Please see links below for videos submitted tonight by Dr. Steve O'Shea. These are 2-day-old Sepioteuthis, no more than 5 or 6 mm total length. Per Steve:

===
VIDEO 1 (http://www.tonmo.com/images/vids/Eggs4.ASF) - An egg shot, to give an indication of the current flow required to aerate them.

VIDEO 2 (http://www.tonmo.com/images/vids/Sepioteuthis2.ASF) - This is of a group of them huddled around the surface.

VIDEO 3 (http://www.tonmo.com/images/vids/Sepioteuthis5.ASF) - Remarkable 45 degree angle the animal maintains itself at, even as a larva. The adults are more conventional, pretty much horizontal.
===
Thanks Steve! I paricularly like the soundtracks. :band:

Sorry 'bout the pixels - the camera isn't quite up to filming such tiny things through a curved tank.

The soundtrack was courtesy of the workers in the background .... nothing intentional there.
O

Pink Floyd was it?

:)

I tried to view all but they said I needed some _ _ _ _ _ decoder, which I was not able to download. :(

ahh was it the sharp codec it wanted?

I'm not too sure, I tried again but again..... it failed :(

awwwwwwww cute, I didn't get the sound but I got the pics.

So you keep a fairly fast flow on the eggs then? When we had Sepioloidea eggs we were worried about the water flows so 2 or 3 times a day i would gently squirt them with a Turkey Baster!!!!

That 45 degree posture seems to be typical d'y'think?. The Sepioloidea babies, the O. warringa babies and the juv Nototodarus we've had displayed it. Did you notice if the baby Archi's did the same thing??

Anyway great video!

Cheers

J

More to come Jean; interesting that your larval octopus also suspended/oriented themselves at this same angle. I wonder why? Chemistry, balance, ionic distribution through the tissues, tissue density .... how bizarre that an octopus should do the same.

Yes, the larval Archi and Moroteuthis suspended themselves this way also.

Had a good hatching this morn; at least 50 additional larvae/paralarvae. About 10% of them fed on mysid shrimp within minutes of having the shrimp added to the tank; more (possibly 100's) will hatch tomorrow. Should have pics online soon. Wish I had a super-expensive (70+K) camera system. Discovery Channel have some truly dynamite footage of these things hatching (research several years ago) - they never used it :(

Me

Discovery Channel have some truly dynamite footage of these things hatching (research several years ago) - they never used it :(

Me

:shock: AAAAARGH they wasted it???

J

We've got about 80 larvae now, mostly 1-3 days old. They feed within seconds of being transferred from the hatching tank to the holding tank (are ravenous in fact), and are behaving in healthy-baby-squid-like ways.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1423

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1424

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1425

A few more baby pics...

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1426

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1427

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1428

:shock: AAAAARGH they wasted it???
J

... not wasted, not forgotten by any stretch of the imagination, just 'archived' for the most appropriate moment. It was so good that it will be used; if not in the last doco, and if not in the next, then sometime.

It's up to us to get the public interested enough in cephalopods to justify further documentaries. This is why I deal with the press so much, and wave my hands around on occasion; cephs are cool and unless we're excited by them then we'll not captivate others. Next step, ammonites!

Just checked on the squidlets this eve; changed the circulation around this morn (actually had them in a static body of water, with protein skimmer providing the only water movement, to a flow-to-waste). It's now ~ 120 litre/hour exchange in an ~500 litre tank. In the static environment the squid appeared fine, most hovering at the very surface to ~ 1cm subsurface; in the flow-to-waste they're more dispersed through the water column, though most still hover in the upper 10cm (and most of those in the upper few cm). They're doing fine, are eating well, and appear very healthy. Time will tell; although I've done this a 'few' times before, I'm always nervous this early in the piece - everything could turn to custard overnight.

... and they're eating us out of food at an alarming rate!

Squid are fine and dandy; another 70'ish hatched this morn; have ~ 150 larvae now. Will get the tank setup on the tank database shortly.

... not wasted, not forgotten by any stretch of the imagination, just 'archived' for the most appropriate moment. It was so good that it will be used; if not in the last doco, and if not in the next, then sometime.

