- Joined
- Jul 13, 2004
- Messages
- 97
Hi all,
I'm currently doing some work aiming to evaluate the potential of ongrowing O.vulgaris on a commercial scale. This, as you surely know implies minimizing costs, hence providing them with the cheapest food possible i.e. not crust nor molluscs! For that reason we are giving them mackerel (S. japonicus) once a day (about 20% of their body weight day-1). Of course they never eat everything we give them but they are still showing reasonnable growth rates.
However, the problem is: a major part of the isolated individuals miss an arm or a part (interestingly always the third right arm, hectocotylus in males!!) which they definitely had when they arrived from the sea 'cause we had to sex them. This means that they eat their own arms. I presume they do so to compensate for a lack of a certain nutrient in their diet.
I've had a look in the literature and Bernd Budelman wrote a paper on this topic in 1998.
BUDELMANN B.U. 1998. Autophagy in Octopus. S. Afr. J. Mar. Sci 20:101-108.
which of course my librairy doesn't have! Does any body have a copy??
We are currently designing an experiment to try understand this.
Does any body knows if autophagy has been reported for wild octopuses?
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated?
I attached a picture showing clearly a part of the third right arm missing.
cheers,
Eups
I'm currently doing some work aiming to evaluate the potential of ongrowing O.vulgaris on a commercial scale. This, as you surely know implies minimizing costs, hence providing them with the cheapest food possible i.e. not crust nor molluscs! For that reason we are giving them mackerel (S. japonicus) once a day (about 20% of their body weight day-1). Of course they never eat everything we give them but they are still showing reasonnable growth rates.
However, the problem is: a major part of the isolated individuals miss an arm or a part (interestingly always the third right arm, hectocotylus in males!!) which they definitely had when they arrived from the sea 'cause we had to sex them. This means that they eat their own arms. I presume they do so to compensate for a lack of a certain nutrient in their diet.
I've had a look in the literature and Bernd Budelman wrote a paper on this topic in 1998.
BUDELMANN B.U. 1998. Autophagy in Octopus. S. Afr. J. Mar. Sci 20:101-108.
which of course my librairy doesn't have! Does any body have a copy??
We are currently designing an experiment to try understand this.
Does any body knows if autophagy has been reported for wild octopuses?
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated?
I attached a picture showing clearly a part of the third right arm missing.
cheers,
Eups