Another "Help Me Decide" thread

small mantis tank with GSP or paludarium.

 

+1... Octopi (correct term?) don't live long at all - in captivity.

You will also need something better than the normal aquarium hood to keep it from escaping. A glass top may work though.

 

Octopus are extremely tough to keep in a nano setting, they require very high amounts of dissolved oxygen.

Another concern is if someone walks up to the tank to fast or taps the glass or scares it, it will ink and that will mean a near 100% water change in your set up. The healthiest way to keep them and still see them is to plumb them into large 300 sumps for oxygen transfer (The cow feeder things from tractor supply) and then put them in the display tank to see them.

On the escape issue, they can can squeeze through any hole the size of the space between there eyes. Some have gotten tall tanks, put astro turf around the top few inches (the octopus doesn't like the way it feels) and then drilled the tank as if it were about 6" shorter than it is.

 

They are very strong, even small ones, can easily left a glass top (and then potentially push it on the floor. Crash!)



P.S. it's derived from a greek term so it would be octopodes but a perfectly acceptable english translation is octopuses.

 

nobody likes the paludarium idea?

 

Wasn't sure; I had a feeling that was a possibility.

 

If you can pull it off. Could be really cool. Or it could looks like mud and plants in box, lol.

 

half planted half vivarium
or a brackish tank ...

 

I've done paludarium/vivarium setups before...they're cool but I don't think that's where I want to go...I did one in a 10g once and it was really hard to do because of the lack of space. This tank is already drilled and plumbed so I think I'll stick with something SW.

 

On the Octo...I actually have a mesh lid that screws in place so that pretty well covered (no pun intended). I would just have to protect the overflow so it didn't go to the sump.

I'm leaning toward the octo or the NPS right now...both pose challenges in such a small system...at least with the NPS, being in the shop area, it would be easy to do water changes frequently to maintain water quality.