It is o bimaculoides. Large egg form. The eggs started hatching eight days ago. We now have. 42 hatchlings. So far just one death and one escapee from the tiny holes drilled in it”s 8 oz container. All hatchlings are housed separately. Each container has a small black hide tube. We are feeding the hatchlings live mysids and feeding the mysids hatchling brine shrimp. All live food have bubblers. All containers are in chilled water to 68 degrees. The oldest appear to be growing. Any additional advice would be appreciated. We are uncertain what to do with most of the hatchlings should they survive.
Well, it sounds like you're doing well so far. How often are you feeding the hatchlings?
The only advice I have at the moment is as follows:
1 ) In order to be able to get rid of any surviving hatchlings you don't want to keep, start offering the hatchlings (in addition to the live mysis) a good-quality pellet feed that's readily available for hobbyists on the market (something like Otohime or TDO Chroma Boost pellets would be my suggestion, preferably supplemented with something with a higher algae content like NLS Marine Fish pellets) - if a large number survive, then having them prepped and eating a pellet feed would make it a lot easier to be able to give them away; a premade diet vs a diet of live mysis will be a lot more appealing to the average saltwater aquarist/fish store.
A number of different octopus species have been fed pellets without issue before, so I'd guess
O. bimaculoides would take them without issue as well.
2 ) "Enrich" the hatchlings' environments - the quotes below deal specifically with
O. vulgaris, but I'd imagine they would prove fairly generalizable:
"In this study, we evaluated how different environmental conditions affect subjects of
Octopus vulgaris maintained in an aquaculture system through the observation of major body patterns. The results showed that octopuses kept in an enriched environment showed significantly more body patterns and gained significantly more weight than the subjects kept in a basic environment. The body patterns manifested by the octopuses maintained in a basic environment were similar to those exhibited under situations of hostility and inter/intra-specific conflict."
"Enriched (ENR) environment, with the presence of physical enrichment: substrate (sand), wall color (the walls were “naturalized” with beige-colored polypropylene panels); cognitive enrichment: the presence of seashells, stones, and plastic toys; social enrichment (contact with conspecifics and the operator) and food (ad libitum feeding and live food)."
Source:
For what to do with the hatchlings, I'd suggest offering them to local saltwater aquarists, local fish stores with saltwater sections, local public aquariums, local colleges/schools with saltwater tanks/marine biology classes, etc. and if needed posting them on forums like Tonmo, Reef2Reef, Humble.Fish, etc. - if you end up with a lot of survivors and you really need to get rid of them, offering them to other hobbyists for just the cost of shipping may help.