babies are hatching, any advice?

Korndog · #1 04/04/2006, 08:39 AM

Hi,

After finally figuring out what these strange egg shaped items were in my tank, I've noticed that they have started hatching. I turned off the power head in the tank and turned down the flow from the canister filter. The reason I knew 2 of the little guys had hatched is I put some mysis in the tank to feed my seahorses and 2 of them came out and actually grabbed on to some mysis and looked to eat it.

Here is the short version of the story;

I purchased an octopus from a wholesaler around 2 months ago. I brought her home, acclimated her, and turned her loose in the tank. This was at night so I did this and went to bed. I NEVER saw her again.... well, after having an empty tank for 3-4 weeks I decided to put some seahorses in the cube. About a week ago I noticed some strange egg like things floating around the tank. I posted some pics on RC, finally figured out what they were, and this is what I now have.

Here are some pics I was able to get.

Any words of wisdom are appreciated!

Opcn · #2 04/05/2006, 01:12 AM

Are the Sea horses big enought to eat them?

XeniaMania · #3 04/05/2006, 01:16 AM

Crazy! Congrats! LFS credit, here they come..

Korndog · #4 04/06/2006, 08:09 AM

Well, I found the momma bear last night. I put some frozen baby bloodworms in the tank to see if any more had hatched... when low and behold I see a 3 inch tenticle sticking out of a rock grabbing the food as it floats by. When I put the flashing on her, she retracted back in the hole. This hole is roughly 1/4-1/2 inch in diameter... I really dont know how she got in there, much less how there is room in there for eggs.

Anywho, I got out the blue LED light and shined up in the little hole and there is in fact a big octo up in there. She was moving around quite a bit.

I am curious though, since I never really saw the momma octopus, I dont really know what species it is. When I shined the flashlight on her I saw a white tenticle with blueish/redish spots all over... does this help identify her at all?

I am assuming since she is up in that rock that there are probably a lot more than the 6 eggs I have located actually in that tank. The 2 that have hatched seem to be doing great in the little breeding net I setup. There are 4 other eggs with them that look ready to hatch at any time.

DHyslop · #5 04/06/2006, 09:46 AM

There are likely more than 6 eggs. 600 might be a good estimate

I'm glad they're doing well in the breeder net, but if you have a whole bunch more hatch you might decide to take this whole octopus thing a step further and build a nursery. Here's what I might do:

Take a deep plastic tray (like one of those under-bed storage bins) and set it on a table, or even a couple buckets, near your tank. Build a PVC standpipe for an overflow (covered in netting, of course) draining into your sump, keeping about an inch of water in the tray. Put a hose on a small powerhead in your sump to supply the water.

Cut a whole bunch of pieces of 1/2" PVC to serve as dens and keep it stocked with as many mysis shrimp and 'pods as you can get your hands on. Each little one might eat 2-3 mysis a day and will grow reasonably quickly. Cannibalism will occur and will help keep your population manageable and fed.

If you find yourself with 500 hatchlings and don't want to go to all that trouble, you can just let them fend for themselves in your display tank and hope one of them ends up king of the hill after a couple months.

Dan

Korndog · #6 04/06/2006, 10:33 AM

How long can you keep all the babies together before you have to start parting them out? I know they will start fighting eventually, when does the aggression start?

DHyslop · #7 04/06/2006, 11:24 AM

I've been reading a lot of scientific literature about rearing O. bimaculoides, so your mileage will vary with a different species (perhaps you have O. briareus?)

Anyway, for bimacs it seems that there usually won't be much cannibalism for the first couple weeks.

Preventing cannibalism, however, means taking this another order of magnitude further than even the nursery described above. You would want a separate sealed enclosure for each octopus, each complete with flow, den and octoproofing.

This extra step might not be desirable, unless you know what you'll do with 500 adult octopuses

Dan

XeniaMania · #8 04/06/2006, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DHyslop

This extra step might not be desirable, unless you know what you'll do with 500 adult octopuses

Dan

I'm sure your local sushi and japanese restaurants would be interested..

Brock Fluharty · #9 04/06/2006, 03:55 PM

I'll take a few babies!!! I am setting up a cuttle tank, but I have a reef tank I can set up a few net breeders in.

alancolinet · #10 04/07/2006, 09:49 PM

Let us know how things have been coming along.

Korndog · #11 04/08/2006, 10:43 AM

Well, like I mentioned above ... I now know where the den is .. and so far none of the eggs in there have hatched (that I know of). There are still the original 2 swimming around the tank and I have 2 in the breeder net along with 6 more eggs. I'm not sure what the hold up is on the big clutch, but I would imagine it would be soon for those things to start hatching.

DirtySouth056 · #12 04/09/2006, 06:57 PM

That is crazy

sundance1 · #13 04/09/2006, 09:40 PM

If you decide to sell any,let me know! We are looking for one!

Korndog · #14 04/09/2006, 09:53 PM

will do!

alancolinet · #15 04/10/2006, 11:04 AM

Good stuff..... how did you end up setting up the breeder tank??

Korndog · #16 04/10/2006, 11:38 AM

That is still a work in progress. I will have all my supplies tonight and will post some pics when I get it running.

LisaD · #17 04/15/2006, 05:57 PM

any news?

Lumpus · #18 04/16/2006, 10:18 AM

I think this is the coolest thing I've read on here! I'm suprised momma hasn't eaten your seahorses by now. I guess they don't eat when brooding babies, but I bet the kids will go for them!

I would LOVE to buy a pair of babies from you. One for my empty tank and one for the zoology department on campus. A friend and I have been stting up invert tanks in the labs so the students can see see something that isn't pickled. Your baby would have it's own caretaker and and a couple hundred fans, I'm sure. Not being wild caught would probably make it less likely to ink. (Don't worry, no experiments!)

In fact, if you do have hundreds as some one suggested I'd be willing to see if anyone in my reef club would be interested too (saves on shipping!)

XeniaMania · #19 04/16/2006, 11:18 AM

It's true, female octopii do not eat while brooding the eggs. But since they're hatching, it'd be interesting to see what happens next..

LisaD · #20 04/16/2006, 11:43 AM

not all octopus lay hundreds of eggs, there are some species that lay smaller numbers of larger eggs...

Korndog · #21 04/16/2006, 08:37 PM

update;

I found momma dead this morning ... she was about 4-5 inches tenticle to tenticle .. a LOT bigger than I remember her being. That being said, from what I understand, the parent dies as soon as the babies hatch ... I saw a total of 7 little guys swimming around with the light one .. which means they must have indeed hatched. I will feed some mysis/brine tonight after the lights are out to see how many will come out. Now to start catching these guys ....

LisaD · #22 04/17/2006, 08:13 AM

I had a Caribbean dwarf octopus, O. brarieus, she was maybe the size of yours, and laid no more than 12-15 large, stalked eggs on the inside of the clam shell she lived in. She tended the eggs until they hatched, then came out, pale, and died. I was never able to find any of the babies, though almost all the eggs clearly hatched.