Yes........... but I seem to recall finding an archived Grimpoteuthis piccy after only 51 years!!!:twisted:


... and they're eating us out of food at an alarming rate!

Well they're growing babies!

J

Here are the wee squiddies as of yesterday. They're doing well (very low mortality, eating well, sleeping through the night and learning to talk... I mean... :roll: ). The week-old ones are up to about 15 mm total length and noticeably larger than the new ones we introduce to the tank after they hatch.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1457

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1458

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1459

And a few more... there are lots and lots and lots of them...

:squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid: :squid:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1460

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1461

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1462

How utterly adorable! They have their father's chromatophores.

Coochie-coo!

:baby:

(Or perhaps:

:baby::baby::baby::baby::baby::baby::bab y::baby::baby::baby:
:baby::baby::baby::baby::baby::baby::bab y::baby::baby::baby:
:baby::baby::baby::baby::baby::baby::bab y::baby::baby::baby:...)

.... how moved I am, um...., that you'd warm an old mans heart with an image of the one-and-only Neil as your avatar.

The sideburns and chest hair may be gone ... but he lives on. I've got a new DVD of his live at the Aquarius theatre (I think a 1988 concert) - he sings 'Carry that weight', a Beatles tune ... tiz marvelous; have not found it released on any album (could be coz koo-koo Jackson owns the copyright???? ... something like that).

Will slumber well this eve.

Those squid go on public display tomorrow; a big day it is. We'd experienced ~ 0.25% mortality/day, and that was probably because the lil' fellas got sucked into the protein skimmer. Rectified that, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.
O

.... how moved I am, um...., that you'd warm an old man's heart with an image of the one-and-only Neil as your avatar.

How appalled (yet unmoved) I am, um..., that you'd soil the fair pixels of TONMO with such images. If you'll excuse me, I'll just be cleaning the barf out of my keyboard.

Glad to see that everyone approves.

It's a shame that I haven't made 500 more posts. Better get busy, son.

Glad to see that everyone approves.

One must disregard TTF's outburst; I have since flushed her mouth with soapy water and a used loo brush!

:nofeet:

Went in to feed the babies today, and two of them decided to tackle a large shrimp together... I didn't actually see whether one went for it, and another joined in, or whether they both went simultaneously, but neither was willing to give up. They were still locked onto opposite ends when I left. They didn't seem to be fighting (although one was clearly dragging the other around the tank), so perhaps cooperative feeding on large prey items (as has been suggested for Moroteuthis feeding on large fish) is a possibility?
Wouldn't have wanted to be the shrimp though... :goofysca:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1466

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1467

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1468

.... or perhaps we're running out of food :lol:

The largest squid are now 3-4x the size of the smallest, and thankfully the egg mass from which they were hatching is exhausted (as in no more squid for ~ a week, at least until the next egg mass starts to hatch :| ). There would be at least 400 on display right now.

Mortality is basically zero (pretty much unprecedented success), but their ever-changing dietary requirements are such that a full tides (4hrs) collecting of live foodstuffs today is already exhausted (in ~ 1hr). Moreover, growth is so fast that I don't believe the mysid shrimp that we've been feeding them are any longer appropriate in either nutritional value or size, so tomorrow we're about to collect (hopefully) a squillion small, introduced fresh-water fish species (Gambusia), otherwise known as the mosquito fish, that can tolerate marine salinity, and a trillion glass shrimp to keep them going through this next rather-challenging week.

The squid went on public display a couple of days ago, and hordes of people gather to look through the viewing window; basically people like squid. Makes me feel rather good. Still haven't got around to posting pics though; I am slack; you can hit me with a rotten fish come TONMOcon!

Here's hoping there are a few more Tonmo recruits as a consequence! There's nice TONMO signage there.

They're getting a little larger now.

Pics of the tank setup (0.8m diameter, 1 m height), squillions swimming around, absolute gluttony and a few close ups (still hard to focus on the moving guys).

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1489

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1490

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1491

Part 2

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1494

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1493

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1492

Cute! They've grown so much, how old are they now??

How often do you (or the staff) do an algae clean on the acrylic? It looks very sparkly!

