Who keeps octopus or unusual sea creatures?

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snakes123

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I though of getting a blue ringged octopus. Dont think ill be allowed tho :/ But im wondering how many people actually keep octopus, or any other strange water/sea creatures?
 
i used to keep blue ringed octopus when i was younger. Easy to keep but only live for around 2 years in a tank. That was my experiences anyway.
 
Ive seen sting rays for sale at Amazing amazon, and seen some pretty exotic fish but never personally kept any
 
would love to get stringrays or a little shark it would be soo cool
 
Yeah my uncle was talking about getting a small shark. Snakeman are they hard and expencive to look after?
 
LMAO I tell you a story which is quite funny.
Before I got into reptiles, I used to keep and breed cichlids and then progressed to marines and then to mini-reef systems. I used to import all my stuff from Germany as we didnt have the cutting edge technology in Oz at the time. I was the first in Australia to my knowledge and advice that I was given at the time, to culture my own phytoplankton and zoo plankton which the CSIRO in Tasmania used to ship to me by the vial to feed my corals. I had moon lights and wave makers and mimicked the sun and moon phases with lighting to get both the fish and corals to spawn, I even had mangrove trees under lights in my refugium to filter the water, the system in my big tank was out of control, but a site to see and in a few magazines back then.
So this being the background right...I always wanted an octopus as they are amazing creatures. I knew my local aquarium like family and asked them to get me an octopus..it took ages and they finally got one in a piece of live rock or coral and called me and said, scott we have an octopus for you. SWEET, I was stoked and went there that day to pick it up. I took this amazing looking animal the size of a blue-ringed home, acclimatised him to the big display tank, let him out with anticipation of seeing it fish and feeding it by hand..he darted off into the coral/live rock and I NEVER saw it again. lol Literally 2 seconds of seeing it in my amazing display.
Lesson kiddies, if you want to keep cephlapods be mindful that they will blend in and stay away from the attention. Another story and just as funny were when I kept pistol shrimps.. lol

I had sharks and looked after an aquarium with black tip reef sharks that we had a license to keep in a popular hotel in sydney. You can get little bamboo sharks etc for hobby aquariums but the others you need a special license for.
 
Keeping small sharks are easy its the setup that cost the big $$$$. Octopus can be really tricky because they ink when under stress which any filter will struggle to deal with. I have also found that most Octopus when caught are pregnant and they will die in a tank once they give birth. Blue Rings are probably best as they are very small. Stingrays are not easy either as they can be tricky feeders. Although they are more expensive the Freshwater stingrays are a much better option, but as with most stingrays they get very large. Cuttlefish are another cool creature I have had, but once again can be tricky to keep and to set them up is not cheap. Marine (saltwater) tanks need specific filtration and water quality and just setting up like a freshwater tank with a canister filter will end up with lots of $$ being wasted.
 
The reason I got into herps as I was ALWAYS dipping my hand into the pocket to keep marines...
 
Ahaha that sucks! I was thinking it would end in you getting stung by hand feeding or something like that, or it ate everything in the enclosure:p Do you have any pics of the tank?
 
Herps are much easier and cheaper than marines. Curious to know what is the license requirements you are talking about in Sydney as in Melbourne we can keep anything we want from the sea with no license.
Paul
 
Yeah i would like to know about licencing, and if we are allowed to collect from the wild. But anyway i dont think id be allowed. But i might be able to convince my uncle to get one, or maybe just a small shark he was talking about wanting one for a while.

Anyway keep telling me what strange things everyone has owned.
 
I'm going back some years now, but NPWS would not allow anyone to keep sharks ie ocean dwelling predators without the required permit/license. We were the only place aside from Sydney Aquarium to have Black tipped reef sharks among other animals and as a requirement of this licensing, we had to have the marine biologist from Sydney Aquarium (hello Sebastian if you read this), come and take samples etc to ensure the tank complied as per that licensing requirement.
I used to climb on top of the aquarium to maintain/clean it, change lighting, get beer bottles and the like from the top (it had an enclosed top) and the sharks used to try and go me...was a funny scene for the tourist. lol
 
That would be so cool to keep a shark like that. Well im scared of sharks :/ But thats only like the big ones out when im surfing :p
 
Nah not hard to look after and as for cost, i never paid for any of them. we used to just go and catch them at coochimudlo island, they were abundant there 10-15 years ago. Not sure about now though. As SouthsideMorelia said they love to hide. I learnt that after getting the first one so after that i used to have bits of PVC pipe cut to different lengths on the floor of the tank and that was it. Not very pleasing to the eye but very effective and easy to get the octopus out of without upsetting them too much. I never had any issues with them inking, not even when we caught them (we used nets). i dont think people realise how small they are either.
 
My dad used to keep octopuses, he said they were good to look at, except every time you walked past the tank to quickly, they would ink and you would have to clean out the tank.
 
Thats so cool! Black Tipped reef sharks and a few blueringed octopus to the want list. Ohh santa suprise me this year please :D
 
mantis shrimp and pistol shrimp are amazing animals as well. I am always tempted to get another again. These animals to me are so intelligent and the way they smash their prey is awe inspiring. I do have stories as well when I had a pet lion fish, who we called "Big Gay Al" after the Simpsons character and he looked like something out of the Mardi_gras.. I was home one night and he was fully trained to eat out of my hand and when I wa feeding the tank and waving his food in front of him, I was watching TV as you do and when waving the food, I hit one of his spines and was invenomated. I had had a couple of beers and the missus and kids were out that night, so I freaked thinking I was going to die! lol I rang the local hosp[ital who knew nothing about what to do and advised the poisons information service...I rang them thinking I have only 15mins of life left and they said, "how do you feel, people only die if they have an allergic reaction like bee stings to the venom" Needless to say I had numbness up to my shoulder for a few hours then it passed...lol I got stung about 2 more times by Big Gay Al over his many years of life...

Nah not hard to look after and as for cost, i never paid for any of them. we used to just go and catch them at coochimudlo island, they were abundant there 10-15 years ago. Not sure about now though. As SouthsideMorelia said they love to hide. I learnt that after getting the first one so after that i used to have bits of PVC pipe cut to different lengths on the floor of the tank and that was it. Not very pleasing to the eye but very effective and easy to get the octopus out of without upsetting them too much. I never had any issues with them inking, not even when we caught them (we used nets). i dont think people realise how small they are either.
Yeah definately....they are small and get smaller and as you say the only way to keep them is with less furnishings in the tank keep it minimal, which to me is a shame as its not how they live. But if you want to see them, thats what u need to do.
 
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fresh setup- 2 Barra about 3-4ft long,saratoga,mangrove jack,motoro stingray
marine setup- Lion fish,snowflake eel, live rock..

Iv been trying to get my hands on a blacktip pup for a year or so now only thing i can come across are bottom feeders port jacks, etc if anyone knows where to get black tip pups PM me i'm willing to pay whatever..

Cheers
 
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