# Anyone ever kept an ocotopus?



## Viridae (Nov 13, 2007)

That would be cool - though i'm guessing they are a lot of work.


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## Miss B (Nov 13, 2007)

My stepdad had a blue-ring octopus when he was younger.


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## Viridae (Nov 13, 2007)

Miss B said:


> My stepdad had a blue-ring octopus when he was younger.



They are so pretty - only ever seen one in the wild. I was however, thinking of something larger.


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## Dodie (Nov 13, 2007)

Cephalopods are meant to be extremely intelligent, would love to keep one but I doubt it will ever happen..


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## gillsy (Nov 13, 2007)

Yes I have and sold many as I use to manage an aquarium shop, they are ESCAPE ARTISTS.

They will compress their body to only a few mm thick.

So if you keep one be extremely careful.


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## Viridae (Nov 13, 2007)

gillsy said:


> Yes I have and sold many as I use to manage an aquarium shop, they are ESCAPE ARTISTS.
> 
> They will compress their body to only a few mm thick.
> 
> So if you keep one be extremely careful.



How much work are they? Expense? Piccies?


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## scorps (Nov 13, 2007)

ive kept a lil one they are very inteligant and as gillsy said very good exscape artists


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## gillsy (Nov 13, 2007)

nah long time ago.

Easy to feed, cheap depending on type. 

Hardest thing is to keep them in the tank, they're extememly intelligent.


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## Viridae (Nov 13, 2007)

gillsy said:


> nah long time ago.
> 
> Easy to feed, cheap depending on type.
> 
> Hardest thing is to keep them in the tank, they're extememly intelligent.



Cool. I shall have to find pics somewhere.


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## Retic (Nov 13, 2007)

I have seen them do amazing things like remove lids from glass jars to get food inside. Very intelligent and I reckon they would make great captives.


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## Cyanide Goliath (Nov 13, 2007)

O_O octopi scare the hell out of me. At my school we used to have one in the marine biology classroom in a tank with a tank full of lobsters on the other side of the room, and they thought one of the students was stealing lobsters because they kept mysteriously 'disappearing' - So one night the teacher stayed behind a bit longer to try and catch the culprit only to witness the octopus crawl out of it's tank, across the classroom and into the lobster tank for a snack! 

Also we did a bit on them in psychology and they are amazingly smart. Scientists create these huge intricate puzzles and once the octopus has done it once they can do it again in a matter of minutes [or seconds, depending on what kind of puzzle we're talking about]. They'd made an awesome pet, but they scare me way too much, LOL.


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## bredli84 (Nov 13, 2007)

dont live long though


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## gillsy (Nov 13, 2007)

They live long as long as they don't breed.

You will need to keep them entertained, like they do the chimps at zoos. 

As already suggested, hide food. Put live food in for them to hunt.


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## Joshua VW (Nov 13, 2007)

I never really thought octopi were that smart.
Anyone have any photos of pet octopi?


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## HoffOff (Nov 13, 2007)

Same as Cuttle fish VERY! smart!


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## Brock Lobster (Nov 13, 2007)

I would rather a pet cuttlefish, they are amazing animals!


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## m.punja (Nov 13, 2007)

this makes me want one. where can they be bought? how does the water need to be set up?


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## HoffOff (Nov 13, 2007)

Brock Lobster said:


> I would rather a pet cuttlefish, they are amazing animals!


Same!


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## Just_Joshin (Nov 13, 2007)

Cyanide Goliath said:


> O_O octopi scare the hell out of me. At my school we used to have one in the marine biology classroom in a tank with a tank full of lobsters on the other side of the room, and they thought one of the students was stealing lobsters because they kept mysteriously 'disappearing' - So one night the teacher stayed behind a bit longer to try and catch the culprit only to witness the octopus crawl out of it's tank, across the classroom and into the lobster tank for a snack!
> 
> Also we did a bit on them in psychology and they are amazingly smart. Scientists create these huge intricate puzzles and once the octopus has done it once they can do it again in a matter of minutes [or seconds, depending on what kind of puzzle we're talking about]. They'd made an awesome pet, but they scare me way too much, LOL.



