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Kooah's Hatchlings - O.briareus

Count the hatchlings

Can you find 36 hatchlings? I think I have likely under estimated the original hatchling count.:shock: (this is only half the tank and they easily cross the tubes.

Note the blue around the eyse in the thumb sizing photo.

The eleven in the the plastic container were transferred to Creepy/Trapper's tank. Roughly half were freed to the tank and the other half place in a breeder net like the one in the count the hatchlings photo.
 

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Kooah's Hatchlings - O.briareus

I could not count the number of hatchlings that emerged from Kooah's clutch and I believe they all hatched during the full moon on May 27th. It is possible that a small second hatching occured on the 28th but at her death on the 29th all eggs had hatched with no sign of infertile or dead eggs. I will guestimate the total at ~75 hatchlings

I put together a series of egg development photos taking the best of what the camera (and photographer) could manage peeking into her den. The final photo in the series was taken of the rock removed from the tank. The additional photo is a branch taken from the emptied egg cluster. The stem was a ridgid, hard, crusty material that felt more like a rough coral than any part of an octopus.

I have offered the hatchlings to members of the Atlanta Reef Club and will journal any takers in the TONMOCON forum as a Minicon and have asked anyone taking the hatchlings to journal the experience. Existing TONMO member are, of course, welcomed but, from my experience trying to transport Connay's hatchlings, I know these won't ship and will not even survive a long car trip.

I created a new journal for my own results with the hatchlings.
 

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Second home for 4 hatchlings

Slayers911 (not yet TONMO members so the name may be different and I will correct if it changes) came to collect four more of Kooah's hatchlings tonight and I am expecting one more individual tomorrow. If the exposure and experience converts a few local reefers, even a total loss of the hatchlings will bring a positive event.

I placed only 2 hatchlings into the tiny, "to be picked up" tanks last night but only one in each tank survived. Suspicious since with 4 in each tank, three survived, or to put it another way, one died in each stocking attempt. I think I will try three in each tonight just to see what happens. Of note the dead ones looked dead (opaque and eyes dull) where in the first attempt, I needed to put them in a separate container for awhile to be sure. I have an ammonia checker in one of the tanks but am changing the water daily (no sign of ammonia according to the monitor).

As mentioned in my MiniCon thread, I also have an ammonia checker sitting on the substrait of the experimental 2 gallon egg white tank. Earlier today, I discovered that three of the hatchlings are using it as a den during the day (there is also a fake rock in the tank and they had been using it prior to the introduction of the plastic card). Since I knew where to find these guys, I showed them to Slayers911 by turning over the plastic card. One climbed on to my finger (fortunately Greg noticed it immediately) and, after a quick lesson in using my camera, Greg was able to capture a couple of cute photos.

Getting the little guy OFF my finger proved to be difficult. Likewise, getting them out of the tank with the turkey baster and getting them out of the baster was a new issue tonight so I suspect their suckers are becoming stronger.
 

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nope it did not change I am slayers911 on here also and Tina and I are pleased to announce that all four survived the 90 minute ride home and are just adorable. We will see what happens and keep our fingers crossed...
 
I attempted a red light video tonight. The result were not stellar but I posted it because you can at least see some interaction between the sibblings. I was able to count 38 (18 more than last night - 26 sighted last night and I turkey basted 6 earlier this evening).

.

I am not sure if this little guy was born missing 3 arms or if something removed them (Nancy has mentioned brissleworms could do this and I did see a brissle messing with one during the day). It would seem odd to me for the arms to have all been removed at the webbing though.
 

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Tank Statuses

All are getting doses of thawed frozen foods: Cyclop-eeze, Mysis shrimp and oyster eggs. I have added a little live new hatch brine to the mix but think I will dispense with hatching them.

2 Gallon Eggwhite Tank
I replace about half the water in this tank each day and add a little eggwhite. It foams into a nicer meringue than I can ever get when I cook :roll: and I hand remove this during the day to be sure that the air exchange is not blocked. I believe I put 6 in this tank (three from the first day and three to five later - I forgot to record the numbers and now can't remember). I have not been able to find them until today when I looked under the ammonia checker. Tonight I tried the red flashlight and found not only the three under the plastic card but three more in the tank.

MiniKressels
I probably should not call these Kressels and I only use the name because of the sloping sides. These are the tanks I use for holding octopuses to be picked up by the ARC members. So far I have tried putting 4 and then putting 2 in each tiny tank for about 16 hours. In both cases, one of the animals in each tank has died. Tonight I put three in each tank just to see what happens (especting a pickup tomorrow).

Footbath
I have given up on this as a tank for benthics. I have the timer set to just start the bubbler enough to move the water and then shut off but I think it is still to rough for the hatchlings. I have tried a total of 6 in this tank and tonight the last three perished.

Poision Tank
I started this tank probably a year ago and put a copper penny in the bottom to see if copper would show on a filter from a relatively new penny (unfortunately I did not record the year but it was not all). My filter material showed lots of copper for a long time. It has been sitting without the penny and the copper no longer showed on the filter. My expectation is there there is still a trace amount of copper in the water but I have done no testing (acrylic tank). I added a dirty filter from my nano with all of its pods to this water and checked to see that there were still live pods for a couple of weeks. I placed 3 hatchlings into the environment. Today, turning the filter tube inside out, I found one (alive) but have not seen the other two (the crud from the filter mucks up the water when I mess with it and I may try siphoning some of it out).