J

We haven't done an algae clean yet .... and it's been a few months for one of the tanks.

The squid are nearing 3 weeks old now (some of them); some are only 3 days old, so there's a huge discrepancy in size in the tank.

We tried glass shrimp yester as an appropriate food, and the squid lunged at them, devouring them. Unfortunately the Gambusia (freshwater fish, supposedly tolerant of salt) lasted only a few minutes, but they were also snaffled up pretty quickly.

Need to see it to believe it?
Can you imagine what Mesonychoteuthis could tackle? :goofysca:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1501

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1502

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1503

And a few more from today...

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1504

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1505

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1506

Need to see it to believe it?
Can you imagine what Mesonychoteuthis could tackle? :goofysca:


Still don't believe it. :shock:

They are so cute. Glad they are doing so well.

Need to see it to believe it?
Can you imagine what Mesonychoteuthis could tackle? :goofysca:

Whales, small subs, cruise liners?????? :shock:

J

We haven't done an algae clean yet .... and it's been a few months for one of the tanks.



Lucky you! We're constantly algae cleaning, especially in our biggest tank (which the architect put under a skylight :shock: :shock: :shock: )

J

Simply amazing and how cute!!!!!

Carol

We had a power outage this evening (quite a large part of Auckland central was out), with all lights/power down for at least an hour.

... so there I was, peering into the tank to detect any movement (the aquarium we are based at, Kelly Tarlton's, is actually underground ... so there was ZERO light, spare an emergency thing down the corridor) when the lights went back on.

Well, if only I'd had a camera primed for that moment. Every squid had their chromatophores banded down their body, transparent/band/transparent/band, with their arms all curled backwards and similarly banded.

Never seen anything like this before; I'll have to get some extremely low-light-level camera in there, infrared or something, and see just what these animals are doing in pitch black (even at night I have a small fluorescent tube on in their room).

When the lights went back on four larvae hatched from eggs in an adjacent tank (the first hatching larvae from new egg masses in over a week). I didn't quite realise how big these animals had grown until I placed the 4 new ones in the tank (they were dwarfed!!!!, ~ 5 times smaller).

As an aside, I had Discovery folk here last week .... It looks like we'll have a web cam on this tank very soon (and a brand new tank in ~ a month to accommodate the larger animals).

Big congratulations are in order here, I believe!!! Fascinating!
Greg :notworth:

They're certainly getting easier to photograph these days (as they're getting considerably larger)!

Cannibalism is proving to be a major problem, as the stocking density in the tank is way too high. Yesterday morn 6 large squid (not small ones) were being devoured by other squid; this morning there were about 15 dismembered corpses on the bottom of the tank. Every day I remove a few individuals that are swimming around with almost all arms/tentacles severed (probably happens when two individuals go for the same food item and simply keep chomping away until one realises that it has been eating the other, in addition to the shrimp).

The tank is being flooded with food thrice daily; there doesn't appear to be a shortage of food!!! However, although the squid keep devouring the shrimp at a fantastic rate, I'm no longer certain whether the particular shrimp that we are feeding them are appropriate in size or nutritional value. Looks like night trips with light traps to collect oceanic euphausids might be required now .....

These three of the present stocking density

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1544

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1543

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1542

.... and three pics of the larger juveniles. I've lost track, but they're about 30 days old now

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1547

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1546

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1545

Quite remarkable is that recently hatched (this morning) larvae (I'm running several systems) seem to tolerate a hexagonal tank (they don't like square/rectangular all that much).

I don't like experimenting with larvae, even though it is necessary to figure out how to keep these things alive, because it often results in instant death. As such, once a system is found that keeps them healthy I tend to stick with it (cylindrical tanks).

A hexagonal tank was handy, 5 larvae were placed into it (I've since added a protein skimmer, and removed the air stone), and all seemed quite ok; I'll leave them there for a day to see how things go.

