Beans is here!!!!!!

[DWhatley]

Those are my favorite for looks but I quit keeping them as they don't live more than between 6 months and a year in my aquariums. Most of my urchins are in excess of 2 years and after loosing two I gave up on them. They do seem to have the softest of spines.

If you decide to try creatures on the not recommended list (pencils are the only ones generally considered acceptable) be sure and record good or bad observations. Keeping octos is still in an infant stage and recording observations is important to all of us.

 

[Deathrott]

So when beans comes out and plays is your regular daylight light on? Or do you use a redlight to see him.

 

[bluespotocto]

Well she comes out during the day. She is diurnal.

 

[bluespotocto]

Well i think beans is brooding. She hasn't come our for at least 2 days. I have put open clams by her den. They seem to disappear not sure if she is eating them. I cant look in her den because it is underneath some rocks against the back of the tank. If i do happen to see little aculeatus swimming what should i do? I have never had an octo have its eggs hatch. I am about to get a bunch of snails and hermits so that should be good. Her mantle is about 2.5 in. Thats about full grown for aculeatuses right?

Also i got some yellow tip birdnests in her tank. Its temporary. Will these bother her?

This isn't octo related. I got a hydro koralia 4. I have a 40 gallon tank. I know this is a little big but the more circulation the better right?

 

[DWhatley]

The 4 is the biggest you want to go for even a 60 gallon but should be OK. It you get too much direct current (and you may think about this anyway) place it BEHIND your live rock. Positioning it to blow along the back will help keep your tank cleaner, add some flow to the LR that does not get much movement and keep the tank comfortable for most critters. It is particularly nice for flow if you have open cave type structures created in the LR.

Unfortunately, as you likely know, raising aculeatus has not been accomplished. However, I just ran across an interesting success by Martin Moe (marine aquarist pioneer and first to aquaculture clown fish) with his aquacultured urchin project. I experimented with water flow with the benthic mercs and felt current was important. His short statement in the new release makes me think he has part of the answer for other pelegic species as well. I am trying to get up the nerve to email him and ask for more detailed info.

Sedna,with a great deal of effort, had the best success on TONMO record (11 days I think) .

 

[bluespotocto]

So when they hatch i am going to try and catch as many i as i can. I will then put them in these cylinder type cage. The caps are really fine netting and the cylinder part is glass. I think once they are in the cylinder thing i will just set them at the bottom of my tank. What do you think about that?

Now what should i feed them? Also how many hatch? What do you think about copepods? Will i be able to see them even?

Ahhhhh i have never had this happen!! I have no idea what i am doing. Help

 

[Tommycs]

Once-ler's eggs in parent tank

 

[DWhatley]

Pods will be too big. My best suggestion is frozen Cyclop-eze (good for feeding your tank with or without fry) and new hatched (less than 12 hours old) brine shrimp (not enough proper food by itself). Unfortunately, we have no successes so you are pretty much on your own. At this point recording what we try and how long the fry survive is the best we can hope for to see if we can glean a clue.

 

[bluespotocto]

How big are the babies even when they hatch? Also how do you get the brine shrimp? Like i said this is my first try sorry.

 

[DWhatley]

I think Sedna compares the babies to something so rescan her thread.

Brine shrimp are hatched from eggs. There are a number of methods but I like this one the best because it is easy to clean, always hatches timely (about 13 hours) and easy to collect the new hatch. It is best to have two of these though so you can colllect from one while the other is hatching. Eggs in a LFS can often be very, very old. If you don't want to spend the money on the hatcher (which comes with eggs), I would be happy to send you some but mine are also old. The advantage of mine are that they have been properly stored and are the ones that Sedna successfully used. PM me if you want me to send you some.

If you can find frozen Cyclop-eze locally, the bar size is roughly $12 and is you best bet. I use it in quantity and often get it from Drs Foster and Smith along with the PE Mysis they now carry.

 

[bluespotocto]

So the babies can get frozen Cyclop-eze? Also do LFS carry that? I have a reef nutrient thing called oyster feast. Would that work?

 

[DWhatley]

We don't know of anything that "works" so feel free to try anything. The real challenge at this point is to see how long we can get them to survive. Sedna managed 11 days.

 

[Tommycs]

Has anyone ever tried to rear Hummelincki eggs?

 

[DWhatley]

This is the only one of recent memory

 

[bluespotocto]

So beens came out for about 30 secs and cruised around. Then she went back to her den. I tried to feed her but didnt have the shrimp ready. I should be getting an order of 25 hermits, so that should be good. Does this cruising around mean anything? Also she is very pale.