# anyone have a pet octopus??? (or any cephalopod for that matter)



## Mferko

just watched this YouTube - my pet octopus playing/eating
omg i want an octopus so bad


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## jman

I never own an octopus before but i heard keeping them alive is quite tricky and their life span is usually quite short too.

this site might help: Octopus Basics -- Keeping an Octopus as a Pet


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## reeferious

*octopus er cuttlefish*

never had an octopus b4 couldn't find any at lfs but have successfully kept few cuttlefish that grew to 2+ inches from egg stage and just as abruptly kicked their buckets within a year's time. voracious little beasts that hunted down all the little shorecrabs i could throw into tank. shortlived they may be but i had tons of fun watching them and feeding them those crabs dinners.


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## Rogue9

Island pets has them once in a blue moon.


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## snow

I once saw one at hidden reef before they went out of buisness. It was around $500, they had it in a 10g biocube. They are really hard to take care of though. I looked into them b/c my aunts friend had one many years ago then it died or something, it was huge though and in a 600g 12ft tank all by itself. This one looks in good shape though, never seen that kind before.


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## Mferko

yea, i wonder why theyre so hard to keep in captivity


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

Had one a few years ago.

Observations:

Octopus are mostly nocturnal, so really quite boring as pets - only see them at feeding time. Rest of the time they're hiding in their cave.

Octopus are escape artists and can fit through any opening their beak can squeeze through.

Octopus have short lifespans (most live a year, breed then die). By the time the Octopus gets to the pet shop, its several months old so you're buying a temporary pet (will live under good conditions for another few months).

Octopus need to be in a species tank. They will pretty much eat any fish or crustacean you put inside the tank.

Octopus are very, very smart. 

On the other hand, when they are active, Octopus are extremely cool.

King Ed's can order them in for you if you have a species tank for it (ask Robert).

Anthony


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## BigFatLyre

I had a pet pacific small octopus (cold water, if the Hermosa pier in Los Angeles can be considered cold). They would wrap around the bait at night and get caught in the hook; so this old Chinese guy had one in his bucket and I brought him home to a twenty gallon saltwater I had already setup. 
He recognized me: mottle pattern was different for me as opposed to visitors. When I left Santa Monica I let him go at the pier and came north to Vancouver! I had him for over a year and he was the size of my hand palm. 
His name was Aristotle, after the internal beak they have i.e. Aristotle's lantern!
And that, Antony, was before you were ever born!


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## Mferko

i was told that if you give an octopus a peanut butter jar with food inside it can figure out how to twist off the lid and get to the food
Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus | Video on TED.com rly cool octopus video


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## AvianAquatics

Me too! It would be nice to have an octopus if only I can afford to keep them


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## snow

Mferko said:


> i was told that if you give an octopus a peanut butter jar with food inside it can figure out how to twist off the lid and get to the food
> Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus | Video on TED.com rly cool octopus video


There are a few videos of this on youtube like the one right here:
YouTube - My Octopus opening a container to get a crab!!


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## Mferko

snow said:


> There are a few videos of this on youtube like the one right here:
> YouTube - My Octopus opening a container to get a crab!!


woh... awesome
thx man


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## Mferko

holy crap they can eat a shark
YouTube - Giant Octopus Eats Sharks at Aquarium


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## bonsai dave

When I worked at a local pet store some years back. It had a blue ringed octopus.


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## Mferko

just showed my wife some octopus vids and shes convinced, they'l be our next pet when we get another tank one day lol


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## Rastapus

Octopus in general are quite hardy. As Anthony pointed out there are basic issues with them that can make viewing them a challenge. Their lifespan is also an issue and if you are unlucky enough to get a pregnant female, she expires shortly after giving birth.
They are VERY smart and can be trained to do almost anything. I knew of one at a clam hatchery in the Pacific that would leave it's pond each night, crawl out of the water, crawl into the next adjacent pond and eat a clam or two, then return back to it's original pond.
VERY SMART!


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## jkam

Are you sure on the lifespan for all of them? I swear the one at the Vancouver Aquarium has been there for 10+ years in the Pacific Exhibit


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## fkshiu

jkam said:


> Are you sure on the lifespan for all of them? I swear the one at the Vancouver Aquarium has been there for 10+ years in the Pacific Exhibit


North Pacific Giant Octopus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Only a 3 - 5 year lifespan in the wild. They probably get a new one every so often. It's not like they're hard to find around these waters or that you'd be able to tell one from another.

Aquarium lifespan is even shorter as others have mentioned. You'd be lucky to get a year out of an octopus purchased at an LFS.


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## Mferko

is it just the females that die after laying eggs? do the males die after mating? maybe if you got a male it would live longer? or a female that never got prego?
idk, i can see myself getting really attached to one of these itd be a shame to have it die so fast


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

Its really the luck of the draw (ie. whatever the collectors catch & the distributor ships to the LFS) that will determine what is available. Usually, they won't name the species of octopus or be able to tell gender or precise age. You'd have to do a lot of research before you go look for one and if you special order, you pretty much have to take what is ordered. If its already there as part of a regular order, you can take your time to decide whether or not it fits what you've learned about IDing your ideal specimen.