The larvae are ather small (tiny in fact) compared to the ~ 30-day old juveniles, so look like little brown blips on the screen.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1552

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1551

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1550

might just be a natural instinct to eat everything else that moves regardless of species or size.. i think i would try putting in stuff to block some line of sight and provide distractions, i know that may mean more food to be added at more frequent intervals but that wont be bad..

how about cutting thin strips of plastic bags at 1cm wide and however deep the tank is and anchoring them to the bottom sortof kelp like??? that may provide a certain obstacle in the kill zone?

might just be a natural instinct to eat everything else that moves regardless of species or size.. i think i would try putting in stuff to block some line of sight and provide distractions, i know that may mean more food to be added at more frequent intervals but that wont be bad..

how about cutting thin strips of plastic bags at 1cm wide and however deep the tank is and anchoring them to the bottom sortof kelp like??? that may provide a certain obstacle in the kill zone?

I think I agree Colin, although i'm sure stocking density plays a part. When we had hatchling Sepioloidea ( I know not really the same....but) they went cannibalistic but it continued even when the stocking densities were low.

The "kelp bags" might help, I wonder if "out of sight out of mind" applies to such ferocious little beggars?????????

J

i'm 100% sure it does... my experience with sepia tells me that they may be full but seeing movement brings out the kill instinct and they attack... hence the bodies left behind. hungry squid wouldn't leave corpses.

my cuttles would attack each other during feeding, i put it down to overexcitement due to a feeding stimulus.. i lost two cuttles this way.

.... I'll give this a go (additional weed in there). You're right - if the bodies are only dismembered (not completely eaten), then it's not a food problem.

There's a small sacrificial sprat that's been swimmining around in that tank for the past few weeks. Every day I expect it to be 'gone', but they don't touch it (it's ~ 1.5 times their size, long, skinny and very silver). They don't like the glass shrimp (1 or 2 are eaten daily, in total, but they prefer the considerably smaller mysid shrimp, now considerably smaller than the squid themselves).

Jean, I've always wanted someone to look at tentacular club armature and diet. The three Sepioloidea species we get here (2 of them new species) have different tentacular club sucker armature. S. pacifica has the largest suckers (a few enlarged), and probably could take a 'colleague' squid (to eat), but those of the other two species are extremely small, and I wouldn't imagine that they were capable of restraining large prey (like a fellow squid).

It would be an exciting piece of work to look at diet and compare this to beak morphology, arm structure (relative lengths, sucker and/or hook morphology, protective membranes, photophores etc.) and tentacle structure, length, sucker and hook morphologies.

Jean, any chance any diver/vessel can get eggs of Sepioloidea right now is there?? I'd get a chiller unit shot down and pay for the same day courier to Auckland. I'd love to give these guys a go.

Jean, I've always wanted someone to look at tentacular club armature and diet. The three Sepioloidea species we get here (2 of them new species) have different tentacular club sucker armature. S. pacifica has the largest suckers (a few enlarged), and probably could take a 'colleague' squid (to eat), but those of the other two species are extremely small, and I wouldn't imagine that they were capable of restraining large prey (like a fellow squid).

It would be an exciting piece of work to look at diet and compare this to beak morphology, arm structure (relative lengths, sucker and/or hook morphology, protective membranes, photophores etc.) and tentacle structure, length, sucker and hook morphologies.

Jean, any chance any diver/vessel can get eggs of Sepioloidea right now is there?? I'd get a chiller unit shot down and pay for the same day courier to Auckland. I'd love to give these guys a go.


That would be a GREAT project! Our S. pacifica certainly cannibalised..we found beak bits in the gut contents!

I'll pm you re getting eggs!

J

:D

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1587

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1585

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1586

:D :D

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1588

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1589

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1590

:D :D :D

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=1591

no_fear1.jpg is an incredible photo!! They all are! Thanks for posting these...

FASCINATING! :notworth:

temporary citizen :shock: ouch!

During my latest Squidlab shifts (NRCC), I managed a few semi-decent shots of our young Sepioteuthis lessoniana.

This took quite some time, as their tank has a black background and not entirely adequate lighting for photography. Another thing, I have learned that there is a fraction of a second between the beginning of the flash and the actual taking of the picture! Often I had an excellent shot, but the squid became spooked and I only managed to catch him well on his way to the other side of the tank! Amazing the reaction time!

So, here are some shots for your comparing enjoyment of S. lessoniana and S. australis!