There is a similar story with an aquarium in america. They had a bunch of sharks misteriously turn up dead when they came in of a morning. It happened about 2 - 3 times before they decided to stay back and watch what was happen. It turned out that one of the HUGE ocotpi they had was subdueing and drowning the sharks and then just leaving them.........i guess they got jealous of people ogling and commenting on the sharks all the time :lol::lol:

If you youtube you should find the footage no dramas


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## Dodie (Nov 13, 2007)

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/sw/octopusaquarium.php

Basic caresheet


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## Just_Joshin (Nov 13, 2007)

snakeman112 said:


> Same!



They taste great too!!!


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## HoffOff (Nov 13, 2007)

womanator said:


> They taste great too!!!


Just ruin my moment there lol But yes they are Yummy!


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## Viridae (Nov 13, 2007)

Vid I found: [video=youtube;kPW2zv-rues]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPW2zv-rues[/video]


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## HoffOff (Nov 13, 2007)

[video=youtube;n0_U9cW8cPA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0_U9cW8cPA[/video]


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## Jen (Nov 13, 2007)

[video=youtube;SCgtYWUybIE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgtYWUybIE[/video]


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## waruikazi (Nov 13, 2007)

They sound awesome! Where can they be bought? Anyone know who carries them?


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## Joshua VW (Nov 13, 2007)

Wouldn't want to meet that octopus close up.


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## MatE (Nov 13, 2007)

I had one for quite a while he was in a 6ft tank after a while he new when he was going to get fed and would meet me halfway lol.He was about 2ft across.I caught him in a rock pool when i was diving ,he had the whole tank to himself and used to feed him live crabs and fish.


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## cris (Nov 13, 2007)

On a slightly related topic can any cuttle fish be kept in aquaria?


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## PhilK (Nov 13, 2007)

Do they need a reef setup with filtration etc?

We kept a little blue ring in a fish tank at my mates house for a week with just seawater and a little filter. After a week though we knew it probably wasn't very happy so released it into the rockpool it came from.


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## firedragon (Nov 13, 2007)

I had no idea they were allowed to be kept as pets, they are awsome creatures.


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## gillsy (Nov 14, 2007)

Cuttlefish and squid can be kept in the aquarium normally have to catch them yourself tho. 

Squid don't do very well in the aquarium, however cuttlefish do better but not fantastic unless you have a high volume of water.


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## Sdaji (Nov 14, 2007)

I used to catch octopi for food, after a while I just couldn't do it any more because they were such wonderful animals and I couldn't bring myself to kill them. After snorkling and SCUBA diving with a few without killing them, I came to appreciate them more and now I find killing them almost unthinkable. They used to be one of my favourite foods... good thing cuttlefish and squid taste just as good! (Don't ask me why cuttlefish don't excite me as much as octopi... perhaps it's just my belly having its say! I don't hesitate to catch and eat cuttlefish and squid) A few years ago I caught one of a small species and gave it to my girlfriend at the time, she was feeding it neon tetras from the local aquarium :lol: They're very special animals, and incredibly intelligent for invertebrates.

We had a cuttlefish in an aquarium at uni for a while, it used to eat all of the fish :lol: It was still there when I visited the campus earlier this year.


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## natrix (Nov 14, 2007)

Great looking snakes . They have enormous presence , like Cobra's , completely 'in the moment'.
A lot of pythons look kinda stoned by comparison , although my Jungle's pretty 'awake' .


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## natrix (Nov 14, 2007)

It must be time to get some sleep . That last post was a response to an entirely different thread.


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## Stroppy (Nov 14, 2007)

natrix said:


> It must be time to get some sleep . That last post was a response to an entirely different thread.


 
Yeah,, kinda confused me for a moment had to scroll up to see if i'd missed something.......lol


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## fuegan13 (Nov 14, 2007)

i had a very small one once that i caught by accident.....it lasted all of 2 seconds once my lionfish saw it....


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## moosenoose (Nov 14, 2007)

I caught a Blue-Ringed at Moreton Island once and brought it home. Sadly it died overnight, so I'd say I'm pretty hopeless with them :lol: Absolutely stunning and remarkable animal. I'm surprised there aren't more being kept by people.


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## Sidonia (Nov 14, 2007)

The giant octopus must grow pretty fast if it only lives for a few short years.


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## Rediah (Nov 14, 2007)

Hmmm, ya know what? I can't say I have BUT after reading all this information about them being so smart and interesting I would love to keep one now.


