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re: help

idahocuttle

Cuttlefish
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Feb 17, 2011
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I posted about my octo yesterday thanks so much for all your replies! New prob, Took some pics of her and her brood but trying to figure out how to upload them any help? as you can tell im new to this site read threads for years but new to the question and answers.[/ATTACH][/ATTACH]
 

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wow! Great pics! Welcome to TONMO - sorry about the delay in support - we'll help you get acclimated to our tank, just as you did for your octo :smile:
 
THATS A LOT OF EGGS! They look like small eggs and I was thinking shes a vulgaris but I cant really be sure. Where did you get her from? The pics look really good but they are very red colored so I cant make out her coloring. Is she out mostly during the day or night?
 
Shes very owner friendly so if i wlk by or talk to her she usually comes out but i believe shes out more at night. Im not sure where she was actually collected i know this makes it more difficult.......so you think i just leave them alone? but what about when she passes do i remove her or do they feed on her? my ?s are probably dumb but im mostly a cuttle guy this was a surprise.
 
When she passes removes her remains immediately. You dont want it to mess with your water quality.

Vulgaris sounds like a good guess to me. Seems a little small. but size varies quite a bit with octopuses. Hummelincki would be my only other guess, but I'm leaning towards Vulgaris.
 
Looking at all the images between the Vulgaris and the Hummelincki im going to guess Vulgaris. As far as her size goes shes larger than a large dinner plate, and those are large bivalve clams in the pic. So maybe that may help in telling what she is..... So what do i look for as far as when they may be ready to hatch, even if they are the small eggs i would like to give them the best chance i can.
 
Ok either way hummelincki or vulgaris these are small eggs and aren't really viable. If you wish to try I would start looking up info now. Sounds like vulgaris to me. That's unfortunately where my info stops. I don't know much about raising the young. It is possible that the eggs arent fertile. How long have you had her? Octopuses can hold the sperm for as long as 4 months and females will lay eggs anyway even if they aren't fertile. Hopefully D or others who have had experience raising octopus from eggs will come along soon to help you out with info.

Good luck. This will not be an easy endeavor.
 
Well it looks like I will be joining you in the egg care journey. My dwarf Mystique just laid eggs last night... That would explain why my peppermint shrimp was found on the floor this morning. He would have eaten the eggs... she must have chased him into jumping.
 
If it's the size of a dinner plate I would agree Vulgaris. In the pic it looked smaller but images can be deceptive. Those are definitely small eggs. Good Luck!

It would be awesome if you would start a Journal about your hatching process, Its very helpful for people to see what others have tried.
eggs journals are here:
TONMO Cephalopod Community
 
I have observed two different species' eggs, O. hummelincki and O.briareus (and raised O. mercatoris but never saw the eggs - either time :roll:). These are like neither of the two I have seen. Definitely a small egg species though. Not being O. hummelincki, O. vulgaris is certainly an option but there are hundreds of species and the photos don't help to try to suggest an answer. When you say she is the size of a dinner plate, are you including the arms or just the mantle. A dinner plate is 11" in diameter. If this includes the arms, she is not vulgaris.

Species aside, to determine if the eggs may be viable (ie will hatch), look for black or red dots on the eggs. Most small egg species mature in 2-3 weeks and you should see the dots for the eyes sometime after week one (not all small eggs mature this quickly but most of the warm water species we see are in the range, cold water species mature more slowly). Here is a series of photos I took of Kooah's eggs as they matured. She was a large egg species (O.briareus) and the eye dots are more visible than they will be on these. Often I could not see what the camera was able to capture so getting photos as close as you can focus will likely give more information than what your eyes detect. One thing I failed to mention in my journal was that the eyes were not always visible but seemed to be seen after a photo was taken. I never thought to experiment but my camera has a green focus beam that may have caused a reaction (I avoided using a flash in most cases).
 

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