The giant Pacific octopus live longer (perhaps longest of the family), but who is set up to keep one of these. Most will come from tropical seas (the LFS ones), NOT local waters.

If you're really interested in seeing the giants, either go to the VanAquarium or getting your dive ticket and do a night dive to see some of the local octopus. My friend did that last week and loved it.

BTW, my octopus loved the small shore crabs I collected from local beaches and kept in a clean container of filtered saltwater.


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## Mferko

awesome, heres another cool youtube vid of one i found
its amazing how much they change their colors even while hunting





about the nocturnal thing seahorse, would you be able to run the lights at night so theyre active during the day if the room the tank was in wasnt too bright from the sun during the day to stress it out?


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## Mferko

YouTube - Buck's Octopus vs. Four Crabs
i could watch octopus's all day


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## Mferko

ok i was impressed, now im completely amazed
intelligence is an understatement, these things are learning to use tools
YouTube - Coconut-case Octopus


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## wsl

Yeah, octopi are amazing animals. You should look for videos of the mimic octopus on youtube if you haven't already.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

They easily learn to recognize faces, even footsteps. There was one in a research lab that recognized the research assistant who would bang on its tank every day and whenever it recognized the person's footsteps, it would squirt the RA with water from halfway across the room.

There was another one that learned to unlock its tank lid, slither across the room to grab a dungeness crab, then slither back and lock its lid again. The researchers thought someone was stealing crabs every night so they installed a low light camera on a motion detector and filmed the octopus being sneaky late at night, after everyone was gone.

Anthony


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## Mferko

while i was whale watching in victoria the tour guide told me that at one of the marine research centers there an octopus was escaping at night, going across the hall to a cafeteria to find a snack. i immediately thought he was BS'ing us but your story makes me wonder seahorse.


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## Mferko

check this out
cuttlefish attacking an octopus, i love both these creatures 
YouTube - Cuttlefish attacks octopus

and more cuttlefish, weee


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

You can observe them at night using a very low output light, like an LED moonlight. You can also see them using ambient lighting (not tank lighting), but I would go for days without a glimpse of mine.

BTW, have also kept cuttlefish before. IMO & IME, cuttlefish make cooler pets if the idea is to see them on a regular basis during the day. Mine would swim back & forth, hover, change colours and patterns. I would hunt out live pods (sand fleas) and tiny shore crabs or hermits for it to hunt in its species tank. Mine were hatched from eggs. LFS sometimes have bunches of cuttlefish eggs for sale for a good price (look like oversized grapes). Again, best kept in a species tank.

Anthony


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## jkhcjris

Was in King Ed yesturday and they have a small octo in. Believe they were asking $39.99 for it. I have heard that 90% of octos that come in die in the first week. It was pretty cool looking though.



Chris


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## snow

jkhcjris said:


> Was in King Ed yesturday and they have a small octo in. Believe they were asking $39.99 for it. I have heard that 90% of octos that come in die in the first week. It was pretty cool looking though.
> 
> Chris


I was just there 1hr ago and didn't see anything? Shoot I really would have liked to see it...


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## Mferko

how hard is it to take care of cuttlefish? how big of tank needed and how hard to maintain parameters etc..


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## snow

Mferko said:


> how hard is it to take care of cuttlefish? how big of tank needed and how hard to maintain parameters etc..


Do you have a salt tank already?


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## Digger

*octo*

yeah, i had a 1" head octopus for a long time in the mid eighties before even skimmers where invented...i had it in a 20 gal by itself totally covered with glass top...it grew till about 3" head and tentacles 6-8'' long...it was the coolest living creature i had...it would take food from my fingers with a lot of caution...you don't see it much like Anthony said but when it's feeding time mine came out!.. finally one day i forgot to close the glass top properly after feeding and it crawled out...by the time i realized it wasn't in its' skull head ornament home...i found it at the back of my stand all dried up...from my experience, make sure the tank is sealed properly...even said...when they grow big enough they can always open glass tops...make sure there's enough weight so it can't open to crawl out...don't forget if you plan to have one... it probably be yours for life because not many people will have the set up for it...


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## fkshiu

Mferko said:


> how hard is it to take care of cuttlefish? how big of tank needed and how hard to maintain parameters etc..


Cuttlefish Army - Reefkeeping.com


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## neven

they have some creepy decor showcased on that blog....


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## Mferko

aye 
i was looking up cuttlefish again on youtube last night and was appauled by one parents comment, went something like this:
"my daughter found 7 baby cuttlefish down by the beach and brought 2 home, we put them in a pot with some salt and a piece of seaweed, now what do we do?"
i replied to put them back where they found them but it was 5 days ago she posted that theyre probably already dead.


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## durasing

octopus are extremely smart...i find it kind of cruel to put an animal of such intelligence in a sealed environment....ive kept octopus' b4.....and they are ridiculously smart...thus u need to seal off the environment in which is lives.....usually its a nice inside a fish tank...unless ur willing to committ a whole tank towards it plus the most secure lid u've ever even imagine.....they dont last very long.....


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## Mferko

i dunno if i'd call it cruel, sposedly theyre pretty lazy in the wild anyways. heres something cruel tho... they eat them live in korea by stabbing them with chopsticks and then spinning them around like spaghetti to wrap the tentacles around the sticks, then in the mouth.


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