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Kermit & #2 - Octopus Bimaculoides Hatchlings

Woogiekids

Cuttlefish
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Apr 14, 2013
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24
Hello all,

Just thought I'd post a quick intro. I have two one week old Bimac inklets. A local reefer's Bimac had inklets.

Bimac #1 is doing great. Eating and social.

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Bimac #2 is not eating. I don't have high hopes for him unfortunately.

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Glad to be here!
 
Right now they're just in a 5g holding tank. I would never find them again if they were in a big one! They're only about the size of a pencil eraser.

Once they grow, they will be in a species only. Well, two species only tanks, but I don't have high hopes for #2's long term prospects.
 
:welcome: Woogiekids!

You might try a pipette with thawed frozen (not dried) cyclopees on #2 (Kermit may eat it as well). Gently squirt it near the mouth and on the suckers (on the suckers is important for "taste"). For #2 you can also try killing a shrimp and putting it in the mouth area (freshly killed, not frozen). I agree with the low chances but this species does better than any others we commonly try so it may be worth the effort.

With your permission, I would like to move this thread to our Raising Octopuses from Eggs forum in hopes that you will journal their progress.

Please consider editing your profile and putting something (city, state/province and country if out of the US is great but you can put anything and some member get rather creative) in the displayed location as it is not automatic. Having an idea of a member's location is particularly helpful with food suggestions but it also serves as a way to share local information and occasional mini-TONMOcon meet-ups.
 
Thanks for the tips! I'll pick up some cyclops tomorrow and give it a try.

Feel free to move the thread, I'll keep it updated! I also added my location (San Diego) to my profile.
 
Shoot, I just saw that you said live brine not live shrimp. Brine is NOT a successful food for cephalopods hatchlings. If you can't get live small shore shrimp, glass shrimp (freshwater so don't put them in the salt tank) are a good alternative. You may have to kill them initially and had feed but they are likely able to handle the size of the smaller shrimp now. Adult brine have no nutritional value so they may eat it but they won't get fed. Even enriched they have been unsuccessful keeping cuttlefish hatchlings alive. I've not raised bimacs from hatchlings but have had a little success with O. mercatoris and O. briareus and the combination of shore shrimp and Cyclop-eeze were at least partially successful (both species resulted in adults that lived through full adults, the mercs successfully reproduced).
 
Hmmm...I can get live mysis. I don't think they would able to eat the larger shrimp yet though? Even the smallest shrimp I think would be a bit too big? The inklets are about the size of a pencil eraser, probably smaller.
 
Just about ANYTHING is better than brine but I would suggest getting the larger FROZEN mysis and offering it on the end of a pipette. I went back to my journal for the O. briareus hatchlings looking for a picture of one of my little ones chomping down on a shrimp bigger than her mantle and decided to send you to the whole thread to scan. A lot won't be of interest but some of the feeding dialog may be useful. Only two survived from this batch so the rate was lousy, however, I have yet to find anyone that has been successful with ANY so I count myself very lucky. Ultimately, I mated the two survivors but the hatchlings did not live even a week.

We also have hatchling O. mercatoris currently being raised. iAlex has been a little lax in his documentation :roll: but has some excellent photos and a few notes on feeding. The link shows two hatchlings fighting over a shore shrimp.

Neither journal is specific to O. bimaculoides but you may still pickup some feeding ideas.
 
I lost #2 last night :frown: I knew it was coming but aw man!

Kermit is doing great. I tried the frozen mysis this morning, but he wasn't going for it. I'll pick up some live mysis today and see how that goes!

Thanks for all the help!

Alissa
 
I've kept several bimacs, but never tiny babies, however I've also kept strawberry anemone, which like tiny live food. if you can get out to where there is kelp floating on the surface, just sweep a fine net (or pillow case) through the water close to the kelp, and you'll come up with hundreds (or at least dozens) of little animals (probably copepods). Then you can us a course net to filter out the larger ones, leaving only the small ones. For a course filter, the craft store sells sheets of plastic with 1/8" or 1/16" sized squares (grid) used for counted cross stitch. You should be able to collect plenty of edible critters that are the right size, and are a natural, nutritious, native food for bimacs. You might even be able to freeze them (flat on a a piece of wax paper) and if they eat them alive, they might eat them thawed (worth a shot).
 
Thanks for the ideas! I was coming on to post an update. I got a half dozen tiny hermits at the LFS today, and it took him ~3.5 seconds to grab one, lol. He's definately growing, and becoming more comfortable with me.

 

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