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## Sidonia (Nov 14, 2007)

I had the best idea.
That 6 stank stand that Trousa is/was selling would be AWESOME for an octopus if you joined the tanks together by tubing and stuff. Octopus playground ^_^


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## Leigh (Nov 14, 2007)

they sound pretty cool for pets, but they intimidate me sorta, scare me that they could escape of a night, run amock, and slip right back in, without me even knowing... i find that unnerving. otherwise they seem like amazing little buggers


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## grimbeny (Nov 14, 2007)

The only thing that unnerves me about octopi is their suckers on their tentacles. Scares the crap out of me.


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## Leigh (Nov 14, 2007)

imagine it got out and sucked to your face... not in my house. they seem smart enough to pick a favourite family member, and an enemy...


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## jimbo (Nov 15, 2007)

I have wanted cuttlefish for years now, but they require feeding several times a day (live crabs etc) which im not sure i could keep up with. Also i have inquired about them (mainly sepia mestus) at some of the good aquarium stores (Kims Aquatics, St George, Oceanarium etc which can get octos in) but they havent been able to help me out. - they also dont travel well and would probably be adults if they were able to get some in; which means they would likely die with in a few months. 
www.tonmo.com is a great site for everything cephalopod! - just dont go filling it with chit chat if you join lol.


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## herptrader (Nov 15, 2007)

They used to have a blue ringed octopus on display at the Melbourne Aquarium.


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## mrmikk (Nov 15, 2007)

I saw a tv show about octopus a while back and they were talking about a US marine research facility where they kept octopus and crabs as well as other marine life all in seperate tanks in one big room. They couldn't work out why the cracbs were dissapearing from their tanks and there was no evidence to suggest how this had occured. So they fixed the room up with infra red cameras and found that the octopus would climb out of their tank at night, and jump into the crab tanks, have a fedd, before returning to their own tanks.


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## warren63 (Nov 15, 2007)

Yes i kept an octopus just a little guy and as stated a few times they are escape artists, found him dead one morning on the carpet and fuzzy and dried, he was fantastic whilst i had him though. i actually caught him out diving one day, found him in a tin can. Used to catch all my marine fish, especially in summer when the warm currents would bring them down the east coast.


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## Australis (Nov 15, 2007)

Ive kept a few octopus and cuttle fish, all collected while spearing.

The octopus was pretty boring, just lurked.

The cuttle fish was great though
we had them in a tank with a few other odds and ends.
always worth watching.. as they glide around the tank
changing colour as their tank mates upset them..lol


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## JJS. (Nov 21, 2007)

They dont live long at all and are alot of work


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## RevDaniel (Nov 21, 2007)

Seen documentaries on them. As it has been written "they are escape artists" They are absolutely amazing with the stunts they can do


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## Duke (Nov 21, 2007)

Octopus trickery:
[video=youtube;T8cf7tPoN5o]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8cf7tPoN5o[/video]


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## Duke (Nov 21, 2007)

womanator said:


> There is a similar story with an aquarium in america. They had a bunch of sharks misteriously turn up dead when they came in of a morning. It happened about 2 - 3 times before they decided to stay back and watch what was happen. It turned out that one of the HUGE ocotpi they had was subdueing and drowning the sharks and then just leaving them.........i guess they got jealous of people ogling and commenting on the sharks all the time :lol::lol:
> 
> If you youtube you should find the footage no dramas



Yeah Just found it:
[video=youtube;JJT_iG5I4Is]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJT_iG5I4Is&feature=related[/video]

Amazing.


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## moosenoose (Nov 21, 2007)

Sdaji said:


> I used to catch octopi for food, after a while I just couldn't do it any more because they were such wonderful animals and I couldn't bring myself to kill them.



hehehe I'm always finding them when I'm at the beach and think "Octopus salad or not???" ...it's always not, they are spectacular creatures indeed and I can't bring myself to killing them either!! ...but point me in the direction of a good Chilli Octopus fettuccine and the skies the limit  Mmmmmmmm


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## noni (Nov 27, 2007)

if they can sneak out of their own tanks and across rooms and such, then obviously they can stay out of water for short periods... does this mean you could potentially handle them and teach them stuff if they are really smart like chimps?


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## dailyskin (Dec 5, 2007)

I SOOOOO want one! I just spent the past hour looking at videos and reading about them - I am in awe, a little scared (they can crawl through drain pipes!!!) and in love! What amazing creatures! I bet they could learn to do a rubix cube!


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