Pittsford_Pets
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Can you keep octopi in tanks? As a hobbyist, I don’t mean a giant aquarium tank haha. If so, are there any small species that aren’t difficult to care for? Thanks!
Octopus?
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Ghxst
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I wouldn’t unless you have had experience and know exactly what they need. I have seen lots of, please help octopus dying threads. My old lfs had one and after a year long mystery of fish disappearing it was the octopus getting out and eating them. If you are going to get one do months of looking it up and find an octo guru on here to help when you need it. 2c
There are small species, but to my understanding, they're not easily cared for.
Additionally, they're masters of escape, and generally live a very short time.
Oh - and they don't play well with others. One octopus - and his meals - to a tank. No other companions.
~Bruce
Additionally, they're masters of escape, and generally live a very short time.
Oh - and they don't play well with others. One octopus - and his meals - to a tank. No other companions.
~Bruce
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Pittsford_Pets
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Exactly what I was thinking! Maybe I can get one when I get my own house haha. They’re so interesting, if you have Instagram, check out @octonation. Thanks everyone!
DaLilFishie
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yes you can keep an octopus, but they need a really big tank, a strong filter, lots of live food (crabs, shrimp, clams), and toys. im new to saltwater tanks but im probably gonna get an octopus sometime in the future. i dont know any lfs's that stock them. liveaquaria does sometimes tho
chipmunkofdoom2
Always Making Something
You can keep them and it's not really that difficult, but most reefers are unwilling or unable to make the sacrifices necessary to humanely care for an octopus.
One of the biggest problems that nobody seems to know about is that you have almost no guarantee of what octopus you're going to get when you order from any given vendor. It's totally conceivable that the little 9" octopus you get sold grows into a 2' - 2.5' monster. So if you can't get a guaranteed species, you really should plan to have them alone in a 75 gallon tank or larger.
Some sites will guarantee you a certain species and some of these are rather small. Some dwarfs like O. joubini (available sometimes on Live Aquaria) or O. mercatoris only grow to about a 1" - 2" mantle and COULD fit in a 20 gallon tank. You really ideally should have a bigger tank though, as well as a protein skimmer.
If they ink, which my O. hummelincki seems to do without reason several times a week, you will need to do a water change in fairly short order, as the ink can clog their gills and sometimes contains biological copper. The skimmer will help get some of the ink, but not all of it.
Octopuses generally don't like strong lights and generally won't do well in a reef tank with photosynthetic corals, and they have a habit of eating any tankmates, fish or inverts.
If you get a cooler-water species, you will need a chiller and will need to maintain below reef temperatures to get it to live more than a year or so.
If you can provide clean water and an adequate habitat, there's still the problem of short life expectancy. Dwarf species like O. joubini live a year, tops. Some make it a year and a half, but you have to remember that by the time you get them, they're likely a few months old already. O. mercatoris is a little bigger than O. joubini and will usually live a bit longer, but they're much harder to find.
I certainly won't say don't do it. Keeping an octopus happy and healthy is a really rewarding experience, and they're amazing creatures. I will say, though, if you're not willing to give it enough space or aren't experienced at keeping water parameters stable, I would wait. Those two are really non-negotiable if you want to give it a happy and healthy life.
One of the biggest problems that nobody seems to know about is that you have almost no guarantee of what octopus you're going to get when you order from any given vendor. It's totally conceivable that the little 9" octopus you get sold grows into a 2' - 2.5' monster. So if you can't get a guaranteed species, you really should plan to have them alone in a 75 gallon tank or larger.
Some sites will guarantee you a certain species and some of these are rather small. Some dwarfs like O. joubini (available sometimes on Live Aquaria) or O. mercatoris only grow to about a 1" - 2" mantle and COULD fit in a 20 gallon tank. You really ideally should have a bigger tank though, as well as a protein skimmer.
If they ink, which my O. hummelincki seems to do without reason several times a week, you will need to do a water change in fairly short order, as the ink can clog their gills and sometimes contains biological copper. The skimmer will help get some of the ink, but not all of it.
Octopuses generally don't like strong lights and generally won't do well in a reef tank with photosynthetic corals, and they have a habit of eating any tankmates, fish or inverts.
If you get a cooler-water species, you will need a chiller and will need to maintain below reef temperatures to get it to live more than a year or so.
If you can provide clean water and an adequate habitat, there's still the problem of short life expectancy. Dwarf species like O. joubini live a year, tops. Some make it a year and a half, but you have to remember that by the time you get them, they're likely a few months old already. O. mercatoris is a little bigger than O. joubini and will usually live a bit longer, but they're much harder to find.
I certainly won't say don't do it. Keeping an octopus happy and healthy is a really rewarding experience, and they're amazing creatures. I will say, though, if you're not willing to give it enough space or aren't experienced at keeping water parameters stable, I would wait. Those two are really non-negotiable if you want to give it a happy and healthy life.
Last edited:
chipmunkofdoom2
Always Making Something
Sorry, forgot to mention two pretty important things.
Octopuses can be escape artists, so you have to be prepared to put a lid on the tank and tape any holes.
Most octopuses are wild-caught, so some refuse to eat frozen foods like shrimp and will only eat live foods. This either means buying expensive hermit crabs from the LFS or Petco, or ordering relatively expensive saltwater feeder shrimp (this lot of 50 costs $64, or about $1.30 per shrimp). Since they will likely only eat one or two a day, this also means having a separate tank or bucket to keep these feeder shrimp alive until they can be fed to your octopus.
Octopuses can be escape artists, so you have to be prepared to put a lid on the tank and tape any holes.
Most octopuses are wild-caught, so some refuse to eat frozen foods like shrimp and will only eat live foods. This either means buying expensive hermit crabs from the LFS or Petco, or ordering relatively expensive saltwater feeder shrimp (this lot of 50 costs $64, or about $1.30 per shrimp). Since they will likely only eat one or two a day, this also means having a separate tank or bucket to keep these feeder shrimp alive until they can be fed to your octopus.
chipmunkofdoom2
Always Making Something
This is true, but it also depends on the species. While there aren't really any rigorous data to support this, it seems that the octopuses most likely to try to escape are the ones that live in coastal areas and are used to venturing out of the water at times to try to catch food. At the National Aquarium in Baltimore, as an example, our Giant Pacific Octopus never tries to escape. On the temporary holding tank we have, the lid is held down by nothing more than the weight of the wood. We have latches that we usually latch, but they don't seem to be necessary. Whether GPOs are unwilling or unable to overcome the weight of the lid, the ones at the National Aquarium have historically chosen not to.
The same is true for octopuses commonly kept in home aquariums. O. vulgaris seems to be very likely to escape. While O. bimaculoides seems to have a propensity to escape as well, our perception might be skewed because many octopuses in captivity are O. bimaculoides: in California, it's legal to catch them for pets with a fishing license and they're relatively common. We might think that bimacs escape a lot simply because there are a lot of them in captivity.
Regardless of species, you are right: any octopus should be treated with suspicion, even if it's a species that commonly does not escape. It's much better to be safe than to be sorry your poor octo dried into octopus jerky on your carpet.
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