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Abdopus eggs !!! Help

octo..

O. bimaculoides
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Feb 21, 2012
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My male Abdopus turned out to be a female and has laid many eggs in her cave:goofysca: She has been showing very strange behavior. When she started brooding she blocked up her den for two days without coming out at all, then she was out for a few days taking little swims across the tank and then would retreat back to the den to clean the eggs and then go back out. When she comes out she greedily accepts food and hunts the other fish in the tank strange??? :bugout:

I am going to try and rear the eggs I know that it is almost impossible to do with the small egg species but I will try.
What I have is this food Its called Coral Smoothie it contains nine types of macroalgae, Copepods, Copepod eggs, Baby muscles, Baby Clams, Artemia Naupilli, Squid, and fish eggs. I am also going to use this Phytoplankton mix so I can make the Babies feel more at home, and give the prey some food to eat in the tank if they arent eaten. And therefore wont rot at the bottom of the tank.

Please tell me if you have any suggestions because I need all the help I can get thank you.
 
There are a few instances of females eating for a short time while brooding but most stop once the eggs are laid. She may or may not eat the soft parts but I believe she is protecting her eggs and not hunting for food. It is likely she is trying to eliminate predators. Fish are not recommended as tank mates for octopuses and you may have problems with them picking on her or eating the eggs. They will definitely eat the hatchlings at birth.
 
I had 6 damselfish that were all crammed into a five gallon tank at the pet store so I bought them as a marine fish food. But Mohammed really liked them and they swam around with him. I saw no Nips or bites on Mo. Then on the third day three of them disappeared. I know I am not supposed to have damselfish in the tank I didnt think that Mo was a female at the time I dont have any other established reef tanks so I cant move them. I think having a few predators in the tank may slim down the numbers of offspring and give the babies an similar environment to that of the ocean.
 
Sorry octo.. but I can't agree with that thinking. A home aquarium in no way mimics the ocean :soapbox:, starting with the obvious size difference. Just using that single component, consider that in the wild many of the hatchlings will be eaten at hatching but there is enough space and current to disburse them to allow a few to survive their first hour. In the situation you present, they are nothing more than fish food like you provide for the fish at dinner time.
 
Every single serious study to date has shown that the most likely viable food source for small egg paralarvae is/contains crab zoeae. Most other forms of simulated plankton have turned out to be a wasted effort.

Specific paper on the topic to help you along:

Iglesiasa J.; F.J. Sáncheza, J.G.F. Bersanob, J.F. Carrascoc, J. Dhontd, L. Fuentesa, F. Linarese, J.L. Muñozf, S. Okumurag, J. Rooh, T. van der Meereni, E.A.G. Vidalj and R. Villanuevak (2007) "Rearing of Octopus vulgaris paralarvae: Present status, bottlenecks and trends" Aquaculture, 266 (1-4): 1–15

For your perusal and continued education: :grad:

Links to Aquaculture Journals
 
I reread the article (it has been awhile since I last read it and needed to review before comment :old:) and the conclusion suggest that live shrimp may be an equal substitute for crab zoea. The use of "live shrimp" and copepods may have been interchangeable as he mentions specific copepods in several cases as well a mysis. Throughout the experiments enriched brine (at different stages) was used for quantity and expense reduction but the paper is clear that brine as an only food is unsuccessful.
 
Have a look at the afore mentioned thread for some ideas that we have been discussing. He has come up with several thoughts and will be trying a mix from an eBay supplier. It is more likely that live shrimp can be tried over crab hatchlings (the paper only mentions new hatched and not eggs but one would suspect eggs would be equal IF you can keep them suspended. Cuttles have not been good about taking dead food until about 2 months, coinsiding with settlement time of the pelagic hatchlings becoming benthic). Mysis were also mentioned as a possibility for live shrimp and they are successfully used with cuttlefish (but bendensis cuttles are 100 times larger ... well 10 times anyway). I have had some success getting peppermint shrimp to spawn by keeping a pair in a breeder net (WITH A TOP - they will jump and will eat the hatchlings) and feeding them heavily. This will not produce enough food for even one but may add to the mix of what you try (one of the reasons brine are in all trials is the difficulty of providing other live food). Mysis may not be a bad choice though as the author mentioned he favored larger enriched brine and felt they were more successful than new hatch.
 
Anything is worth trying. We don't know exactly what does and doesnt work. According to the studies being done farming the small egged species Crab Zoea is the best thing tried so far.
 
Temperature and possibly other factors influence egg development. We have seen small egg species go from egg detection to hatching in as little as 10 days (often the begin date is not accurate though). I took a look at Cassy's thread (large egg and longer brood time) since I know when she produced the eggs (Mar 24), when I first found eyes (April 15) and when they hatched (May 12). So, for this set-up and a large egg species 3 weeks. You can expect less time and I would guestimate 2 weeks tops. You can start with the March 24 link above and scroll through some of the pictures to see the egg development but you will not see even that much with the small eggs because of the size difference (yours are a third or less in size). I highly recommend photographing if you can but getting a peak is difficult and disrupting the mother not recommended. Also keep in mind that the eyes are not always visible when they first appear. I am not sure why but definitely noticed that as I looked at the eggs more eyes appeared over a 5 minute period (or so).
 

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