Yucky Water Tank
My son had a tank that was ill maintained and did not have frequent water changes. I pulled off half the water, gave the LR a light SW scrub and nothing more. There is a hermit crab in the tank. I put a butterfly net in the tank with a traditional breeder net frame to keep it open and added LR. It is almost opaque. I put hatchlings both inside and outside the net and have only seen one hatchling (not in the net) since they entered the tank. The net arrangement is what I used to bring back the briareus from Charleston and I am beginning to wonder if there is something in the material that is lethal but the hermit and snail in the tank are fine.

Breeder Nets
I have 7 oversized breeder nets placed in the main tank(2), in Maya/Puddles tank(2), in Maya/Puddles sump(2) and in the livingroom corner tank(1). I have no clue how many are in the nets and thought there might not be any for the first three days but have since located at least one in all but the sump nets. I know some of the hatchlings have escaped into the Maya/Puddles tank (like from the nets getting submerged rather than by climbing out).

Brood Tank
As mentioned above, I counted 38 on the walls tonight. That does not count the ones visible in the two nets inside the tank.
 
Tank Statuses Day 6

Tonight's feeding (2:00 AM) was a real rush. I was able to pipette feed six or seven of the little guys and see (and on one occassion feel) them take mysis shrimp. The really fun part was feeling the tug when one was determined to put it out of the pipette. The little guy with the shrimp (third picture, in case you can't quite figure out what you are looking at) is the "fly on the wall" half way up the left corner of the tank in the fourth photo

2 Gallon Eggwhite Tank
I found one dead in this tank after I changed the water (shortly after the photos). I see six in the picture so I am not sure now if one died with the water change (very scary thought) or if there was an addition hatchling in the tank. I hope for a head count tomorrow because, as you can see, they are coming to the wall for feeding :biggrin2:. These are my biggest hope but I will need to separate them soon.

Update: I found another dead in this tank and three alive. I think the water change may have caused the deaths. I have been changing out 1/2 the water with no problems but I have done the changes around 8:00 when the water is warmest. I pulled the water from the garage (normally I leave it sitting in the room) and it may have been cooler than the tank water.

I converted the other 2 gallon (holding my crabs) to a hatchling tank and added babies last night. I found 3 dead tonight and can't find the other 3. I have a piece of lava rock in this tank (the other has a plastic rock) but there should not be any other differences.


MiniKressels
All 6 of the hatchlings placed in these tanks died in less than 24 hours this time. I will not restock them.

Footbath
I put 4 in this with only an air stone. There is no substrate of any kind. Tonight, two were dead and two still alive. I could not convince them to take shrimp.

Poision Tank
All three of these died. I tried cleaning the tank and putting in two more and those died within 24 hours. I am thinking I may not have rinsed it will enough and that the water may have contained a different poison. I will not stock this one again (and will likely just toss the tank).

Yucky Water Tank
Still don't see any in this tank but I continue to feed both the net and the tank.

Breeder Nets
Still hard to make a call on any of these. I did find and feed one hatchling that had taken to a shell in a net in the main hatching tank.

Brood Tank
Tonight I only found 5 on the walls. Since I found one hatchling in a shell I think they are taking to the substrate now and I will not know how many exist for a long time. Two of the five I found on the wall accepted shrimp from a pipette.
 

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Thanks for the detailed information, just fascinating. Last night I finally got to see the English version of Octopus Volcano. (much better than the Italian version)Excellent footage of mating and eggs hatching. It made me think of this thread. :smile:
 
Tank Statuses Day 8

Tonight's feeding (2:00 AM) was a real disappointment. I could only find 4 hatchlings in all the nets and tanks.

2 Gallon Eggwhite Tank
Last night I moved one of the hatchlings from the eggwhite tank to the second similar tank after rinsing it and replacing the lava rock with not so live rock (LR that has been kept in my shrimp tanks, but has not had exposure to much life in a few months). I had to debate on this for awhile as the ones in the first tank were doing better than any others I could monitor but since they were taking mantle size mysis shrimp I knew they would soon be attacking each other.

Tonight I found one in each tank. The one moved to the new tank took a piece of pipette offered shrimp, the one in the original tank would not eat from the pipette. I did put some pods in the tank earlier in the day so I am hoping the refusal to eat was because he was full. I stirred the water and found no dead but two or three are missing.

MiniKressels
I used these one more time to hold the hatchlings for Ayveq, putting two in one container and one in another but used tank water to fill and replace. All three survived and were active when we put them into the foam bucket to be transported to their new home.

Footbath
The 4 I put in this tank for Ayveq died and I delayed her pickup to attempt 4 more from the quickly disappearing group in the primary tank.

Poision Tank
Flushed it again with very hot water and have put a small plankton pull with a couple of small fish and unknown small critters and snails.

Yucky Water Tank
No octo sightings

Breeder Nets
No Octo Sightings

Brood Tank
Only saw two tonight and was able to feed one. The one I was able to feed was positioned where I could not catch it. The other came out of the LR and I tried to feed it. You need to picture a dark room, a red light on the opposite side of the tank, sighting from the outside but having to open the lid, hold a flashlight and position a pipette close to a ghost with little arms crawling on the LR. I was pleased that it took the shrimp but something looked odd when I climbed down from the sofa. I could see the shrimp caught in the "octo" arms but the octo was acting strangely. Without turning on the light, I could not see what was going on so I grabbed the camera and used the flash. Keep in mind that I could not see into the tank so even trying to locate where to point the camera was guessing with a small help from the focus beam. Once I realized what I HAD fed I was worried that it has managed to get the octo but close examination of the photos showed it wandering away.
 

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