Hi all,

I'm trying to find out what happened to Octopets and whether someone will still be breeding bimacs to sell to the public.

I realized I needed some information from you - how many of you are planning a bimac purchase this year - or would be, if they were available?

If you read the Octopets thread (Journals and Photos), you'll see what I found out today. I hope to really know what's happening by the end of the week.

Nancy

in about 6 months i could possible buy one, but that would be after all my cuttles have gotten muture and gone to the big tank

I'm ready to buy one as soon as they are available. My skimmer is lonely with nothing to skim.

Nancy,

I expect to purchase two this year.

My tank will be fully matured by the end of the month, so I expect to buy one as soon as available. If the little guy lives for 8-10 months, then I could conceivably have another one by year's end.

When I start talking about my bimac setup, eyes start lighting up at my lfs. I certainly can't speak for them, but I suspect not long after I get one, one or two of them might be ordering for themselves and/or a display for the store.

Nancy, thank you for doing this snooping. You're our octo-Woodward & cuttle-Bernstein. I hope you also ask on ReefCentral in the ceph forum. If the market is not adequate for the Aquafarm to rationalize a captive-bred program, I should hope it is enough to convince someone to catch wild-caught or tank-raised bimacs.

Dan

My Little Zim wont make the year so I will be looking to purchase one as well
(new 125 gal tank incoming so might get an Octo or Cuttle for that as well )

I just filled my tank and am ordering some liverock this week so I will want to order one in a few months.

I am ready for one. I was a couple of weeks from ordering when octopets dissapeared. So if they are availble i would definately get one

Ben

I'm ready to purchase one immediately..

Jebidiah is getting old (and huge - over 3 ft armspan tip to tip.) When he passes, I was hoping to order a bimac.

Soon (in the Summer), I might try breeding octopus/cuttlefish for the public in small amounts. But I am still working it out. I will let you know when I do.:smile:

Well, it is sad to see a true pioneer out of the market, but I can certainly understand it...with the art market the way it is, we are having to hack and slash at our projects also.
Luckily, the project for breeding O. digueti is still on the table, and moving forward, albeit slowly. They can't be collected until July, so I suppose I still have a few weeks to go before panic sets in.

i plan to get one in a month or two.

well if i cant find a briareus sometime soon i might try a cuttle or two but ill just have to wait another few weeks before i find out which

I plan on buying this year. BTW, I live about 30 minutes from the Octopets store (if they actually have a storefront). Has anyone drive by to check them out? I also work with a woman who's sone is a close friend of the Octopets owner...will use that angle if there is no other way to get info...

Hi all,

I'm trying to find out what happened to Octopets and whether someone will still be breeding bimacs to sell to the public.

I realized I needed some information from you - how many of you are planning a bimac purchase this year - or would be, if they were available?

If you read the Octopets thread (Journals and Photos), you'll see what I found out today. I hope to really know what's happening by the end of the week.

Nancy

What happened to Octopets????? :confused:

*....going off to read Journals and Photos thread now....*

I plan on buying this year. BTW, I live about 30 minutes from the Octopets store (if they actually have a storefront). Has anyone drive by to check them out? I also work with a woman who's sone is a close friend of the Octopets owner...will use that angle if there is no other way to get info...

I also live in San Diego. I have been to Octopets, they're inside the big power station, they rent space from them since they're right on the lagoon. They don't really have a storefront.

I drove up there last May to pickup Thomas, who is still doing well. We estimated he was about 3 months old when I took him home, so that would put him at about 12 months of age right now.

I haven't read the other thread yet, I hope OctoPets truly isn't out of business! When I was there, he had these large tanks of scores and scores of seahorses, and cuttlefish eggs as well! Search for my old post to see, it was awesome! What happened???

one thing about selling octopus you will always have a refreshing market as Octos only live for a little bit.
repeat buisness is garunteed.

I had hoped to purchase 3 cuttlefish and 3 octopuses in May. Sigh

I was planning to buy one in a few months, when my tank is good and established.

Anyone have any idea how difficult they are to breed? I understand the issues with feeding both the adults and the babies. But how difficult is it to get them to actually breed? Octopets was breeding them, not harvesting eggs from the wild, right?

Yes,
Octopets was raising them, but they were actually connected to the ocean, so raising plankton-feeding babies was a little easier than for us in landlocked (oceanlocked?) states.

But how difficult is it to get them to actually breed?

Howdy,

Getting two Octopuses to mate is probably the easiest part of the process. Here are a couple of articles about
GPO's breeding at the Seattle Aquarium:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/259543_nsecondary15.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/260637_fam24.html

Basically it's just a matter of keeping a male and female of roughly the same age in a situation where they can see/sense each other - but not eat each other! When the time is right the loving couple should indicate through their behavior that they'd like to get together for something other than dinner.

Assuming that everything works out the male will probably just wander off and the female will start picking out a brooding den.

The hard part comes later.


Romantically yours,

Alex

Thanks for the info.

I wonder if the same arrangement could be used as Richard Ross does with the Sepia Bandenesis Cuttlefish. I am amazed by the photos and videos on www.stickycricket.com. Maybe the same type of setup would work with O. Bimaculoides, on a larger scale with respect to tank size.

I wish I had the ability to do that.

I hope to get a second octopus soon....very soon....means I will have to at some point relocate him with us, but I miss having an active octo in my household. Egor is still denned up with her eggs. Been about a month or more since she was out. I miss her.

Carol

As soon as I can find one. My tank has been ready for almost two months.

Im looking to pick up 2-3. one for home, and one or two for my store.