Octopus

from what I have researched, a pygmy octopus is about the only octopus suitable for a home hobbyist to keep. They run about $75-$100 each and have a life expectancy of around 6mo. or so. I also was very interested in one of these intellegent little creatures, but after a lot of research I decided it was best left to the pros and people who dont have attachment issues like mine! Good luck with your research and if you hear anything different, please let me know, as somewhere inside is still the urge to interact with one myself. Also if you decide to try one, please post lots of pics and detailed experience!!!!!

From what I've read, most octopuses have short lives and they seem more so in home aquaria because they are purchased as adults. I've read articles where people have kept different kinds of octopuses and that they generally only live 6 mos. to a year, as powerkit stated. A very small octopus would be fine in a 30g with some rock structures for them to squeeze into. They can't easily be kept with inverts or fish from what I've heard. They only things that seem to be difficult about keeping them are making sure they're well fed and keeping their water clean. People have said their octopuses would release ink from being nervous/startled and that many water changes were needed to get rid of the ink. Also, foods like crab and maybe shrimp would need to be the main diet for an octopus and that gets expensive! Hope this helps. I want to keep an octo someday, but only until I can afford to be a sw keeper!

If you're still interested after learning their (sadly short) lifespan, this is probably one of the best places to start for ceph info: http://www.tonmo.com/index.php?pageid=articles

They also have an excellent forum over there.

Years ago I bought an octopus and put it in my home tank and I liked it so much I decided to go back and purchase the other one the lfs had for sale. They immediately inked each other and poluted the tank and both died. Then I decided to try again a couple of years later and I bought a really cute pygmy octopus, it was white and would suddenly turn red. I had it for a couple of weeks and it then went into hiding under a piece of coral in a small cave. I came home one evening and turned on the lights and low and behold there were tons of tiny octopus all over the tank. I didn't know what to feed them so I called the local zoo aquarium to ask their advice and they had no idea, but the supervisor wanted to come to my house to see them. Not knowing how to feed them, they all died and after having babies the mom octopus died. After that I gave up on keeping octopus. The good news was that it landed me a job as the keeper of the marine section at the Fort Worth Zoo Aquarium, which was a lot of fun.

Octopuses are well worth the short time they live. Hands down the best aquatic animal I've had my entire life, and I've had plenty. WWW.tonmo.com has excellent begginer articles. The hardest part I think is getting the right octopus. The "pygmys" people speak of are noctural and very shy. As far as diurnal, social species I recommend hummelincki or bimaculoides. Also the carribean reef octopus, briareus, is an excellent choice but slightly larger. An absolute minimum of 55 for that octo.