[Octopus]: Mama Cass - O.briareus (tank hatched)

[squidboymom]

Roy and mom are hoping for great hatchlings for Cassy. She is a real beauty! Hmm...maybe some inspiration coming for your picture.

 

[SabrinaR]

YAY! Babies! Good luck!

 

[DWhatley]

Hmm...maybe some inspiration coming for your picture.

I am certainly curious about what you are cooking up and I hope Roy is enjoying watching. I got Brooks email and have posted KaySoh and Roy's picture on her journal.

 

[Level_Head]

Any news on the Mama and little ones on the way?

I know things can be complicated with octopuses...

 

[DWhatley]

Of the 48 I could count (the ones on the back wall that she is not guarding as stringently as the cluster she has kept out of sight) I counted only 17 tonight and at least one is not showing eyes and has no distinct yolk ball. I am guessing an equal number in the more concealed group that are still tightly clustered (where the first group is quite thin) and the ones I can see there are showing eyes and yolk sacks. I have one photo where you can see one of the embryos is flipped in the opposite rotation from the rest but I have not compared the photo to todays yet to see if it is one of the remaining 17.

Cute cartoon but diapering the mouth has little benefit What is perhaps most humerous is the misassumption about biology.

 

[DWhatley]

Eggs - Embryos Flipping ~ 5 weeks

The embryos will flip twice. I THINK this is the first one I missed the flips with Kooahs brood but you can see the yolk sack has changed direction in this series. You can also just make out the mantles (on the opposite side of the opaque yolk) and possibly a little color in one or two.

Day 30 - One egg in process of flipping the yolk toward the stem


Day 33 - Three eggs flipped - mantles viewable


Day 34 - Seven eggs flipped

 

[Level_Head]

Looking good! The differentiation is certainly obvious on most of the eggs. Nice photos, and good omens.

 

[DWhatley]

There are still 17 in the open and a denser cluster that Cassy keeps mostly covered. I see them enough to know there are eyes and that they too are flipping but I can rarely get a photo of the second group. My guess it that there are about 30 remaining eggs and two that are visible don't look promising.

 

[Level_Head]

The rest have promises to keep. I am cheering you -- and them -- on.

 

[SabrinaR]

YAY More inklets! I am looking forward to the continued reading.

 

[DWhatley]

Tonight I saw the "blue" around the eyes of the four center eggs. Two showed streaks of color but not the clear chromataphores I saw near the end of the embryo cycle with Kooah's eggs. There is still a lot of yolk sack left so I am sticking with my Mid May projection.

We tried to show the eggs to someone around 9:00 AM and discovered that Cassy was covering ALL the eggs. There is one potential preditor in the tank but I have never seen the brittle (unlike the moved serpent) pester the eggs or the octopus. Tonight, though, I noticed that there are fewer eggs in Cassy's private clutch and one more egg has disappeared from the wall (another is skinny and does not show an embryo or yolk). I don't think Cassy would let Pesky snitch eggs but she seemed to cover them as if protecting them from night preditors (they were open to normal viewing tonight).

 

[DWhatley]

I spotted an arm yesterday but Cassy moved the rocks around again. One of the mushrooms was dislocated in the process and in an effort to retrieve the mushroom, I further rearranged the den so pictures are harder to take (these are from earlier in the week). It looks like there are about 22 eggs now, including the ones she was initially hiding.

Day 35


Day 37

 

[Level_Head]

Surprising disparities in development; it looks like the hatching might be spread over multiple days.

Best wishes!

 

[DWhatley]

The one in front in the cluster of four (that looks like 3) seems to be advanced of the rest. I could distinguish an arm on this one as well as color but not on the others. I just hope some of them make it. I am not sure why they are disappearing (hopefully neither Cassy nor Pesky is eating them) as the ones that were not showing growth have been gone awhile but there seem to be fewer every couple of days.

None of the photos I took yesterday were in focus so the new rock arrangement is photo problematic.

 

[sedna]

Keeping fingers crossed that your mysterious disappearances stops!!