Hey Colin, Tony and every one else its been awhile since I have stopped by but I have some good news. I have mated my first pair of O.bimaculoides this season and I am now the proud owner of lots of captive breed baby bimacs! The project started back in september and this weekend the eggs started hatching and I must say compaired to the O.mercatoris I reared last year the baby bimacs are a much bolder, larger and friendlier hatchings. They are eating like pigs and are day active. At night they all cling to the tanks glass to sleep.So far about a dozen have hatched and momma still has more she is brooding. The ones that hatched this weekend must have been the first eggs she laid. I have more details and some pics up at the follwing link below. And oh yeah, the little ones will all need good homes in a couple of months should all go well. :D
Chris
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=f942fe7f10a9829d26109cb 0aa450b1b&threadid=145620

Great news Chris

I know for a fact that people here will be keen to support you in breeding the bimacs and buyig babies from you rather than wild caughts... Now i just need to concentrate on the UK side of things! :)

Are you going to batch rear or individual rearing?

I am currently keeping them in the main tank. They seem to be doing fine in there so far. I have several reaing systems so I may swith them over shopuld the need arise. I have not witnessed any fighting between the hatchings so far. I need to find a home for one of the captive ffexpress babies so if there is any one in the NH/MA/ME area and you are interested please contact me directly. I am not prepaired to ship at this time, but I will be as soon as I get heat packs, bags, and more boxes.
Chris

Wow! That is so cool. I too have raised O. bimacs in captivity, and it was a blast! Heads up though. There will be cannibalisim soon. :D Happy babysitting Chris, Rona

Thanks Rona
Did you actually mate a male and female? Or did you get a gravid wild caught female? What was your clutch size? How many were you able to rear to adult size?I posted a pic on the same link of the two bimacs mating.
-chris

Sweet. I'm from MA. I am going to be setting up a tank soon that will hopefully contain a bimac. When do you plan on selling the babies? I must commend you on being able to breed these awesome creatures. Good luck and I hope everything goes well.

Thanks Littlematt
I think it will be at least a good month before they are any where near ready to go to a good home. But I am guessing 2 months. Any one interested email mail me directly and I will put you on a waiting list should all go well. There is a lot to plan for concerning shipping. So far today I have counted over 20 and the number is growing day by day.

Here is a pic of one of the little ones eating a mysid shrimp.
They are doing extremely well and are very active.
chris

Excellent pictures!!! I'm on a camera hunt!! What kind do you use?

Carol

Carol
I use several. The pics of the babies are stills taken from a sony tvr530 digital video camra. The mating pic is from a old agfa 1280. I am also trying a fuji finepix A303. The sony is the best all around for macro shots.

I've been leaning towards a Sony S85 cause from what I've read, the optics are excellent, and you can take unlimited video, and it likes low light!!!!!

Thanks!

Carol

Hi Cephalopoder
congrats on your new babies I am interested in adding one or maybe even two to my home i am in New York let me know whats up, how much ,if your shipping or not maybe I can take a drive up there what part of NH
Manny

What size is the main breeding tank?
GOOD JOB
JJ

Congratulations on your success! :D

This is the perfect opportunity for me...I would pounce on the chance to have one of these babies, but... :( ...sigh...I already HAVE an octo, and I'm afraid cute little baby bimac will either eat my little Gollum or Gollum'll eat the bimac. And I don't have the space for an extra tank. Well...if you're hoping to breed regularly I will most definitely pay attention, as I'd so enormously prefer to get a captive-bred baby.

rusty

Congratulations, the babies look awesome. I'm planning on emailing you to get on a waiting list for one of your baby bimacs. Two months or so sounds about the right time frame for me. Could you give me an idea of about how much you'd want for one with shipping to North Carolina? That would help me make my mind up. Thanks, John

My hatchings are now almost 6 months old. All the babies have found homes. Out of 30 hatchlings I managed to rear 16 past the critical point and to a size large enough for new homes. I have kept the cream of the crop for myself, the biggest of the brood. His mantle is now the size of a walnut with a 7" arm span. Its diet consists of Asian Shore Crabs, marine grass shrimp and fresh sea food. After they were 4 months old they all found homes with in two weeks. Some found homes in schools where I was invited to speak to the students. Through this all I met some very cool people and made some awesome new friends.
I plan on breeding the one that I kept for myself as soon as it is large enough to sex with a wild caught specimen to keep the blood lines fresh. I have over come my needs for a hatchling food source with a endless supply of live aquacultured mysid shrimp and other marine feeds thanks to some very caring people. Alot of the food sources I am also culturing myself. Attached is a picture that was sent to me from a now good friend Jon who drove down several hours from Vermont to pick up 3 of my hatchlings.
-chris

Cool Chris! Thanks for sharing that post and photo. Jon takes some great pics -- I'll be adding one of his to our photo gallery in the coming week.

16 out of 30 is a pretty good run, isn't it? Keep us posted on the progress of the dynasty --- and we'll stop by the Cephalopod forum at ReefCentral.com to get the scoop there as well. :wink:

Hi chris, well done...i knew that you would manage it!

Thanks Guys, I'll keep you posted on future events. Next time around should go much smoother. Some things you just have to learn from doing it, no amount of reading will prepare you for it!
-chris

that's true, remember when there was not a thing about keeping cephs on the web at all? LOL :madsci:

Aaaah yes, back in the days when there were no forums hehe, my how times have changed. I hope all the newbies appreciate all the hard work we went through to gain the knowledge to help other people. What a long strange trip its been! :octopus:

that's true, remember when there was not a thing about keeping cephs on the web at all? LOL :madsci:

A short 9 years ago there was nothing online and almost nothing in traditional popular articles. Times they are a changing.