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How often should we feed our octopus? 1/10/07 we <... beginnings of sentences are capitalized...> just bought an Atlantic octopus yesterday for my boyfriends son. My boyfriend usually reads up on our little buddies before he buys them but it was the last one in the store so we took him. we took the pinchers off a crayfish and fed him yesterday...that made his third feeding of the day.....(the pet store fed him twice). We looked and looked at your site and couldn't find much....we found a lot about what they prefer to eat and all that but don't know how often they eat <I would feed an adult octopus 2 or three times a week... These cephalopods are not long-lived period... and more frequent feeding shortens their life spans further. Bob Fenner> Re: long term planning (size of tank, foods, mandarin, cephalopod FAQs> The mail maintenance demons ate the original message, but your response to my comment that a 180 tank was not that much larger than a 120 was (to paraphrase) "that I should hang out there more often". <Bizarre... reminds me of the "altered translation dictionary" skits of comedy teams> I was just curious (not offended, just curious, the short comings of email, you can't hear the tone of my voice) what exactly you meant. Oh, and I agree, your replies aren't short, they're concise. And if you're curious, I'm trying to assure my wife that my hobby won't eat our house. <I understand (methinks) all the way around... half again as big is "bigger" as in "I wish you were about to help me count my money"> And on a whole nother topic, I thought this might apply to the recent posting that mandarin fish take roe, please feel free to snip the next section and post it separately if you'd like. <Okay, will do so, thank you> Re Mandarin Tip: "Hatchling cephalopods require live food. While Sepia officinalis is the only cephalopod species that has been reared through their youth on Artemia, I do not recommend using Artemia unless there are no other options as many of the cuttlefish will die and the growth rates of the survivors will be retarded. Mysid shrimp, small marine fish, amphipods, isopods, and other small live marine crustaceans and fish are ideal first foods. Bill Mebane, a scientist at the Marine Biological Lab at Wood's Hole, has had great success using newly hatched killifish (Fundulus grandis, sorry killifish lovers!) to feed hatchling cuttlefish. Killifish eggs can be ordered from Gulf Coast Minnows; their address is at the end of this article. The eggs can be shipped damp, are inexpensive, and are an especially great option for land locked aquarists. Essentially they are the Artemia of the fish world. I've heard that some aquarium stores are starting to regularly offer live amphipods (also known as scuds, hoppers, or beach fleas) for sale; these are the main food I have using to fed my hatchling cuttlefish. " From Dr. James Wood article on breeding cuttlefish, Url for Dr. Wood's article: www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/tcp/cuttle4.html While I don't have anything but gut instinct to back me up, I imagine that killifish eggs would make good mandarin food if they are taking roe, and easier to get if you don't have access to a market that carries roe. Here's the url for Gulf Coast Minnows: http://www.bayoubusiness.com/minnows/about.htm Hope this helps! Mike <Hmm, will post on the cephalopod FAQs section, "foods/feeding/nutrition" as well. Again, thank you. Bob Fenner> Octopus's Garden Dear Bob: <<JasonC here, Bob has gone diving>> Paralarval stages of common octopus are divided into planktonic and benthic stages. During the planktonic stage, copepod should be their main source of food. What I would like to know is what are their natural prey when they become benthic (50-60 days old). <<First, let me say that I honestly do not have the experience to give you an authoritative answer. However, that doesn't stop me from guessing... I would say that once an octopus becomes benthic [bottom-dwelling for everyone else], that the sky is the limit: small crabs, fish, anything it can get its tentacles on I would think.>> Thanks. Javier. <<Cheers, J -- >> Octopus and Chilling Incident Hi Bob, I tried frozen shrimp (the ones that are for human consumption) which was totally rejected by the octopus. I then tried some small frozen fish which was also ignored. Today I will start feeding it with live oysters which will be staying in the other tank and fed to it at a rate of 3-4 / day. The only question is how can I know that it is well fed .. or perhaps overfed.. <Do look for small live crabs... If the animal is very small (like the size of your thumb), small live crustaceans of other sorts> Do you still have your octopus in that tank ? How long have you been keeping it ? <Have never kept these cephalopods, other than in retail settings> A really interesting animal.. I think that in the next edition of your book you should include more information about it.. as well as some cool water marine fishes.. (as usually our website is at your disposal for this purpose). I hope that till then we will have acquired enough information to justify a chapter in your "Bible" !! <Thank you for this. Some friends and I are writing some related works together... the next on "The Best Fishes for Marine Aquariums"... and the following work will likely be on "non-fishes"... will accumulate your note here for this latter title> You will read full details in the August update of our site but I would like to let you know in advance (for your book.. ) While on a business trip the thermostat of the chiller stuck in the "on" position and the water temperature dropped from 21 C to 4 C where it stayed for 12 hours. My son stopped the chiller and allowed the temperature to reach 21C in 20 hours.. No fish or invertebrate losses !! <Amazing how tough aquatic life can be when it starts in good health. Bob Fenner> George Feeding an Octopus (from George in Greece) Hi Bob, Can you please let me know what kind of food will an octopus accept in captivity ? <Mmm, some species are more specialized feeders than others... most of them eagerly accept crustaceans of relatively useful size (not too big)... and quickly learn to take non-live meaty foods (fish flesh is what most folks use... like small whole bait fish or fillet> We have put one in a tank with a lot of sea urchins but it doesn't seem to be interested in them. In contrast, it consumed a small fish on the spot and all the bivalves that were already in that tank. <Don't usually eat these as far as I'm aware> Is there any chance it will finally pay attention to the urchins.. ?? <Not much my friend. Look for small crabs... try the fish meats you can secure. Bob Fenner> Thanks a lot. George J. Reclos Ph.D. Re: Octopus feeding <Do look for small live crabs... If the animal is very small (like the size > of your thumb), small live crustaceans of other sorts> Well right now it is the size of a small fist (the head) while the tentacles seem like 45 cm each... <That is good size. Small crabs (5-8 cm. across) should do fine. Bob Fenner>
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