Octopus vulgaris
Octopus vulgaris
Written by Thursday, 30 October 2003 00:00
I have been in and out of this hobby for about 10 years now with freshwater tanks. However, as far as I can tell, marine tanks are in a class of their own. When I refer to my level as a hobbyist I prefer to declare an “amateur” – in the sense that I am mostly practical and less theoretical. Since my knowledge of English is not as good as I would like it to be, I have to rely on information collected from every available source – which many times have led me to failures. This particular tank (the Medirerranean one) is a 3 month old tank - the result of a transformation of my tropical marine tank which I have had for one year now. I have never encountered any problems with the tropical marine tank, which I kept based on simple solutions unlike others (with too many measurements, special and exotic equipment etc.). I have a personal rule which I follow: feed sparingly, add as less chemicals as possible and perform a few (relatively large) water changes. I perform 5 to 6 water changes annually (35% of the total water is changed each time). The only thing that worried me is the evaporation of the water (I used a fan aiming at the water surface then) which changed the specific gravity every other day – thus I had to add water very often. Of course, with the addition of the Teco chiller, this problem doesn’t exist any more. The fish I had in the previous (tropical marine) tank were very common species; a blue tang, two ocellar clowns, one damsel, one cleaner wrasse and one royal gramma. I also had 2-3 cleaner shrimps and one yellow tang which only lasted 4 days (I found it dead and half eaten). The only thing that I didn’t try was invertebrates (corals, clams etc.) since I think that you have to specialize in them. I regard them as difficult to be kept because of the water conditions, trace elements etc. that they need.
The existence of this particular tank (the Mediterranean marine one) is due to you and your articles in MCH. I would also like to thank you for your help. About my tank, you know most of the technical aspects. It holds about 170 litres (net water volume), 30-35 Kg of live rock, live sand as a substrate (commercial mixed with Mediterranean sand). Filtration: One external EHEIM 2026 (950 l/h), one internal filter exclusively for biological filtration and one external Rena XP1 (750 l/h) exclusively for mechanical and chemical filtration (with filter floss and activated carbon). I have also added a skimmer rated for 300 litres and two water pumps placed on the opposite sides of the tank for water circulation. Lighting: 2 Arcadia marine white giving a total of 50 watt ( 25+25), 1 Arcadia marine blue and a Black light. All of them work with timers. The blue lights are turned on first and then the white ones while they are turned off in reverse order. My light levels are moderate, I suppose that with the addition of two more white tubes it will be adequate. My Teco RA200 chiller is rated at 21oC. Some water parameters taken today (June 2003): Ammonia = 0-0.25, nitrites 0-0.5, nitrates = 0, calcium = 450 and pH = 8.0 (can’t raise it more no matter what I try). Specific gravity = 0.0295.
As for the species I keep, you know them all. One Pterois miles, one Sargus sp. (both of them fed frozen shrimps – without the shell), two black urchins, two tomato anemones, a small fish like a blenny and, of course, the Octopus vulgaris.
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