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HELP!

Thanks for the info! I looked at every google image of octopus eggs last night, none were helpful in determining development times. Per the pictures in the first pdf you posted, the eggs are not yet to the 15 day stage (which I realize may vary between species on exactly how many days it takes to get there). At least I know if they dont look like that in a couple of weeks, they're probably toast.

So this morning I get up and the female is in the same place she was last night, up by the surface, appears to be floating- all her arms were floating with no effort at all- no suckers stuck to the glass, she was a deathly grey, and her eyes were all white. Assuming her dead, I reached in with a net and tried to scoop her up. Lo and behold she still has some life left in her and inked a little. Fortunately she was right by the protein skimmer intake and it sucked it right up. She has assumed a blotchy appearance and has sucked her legs back down to the glass. I rechecked parameters, all is perfect. And the tank is warmer.
 
That is an interesting situation with octopuses eating their own unfertilized eggs. I had heard anecdotally that it happens but have never experienced it myself. Personally, I would love to know more about it because it seems like a bad strategy on three fronts: 1) Since an octopus put so much metabolic effort into those eggs, and they are her only hopes of reproduction, the cost of "mistakenly" eating fertilized eggs would be extremely high 2) Octopus eggs are more lipid rich than something that would make good octo food, and 3) Its not like there is a big fitness pay off for extending life for a little while by eating them, considering she is incapable of reproducing again. All that being said, not all behaviors are adaptive (especially behaviors just prior to death) and eggs, being so lipid rich, would be of high metabolic value for anything else that could eat them.
Also, Mr Blobby, actual development times of octopus eggs are very temperature and species sensitive, and can vary by an order of magnitude in some cases, so looking at various development descriptions might be good. If you are interested, somewhere I have a .pdf of a master's degree done entirely on O. rubescens development in the egg.
 

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