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FAQs about Cephalopod Foods/Feeding/Nutrition
Related Articles: Cephalopods,
Mollusks,
Related FAQs: Cephalopods 1, Cephalopods 2, Cephalopod
Identification, Cephalopod Behavior,
Cephalopod Compatibility,
Cephalopod Selection,
Cephalopod Systems,
Cephalopod Disease,
Cephalopod Reproduction,
Mmm, don't eat Cnidarians, but may damage them via
wastes, physical movement.
Plerogyra sp. Here in S. Sulawesi.
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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>
Questions on an Octopus
I found your web site in the course of searching the internet for
information on octopus. I suddenly find myself trying to feed
and care for one. Not having much luck in the feeding area
which is my main question. First a little background on how I
got into this predicament. Several weeks back, my two children
spent the weekend visiting their mother (I’m divorced and have custody
of my children). She took them to San Diego for a 3 day holiday
weekend.
<This is where some of us live>
My son managed to catch an octopus some how at the beach and kept it alive
in the sink in the hotel room for two days. They put it in a
tub and it also survived a 5 hour car ride home. We live in the
high desert next to Death Valley in a small town called Ridgecrest
. When he told me he was bringing it home (just hours
away from them arriving home) I scrambled to try and figure out how to set
something up to keep it in. I know nothing about salt water
tanks or anything tied to keeping marine life. Since I am on a
very tight budget I had to improvise. I quickly searched the
internet for info I could find and eventually wound up putting together a
makeshift tank
<Yikes... am sure you can sense what is coming... should have left this
animal in the sea...>
Since I was fairly sure it wasn’t going to live long, I didn’t want to
spend a lot of money. I bought a large clear plastic storage
tub with a lid, a filter system and an aerator system. I also
bought the sea salt you need to mix with water to create the salt water
environment and a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity and
salinity. The entire set up cost me just slightly over $50 (see
the enclosed pictures). I also had a set of rock bookends with
holes all through them. They looked like the tank rocks you can
buy at the pet store. I put them in the makeshift tank as
well. To make an already long story short, he made it home and
after two, going on three weeks now, the critter is still alive (don’t
ask me how).
<They are tough in many ways>
You can just see him in picture 4, curled up in one of the holes in the
rocks (he loves the hidey holes). When he is out, his main body
is probably 4-5 inches in diameter and his tentacles are about 8-10 inches
long. My son also brought home two snails from the beach too.
Not knowing what an octopus eats, I’ve tried several things with no
luck. I think he has eaten the snails and what appears to have
been a single live clam that made it home with the shells they put in the
transportation tub. Since we live in the middle of the desert,
I don’t have ready access to any large pet stores or fish
stores. We have one small pet store with fish and they have a
VERY limited section on salt water fish. What they have is VERY
expensive as well. I broke down and bought three small damsels
(at $4 a piece) and several small hermit crabs. He seems to
have eaten one of the damsels, however the other two died after 4-5 days
in the tank. I think it was too cold for them. He
doesn’t appear to have touched the little hermit crabs in their
shells. I also read that they can be trained to eat fresh fish
as opposed to actual live fish. I tried buying some fresh fish
at Albertson's but he rejected that.
In some of the information on your site, you tell folks to try live crabs.
The local store has small live crabs (not the hermit type, but regular
crabs) but they cost quite a bit (as in $5 each and up). Rather
expensive to feed an octopus. Since we live so far from the
ocean, I can’t just run down to the beach and dig up any
either.
<Consider human crustacean food... like shrimp (small or pieces... with
the shell on>
Since he has lived this long (through some very arduous conditions I might
add), I feel obligated to try and do my best to keep him
alive. So, my question is:
What do you think my best bet is at finding a food source he will actually
eat? If I need to feed him live crabs, can I order them myself
and have them shipped here? If so, where do I go to do this?
<"cocktail" et al. shrimp (w/o the sauce of
course)>
If he will eat fresh fish from the market, what kind (variety) do you
think will work best? I tried red snapper and he flat rejected
that.
Being in the middle of the desert in a very small town and on an extremely
tight budget, I’m at a loss as to what to do next. He’s
lived this long which means by some miracle I must have managed to get his
makeshift tank suitable for him (don’t ask me how because I was winging
it all the way). The children are quite excited that he is
still alive. Poor old dad here is banging his head against the
wall trying to figure out how to get him to eat so he doesn’t die of
hunger.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I fear he’s not going
to be around much longer if I can’t get him to start eating and quickly.
<Do fashion some sort of cover for your tank (these animals do
escape!)... and be aware of the need for some sort of chilling mechanism
(this is a cool water specimen that likely will not live through your
summer temperatures)... if your children are headed back to the coast
anytime soon, I encourage a ready lesson in conservation, returning this
animal to the Pacific. Bob Fenner>
Dick Dickson |
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