Possible Dry Ceph. Food

[CNeighbors]

I do my best to replicate the diet of the subject. Fresh shrimp is approximately 76% water and crab is roughly 79% water. Once the animals are dried they are approximately 82% protein, 6% fat, 6-1/2% minerals and 5-1/2% water. The high protein is problematic with the ingredients that I found suitable. I contacted a friend and he told me that he could get culled shrimp and grind it into a meal for me. After I got up after hearing the price I realized it wasn't that bad considering fresh shrimp are 76% water. With that in mind this is what I came up with:

Ingredients (first to last by dry weight) - Whole Shrimp Meal, Egg Whites, Whole Menhaden Fish Meal, Red Pepper and Paprika

79% Protein, 5.7% Fat, .1% Starch, 6.1% Fiber, 0.1% Sugar. 4.1% Minerals and 4.9% Moisture

I plan to buy a couple of lbs from my friend when it becomes available again to make some food for testing. Anyone want to be a Guinea Cephalopod?

Since the drying process increases the nutrient levels roughly four times, Would it curb the Cephalopod's insatiable appetite?

 

[DWhatley]

Octopuses really don't have a huge appetite (juvenile to adult cuttles more so). Many people feed only every 3 days and as they approach senescence, octopuses will often refuse food for several days. All the hype about them being eating machines is media exaggeration (as is the current intelligence comparisons with human children and other mammals - they ARE very smart mollusks but don't expect cat like intelligence).

Getting any of them to eat a dry food will be interesting and probably viable for some octopuses (more difficult with cuttles I think) since some will scavenge and hunt with their arms in the rockwork. Some of the octopus aquaculturing experiments appear to have used some form of ground up food but the attempts were to find cheaper ways to achieve growth and fishmeal alone proved not to be viable for the desired result.

If Shelby is still with me when you make up your first batch, I would love to try a sample but he is a picky eater. He is also a full adult so his remaining time is limited and he won't likely be a good test subject.

If I get to keep another nautilus (maybe this winter), I would like to try your thoughts since observations suggest they are 99% scavengers and smell would be an appropriate lure (they seem to think raw chicken is yummy).

I don't plan on keeping cuttlefish any time soon but you can either PM or use the @name to alert some of our current keepers to attract guinea cephs

 

[CNeighbors]

Whole Menhaden meal doesn't do a very good job of replicating what they eat in the wild. Whole Menhaden numbers are around 66.2% Protein, 11.7% Fat, .2% Fiber, 13.1% Minerals and 4.4% Moisture. As you can see compared to approximately 82% protein, 6% fat, 6-1/2% minerals and 5-1/2% water for dried shrimp/crabs the Menhaden protein is low, the fat is high and the minerals are high. They might eat the Menhaden offering but it wouldn't be good for them long term. I am certainly no expert on Cephalopod's or their digestive process but its hard to go wrong matching what they eat in the wild as closely as possible. Why not get the shrimp culls and try them whole? The price he gave me was $10 per lb plus shipping. I have no idea how that compares to fresh or frozen. If it works it might be worthwhile for some of the large facilities to purchase them in bulk. FYI the $10 per lb is the bulk price. In case you were wondering the only preservative is salt.

I am sure in time we can lure some guinea cephs from the rock work .