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=4078

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=4077

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=4079

The first picture is only there because I liked the abundance of doooomed shrimp in the shot.

The first picture is only there because I liked the abundance of doooomed shrimp in the shot.

:twisted:

The first picture is only there because I liked the abundance of doooomed shrimp in the shot.
I just found my new desktop image :)

Ilike :twisted:

Fan-squidly-tastic! Yup, 'quite a bit' larger than ours; have been away for a couple of days so am about to go check whether they're alive/dead/have doubled in size or shrunk.....

How old do you think these are FS?
Ta muchly
Me

It's been so long since I posted on this thread. The squid juveniles are now pretty big, but the camera is awol so I can't provide pics. They hatched on/around 5 December 2003, so if anyone wants to do the arithmetic they can determine how old they are (>100 days is all I can do right now), and growing (and eating) furiously.

... to make matters worse .... an additional 2 clusters of eggs collected a week-or-so ago started to hatch today. The contrast between 1-day old and 100+-day old squid is amazing! Though I'm sitting here scratching my head thinking 'Oh no, here we go again'.

In a couple of nights (Thursday night, 7pm NZT) we're actually releasing ~ 50 of the 100+ day squid as I cannot procure enough food for them without spending 10 hours a day, and this is time that would better be spent on some other project (like catching and rearing other squid species). We've just been so successful with keeping this lot alive, basically zero mortality (other than the now rare cannibalism strike, or an animal that leaps from the top of the tank). I'll make sure we get pics of the release (will actually have a telly crew with us) - it makes a change, seeding the environment with squid, to plucking them from it with my little nets. About time I put some back.

I should add that we're working on squidcam as we speak/type, so very soon you'll be able to track the antics of the little guys yourselves. An update on this shortly.
O

Wonderful news! Glad you're having such success. Now that I've tried my hand at raising octo babies, I can appreciate even more what an achievement this is.

Nancy

Well, they're 150+ days today, pigs, ungrateful little so-and-so things! I only had a few mins with the camera - long story - so couldn't set things up (lighting) to get a good shot. One of these days we'll get better pics online.

Just to let you know that the little sods haven't bellied up on us, continue to pig out, foul their tank something terrible (causing no end of filtration problems), and are now split between 4 tanks.

Will have to let more go soon.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=2468

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=2467

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=2466

anudda 3

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=2471

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=2470

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=2469

These are interesting pics! Your little ones seem to be doing very well - congratulations!

How big are they now? I can't tell very well from the photos.

Nancy

Very cool. 8)

If you'd like to see a little more of the baby Sepioteuthis, try the following link. Go to my picture on the staff page and click the wee icon below that says 'video'. Of course I do my rant and rave about fisheries as well - sorry to subject you to all of that.

Try the following (hope it works)
Me

http://www.aut.ac.nz/eos/staff/index.shtml

Steve,

Thanks for directing us to this video - quite interesting, we all should have a look!

Nancy

We had a bit of an accident a couple of nights ago and lost almost all of our squid in one go. Down to 4 or 5 now. Sadly somebody working down there overnight cut through the airlines when installing new equipment, and didn't realise what they had done, until many many hours later.

Come morning I had a few corpses.

Hmmmm.

What a terrible loss! It sounds like the squidlets need a full time guard!
Hope everything goes smoothly from now on.

Nancy

RIP squiddies. We're about to start from scratch again, and have new squid eggs in tanks (beach cast yesterday after a moderate blow), and I'm going to brave the rather cold mid-winter water today and try and collect some more (we're into the mid-winter spawning season right now).

Same old same old, Sepioteuthis, but there are, I reckon, quite a few other squid around the coast right now (lots of species seem to have 2 spawning events/year).

I'm really sorry to hear that Steve......how frustrating!


When I first started I worked on clams (at least they're molluscs :D ) and I had carefully stained some (I was validating the periodicity of the growth increments) and one of the other people round the lab fed them to his starfish :x (I'd been growing them for 8 months and only had 1 month to go before the end of the expt :x :x :x ) So I know how you feel.....but what can you do? accidents happen !

Good luck with the collecting

J