've been debating an octopus for the school, but this poses certain difficulties and unique problems, so doubtful this will happen (I'd rather put one in my house again, anyway, versus keeping one at school).

[OUsnakebyte]

Much of what I have to say mirrors what Dave said above.

 

 

Hmmm

[edkruzel]

I've kept Atlantic Octopi but they have a fairly short life span (2-5yrs) and the female will die shortly after laying eggs. Their intelligence is incredible to observe. While running a maintenance business I did quite a few set ups a month and needed large amounts of cured rock on hand; two of my best pest eradicators where my Octopus and a Raccoon Butterfly. The Butterfly was great for any Aptasia, but nothing beats an Octopi for eliminating any crabs or shrimp that hitch hiked into your system.

 

The main holding tank was a low flow seagrass tank with clay pots, and even though the top was open, I never had one escape.

[Carl]

I didn't realize most of these have a very short life span, and are that difficult to keep. I suppose thats why we don't see them very often...except for Roozen's of course.

 

I'll have to think of something else creative and fun.

 

-Carl