Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

BigPumper wrote: I have no tolerance when ignorance and stupidity are a factor.

Reading your previous posts I can only assume that you have no tolerance for yourself.

ive learnt from shopping at b&b that if you want to know anything about anything you can ask them and get a good opinion but if you want to know anything about anything you cant just ask someone you need to hit the books facts and get several opinions to make up your own facts no 1 person at any place can tell you everything you need to know about anything. the nerdy girl in saltwater has alot of usfull opinions how do i know they are... i reasearch everything i ask as should everyone they cleaned up there tanks in the past two weeks not perfect but they are alot better...

I'd like to contribute my $.02.

First of all, I also work at B & B Pet Stop, and have done so for nearly a decade. I work a few shifts in the saltwater department as well as our aquarium maintenance team. I'll be the first to say that I do not know everything about saltwater. I'm more of a reptile guy (rather like the OP himself) and a freshwater guy. I know a little bit beyond the basics of saltwater, but there's definitely oodles I do not know about, especially corals. I've kept a few successful nanos, but that's the extent of my

personal experience outside my job.

All that said, for anyone who has never owned, or even worked at a LFS for any length of time...get off our backs please. The saltwater crew there at B & B (myself, James, Jason, Lance, etc)...we have probably as much sway on how to run the SW dept there as any gas station owners have of running British Petroleum (that's probably another can of worms right there!). Believe me...there's a lot B&B can improve upon, but they (we) definitely excel where many other LFSs I've seen fail.
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Now to the OP.......

I once kept an octopus myself, and actually remember describing my experience to George (yes, I know who you are) on more than one occasion. But for the intent to help anyone else who might come across this thread, I'll repeat what I did.

This was back in 2001 sometime, and we had a small Caribbean reef octopus (about the size of a lima bean) come in on a shipment. At this time, I never had a saltwater tank before, but an octopus was just too cool to pass up. With the help of co-workers (none of which are still employed at B &B), I set-up a 15-gal tank for the little cephalopod. I fed him a few ghost shrimp via forceps every 1-2 days.

I don't know if they still exist, but I covered the top of the tank with a velcro screen mesh sold for small animals and reptiles (believe the company was Four Paws). The velcro is generally thought to be too prickly to any octopi's liking and deters them from escaping. I had a small internal filter. I kept "Nigel' like this for about 7-8 months until he disappeared. Never found a body anywhere in or outside the tank. Given their typical short lifespan, I figured he died and his remains got sucked into the filter and were disintergrated.

If I had to do it over again, I would:

A.) not use live rock...as it provides too good of a hiding place for a small octopus (I rarely saw the little guy!)
B.) not use bright light (as someone else in this thread mentioned as well)

Just pointing out the fact that this thread is well over a year old and that particular member hasn't even visited for the same length of time. Much of the same was mentioned in response to his posts at that point in time and there's no further need to keep responding.