Bad News...
The good news is I made it through 6th Grade Camp without killing any of the over dramatic, hormonal 12 yr old girls. The bad news is that all of the babies I know of are gone, as well as Axis.
By the time I left in Wednesday, 3 of the babies in the hatch out tank were dead but the one in the critter keeper looked good. By the next day they (John and Elise) texted me that it was gone and they didn't see any more babies. Same the next day. AND the Red Wings lost the series by one goal!!! Not a happy day for Detroit octo lovers.
When I got home yesterday we only had a couple hours until the Tiger's game (Justin Verlander ROCKS!) but I couldn't help but check the den. What was left of Axis was hardly recognizable, but there were still some eggs with babies. They weren't moving and a couple seemed not fully formed. I had hopes for 2 of them, but by the time we got back from the game, bristle worms had eaten them. I'm not sure any of them was viable.
The only hopeful thing is that there were at least 23 eggs. For sure, 4 hatched out and died. Five of them were eaten by bristle worms last night. The rest are unaccounted for. I think I might have seen one on the back wall on Tuesday, and there could still be babies living in the LR. I have no way of knowing how many or where they might be, there is so much Texas Holey rock in the tank now that a small octo can completely disappear.
I can only hope now that there may be some sneaky ones hiding in the tank. I have the best crop of amphipods I've had in a long time, so there are plenty of good hunting opportunities. It's so hard not to be crushed, I was so excited about finally having a chance to raise out babies...