[Octopus]: Serendipity - O. Hummelincki (filosus)

Since Serendipity started brooding, we have not seen anything but one suggestion of an arm in the beginning, nothing at all for two weeks. There is an opening in the live rock above her underground den and I nightly place a freshly killed :yuck: shrimp in the hole using a pipette but I have no idea if she is eating it but I don't see her blowing it out. I am also putting a little extra Cyclop-eze in the same hole since I know Trapper ate that (almost soley) after brooding.

I got a small shipment of pods, lettuce algae and mysid (the mysid may not be there long enough to matter but I was ordering crabs anyway) from Paul Sachs yesterday and set up two feeder tanks.

I also set up my bio-orb so that the air pushes down the center tube instead of sucking up through the bottom filter. The effect is not quite what I had hoped for and I will need to add some kind of an air stone (the bubbles are too large) but I think it is worth seeing what happens (boy am I going to be bummed out if there are no hatchlings now that I am psyched for them). I have two other ideas yet to start on and I will leave some in the tank birthing tank. The initial object will be to record which enviornment (if any) has better longevity so I will try to place the same number of octos in each environment (size may be a constraint in at least one planned setup). The tuff part will be deciding on the number that gives the best chance. At the moment, having never seen small hatchlings, I am thinking 5-6 but am hoping 10 will be possible.
 
Still no sign at all of Serendipity. I have been putting a freshly killed shrimp in the live rock cave close to where we last saw her nightly but I do not know if she is eating them or if the live shrimp go in and cannibalize. This is the worse brooding time (humanly speaking) of the three I have experienced. With the two mercs, I could see the female and know I was feeding them but with 'Dipity, I do not know if she is even alive. I will not touch anything for 4 more weeks since Trapper's brood time was 8 weeks but I don't know how much after that I will be able to look at the tank and not know if there is an alive critter in there or not.
 
At 6 weeks, there is still no sign of Serendipity or hatchlings. I will wait until week 10 before moving the rock under which she vanished 6 weeks ago (Trapper brooded for 8 weeks) but I fear the worst since no amount of looking shows even an arm. During the first week one of the serpent stars was constantly in attendance but now does not go near the den. If it was trying to eat the eggs, my guess is they are gone. With Trapper, one of the serpents stayed near by during the entire brooding period. At the time I did not think about it looking for a meal and have wondered if that is why there were only six fry. On the other hand, Miss Broody had the same den and same serpents and her egg count was far higher. Second guessing and waiting are frustrating.
 
I know this time is almost as bad as the last week of your own pregnancy! When I couldn't stand it anymore (and I hadn't waited as long as you have now) I moved a couple of shells from a side hole in the Once-ler's den. I never saw her fix it, but within hours it was not only fixed but reinforced. She couldn't have had to move more than an arm to fix it so I didn't feed too bad...
 
sedna;127984 said:
I know this time is almost as bad as the last week of your own pregnancy! When I couldn't stand it anymore (and I hadn't waited as long as you have now) I moved a couple of shells from a side hole in the Once-ler's den. I never saw her fix it, but within hours it was not only fixed but reinforced. She couldn't have had to move more than an arm to fix it so I didn't feed too bad...

The last week of my own pregnancy turned into a month so don't even bring that up!:bonk:

Serendipity is housed underground so to speak in a den she dug out under and between two pieces of live rock. She added a shell border (sounds like a woman) that I have moved parts of a tiny bit, then a full inch with no response from her. When I attempt to feed her I squirt a pipette full of Cyclop-eze or a newly killed shrimp into the crack between the rocks. Nothing is blown out, the shrimp seem to disappear (I really can't see inside but I did blow a water into the crevice to avoid decay build up) but, most importantly, I see no octo poop. With my mercs, I could see the mother at all times (until Miss Broody's second mating and brood attempt - then she just disappeared) so this is new territory for me.

I have to admit that I think she has died but am determined not to look until the 10 week mark.
 
Eight weeks and still absolutely no sign of life. I accidently moved the rock during cleaning that we have been thinking Serendipity was using as a brooding cave and then proceeded to pick it up. Not to my surprise (the shells she had used to line it were never put back when moved), there was absolutely no sign of octo or eggs. She either moved (there is another, larger rock next to this one with no viewing opportunities) or perished and was totally consumed by the clean-up crew (one of the serpents stayed in the crevice for two weeks and then mysteriously left and has not returned to the area). I half expected to at least find egg casings but then I never saw any evidence of eggs with the mercs after they hatched. I will wait a full 10 weeks before transfering OhToo to this tank but I have pretty much given up hope of even trying to do the almost impossible. I really wanted one little male to survive long enough to id it just to know if this species is sextually dimorphic. Even with a hatching, I likely would not know but it was a hope.
 
Oh, I'm sorry to hear it! It's so hard to be patient for so long only to find the angst was for nothing! Is this a small egged octo? With my aculeatus hatchlings they looked more like cuttles than octos in that they were at least 2/3 head and only 1/3 arm, so there was no way I could id male/ female in the 10 days I had them around. By the 10th day they were getting a little bigger but not enough to see individual arms without magnification. Even when I did get one under the scope, AND it held still long enough to see, there was no difference in the arms yet. It was fun to see those great big eyes ( proportionally speaking) and chromatiphores up close!
 
Sedna,
Yes, very unfortunately, Hummelincki is small egged (or I would be aggressively trying to raise them). In the adult there is a major difference in the false eyespot (IF Serendipity and OhToo/Octane are the same species) that may or may not be visible in a microscope at that age so my hope was that I would be able to at least look for a difference. Two more weeks and I will move OhToo, just in case ...
 

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