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Octo eggs hatched, help please???

Nautica

Pygmy Octopus
Registered
Joined
Nov 19, 2006
Messages
7
Hi everyone- Im new to this forum, as well as cephs and have a few questions if anyone can possibly answer. This morning I discovered that all of my eggs hatched, from what Ive learned from everyone is that I need to feed them amphipods and mysids. Is this the best food I can give them? Im assuming these are live little buggers that you can pick up at any aquarium supply should carry.
My immediate question is should i remove the female from the aquarium before she dies and "inks"? or should i put all the babies into another tank. one by one with a tiny little net :wink:
I am planning on doing a water change daily to remove any dead, Ive got a little air line in the tank to provide a few bubbles, not too much though,

any immediate replies would be greatly appreciated. Id like to do everything possible to get the best survival rate.
Thanks- Ryan
 
Hi Ryan,

You're in a difficult position. Your octo laid eggs soon after she arrived and you haven't had time to prepare for baby octos.

Are the little ones like tiny octopuses, you can clearly see their legs? or are they even smaller and don't really look like octopuses?

If they're like tiny octos, you have some hope of raising them. If they're smaller, you don't. However, it's hard to find live food even for the large-egged species hatchlings. Most likely your local fish store won't carry mysids or amphipods and you'll have to have them shipped in (unless you live near the ocean and can find food yourself).

This is a sorce. Look under "Salt Water Invertebrates".
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You might try putting a few of them in breeder nets at the top of the tnak.

Good luck!

Nancy
 
If your tank setup includes a refugium you might try sticking some of the babies in there. Should be some pods of sorts in there for them to eat...

Good luck!
 
Yes they do look similar to tiny octos, under a magnifier, you can definatly see thier tiny legs, one thing that is worrying me at this time however is, last night they were all active, pulsating around the tank, then this morning, (still thier night time) none were swiming around the tank, they were all at the bottom.. I am worried something went wrong and they all died, but under a microscope you can see that they are still breathing just not moving. im wondering if they are hopefully just sleeping? or are they permanetly sleeping.
 
My experience with newly hatched octopuses is that they hang on the glass for a while, and then go hide. If you don't have hiding places for them (lots of live rock), maybe they'll go to the bottom.

Did you ask your local fish store if they could help you out? It will take a few days for food to arrive. You don't say where you live - maybe some TONMO.com members live near you and help out or even take a few.

We have pics online of baby octos. Here's one of mine.

Nancy
 
wow what a cute little guy. how old is that baby? mine dont look like that yet. not nearly that defined, they dont seem to stick to the glass at all, just keep pulsating and floating around the tank. seems like a whole lot of work for them.
as an update, after the lights kicked on many started swimming around again, however, i did loose more than half. I live in Eugene OR. and no stores here sell live food that small.. besides brine shrimp. ive put some rotifers along with some mysis shrimp, both were frozen sources. its hard to see if they actually are eating.
any one in the area that has a source would be more than welcome to let me know:biggrin2:
also should i remove the mom so she doesnt die and ink?
thanks all for responding.. really a big help.
Ryan-
 
This baby octo is less than a day old, and is from a large-egged species (O. briareus).

I don't thiink you need to remove the mother until she dies, which might even be a few weeks from now. I haven't heard of one inking when she dies.

Nancy
 
Nancy;83812 said:
This baby octo is less than a day old, and is from a large-egged species (O. briareus).

I don't thiink you need to remove the mother until she dies, which might even be a few weeks from now. I haven't heard of one inking when she dies.

Nancy

When Egor died, her eggs apparently died as well. Greg mentioned in this thread that this has been seen before, too, but isn't well understood.

Egor passed....

It doesn't sound like ink related, though. Since mother octos do clean, aerate, and protect the eggs, I'd say it's unlikely to be a good idea to remove mom before the eggs hatch. After hatching, though, I have no idea... I wonder if any of the folks who raised babies for research recently found a good strategy...
 
well i guess ill just leave her in and see what happens. this morning i woke up to the same amount of babies swimming around. unlike the other morning. i increased the amount of air being pumped into the tank. i think that is probably the reason why they are still swimming around..unlike the other morning when not one was swimming.
do you think that it would be a good idea to leave them in the main tank with the mom? or would it be a good idea to get them transfered into a new clean tank with no substrate, but transfer the water over?
 
hey ryan,
this is zyan down here in brookings, 4 hours away from you.
if the octopus is the type that lays large eggs like bimacs, you could find food for them in the tide pools. i've hatched out 125 babies in august, and have been successful in raising about 80 to the four month age. leave the mother in the tank and check on her everyday. she'll die within two weeks, and then you can remove her. you'll end up needing to get separate containers to be able to keep track of the babies, and be sure that they have adequate food. were the eggs a half inch in size, or the tinier eggs that become planktonic larvae. those eggs usually are the size of a rice grain. i'd be glad to help with anything i can.

-zyan
 
Zyan,

Do you have any pictures of your setup? I'm curious what kind of containers you used. On one of Dr. Wood's pages he describes using a rack of PVC sections.

Thanks for making these available. You've reinvigorated the community!
 
tide pools

How do I collect from tide pools? Should I use a brine shrimp net? Or just bring back water? I am new to all of this and need all the input possible.
 
well, some bad news, when i got home from work today, i found nautica white and dead. unfortunetly i couldnt see any babies swimming either. dont know if it was from her dying, or just coincedental, but now im left with none.
Id like to try again someday soon, however i would deffinatly like to be better prepared and have an entire system set up ready for them.
if anyone has a good source for a new octo, possibly a cuttlefish, let me know, i would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks all for helping me on my first egg hatching experience. hopefully the next one will be more successfull.

Ryan
 

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