What are you feeding your octopus?

[Jean]

depends a bit on what species the starfish and fish are.

J

 

[monty]

to TONMO. Sometimes the fish might be a danger to the octo, as well... we've had a number of reports of damsels attacking the octo's eyes, in particular. Although sometimes octos get along OK with other critters, most of the time, one or the other ends up as lunch, and even if not, sometimes the octo is stressed out and hides all the time.

 

[locolady]

I feed my O.J's live mysid shrimps,limpets,common shore shrimp,and the occaisional blue leg that gets in the way.At the moment we have a 100 of the little buggers ,all well fed and living in little clam shells and mama is still alive and well,so maybe we'll get another season out of her with any luck.

 

[monty]

to TONMO. Is O.J. Octopus joubini? I'd be surprised if you had viable babies from that species, since they're small-egged... is it possible it's a large-egged mercatoris, since they're very similar? Or am I guessing wrong what O.J. means?

Dwhatley's threads (regarding her mercatoris Trapper and her 2 generations of babies) show a lot of pics of mercs at various ages for comparison.

 

[locolady]

the eggs themselves were about 1/2 of a centimetre in length -mini tampon with eyes as the kids call them,I looked at the merc. pictures,and mine does not look like those ones.Here is what my octo's look like and I watched them hatch over two and a half weeks time.

 

[Nancy]

Is this a video of your baby octopuses hatching or ones that look like them?

Nancy

 

[monty]

I think this joubini/mercatoris issue has come up before, and it's not clear what, if any, the authoritative answer is.

According to Nesis Cephalopods of the World, they're the same species and have eggs 6-8mm long.

According to Norman Cephalopods: A World Guide, joubini "...females lay small eggs which would hatch into planktonic young. This species is often confused with a similar large-egg species which co-occurs in the same region." Why he doesn't name this other species is not clear, we've assumed it to be mercatoris, which is not mentioned by name in Norman's book.

The FAO Cephalopods of the World guide only lists joubini, not mercatoris, and says the eggs are 10mm long.

This PDF newsletter summarizes the claims, and points to a 1990 article:

Prior to 1990, Octopus joubini (Robson, 1929) was believed to be the only resident pygmy octopus species within the Gulf of Mexico. Closer investigation by Forsythe and Toll (1990), however, revealed that the Gulf of Mexico pygmy octopus population is actually comprised of two distinct species, Octopus joubini, and a second, similar species that is either a synonym of Octopus mercatoris or a previously undescribed species. While both octopuses are morphologically similar, egg size, fecundity, hatchling type, and habitat preference vary markedly (Forsythe and To
ll, 1990).

(...)

Forsythe, J.W., R.B. Toll. 1991. Clarification of the western Atlantic Ocean pygmy octopus complex: the identity and life history of (Octopus joubini) (Cephalopoda: Octopodinae). Bulletin of Marine Science. 49(1-2):88-97.

I don't have online access to this journal, and the article isn't in cephbase, though, it appears that it's not available elsewhere online (via google scholar.) Google did find that it's been mentioned before on TONMO...

Anyway, by TONMO made-up nomenclature, pygmies from around Florida that lay large eggs are called mercs and the ones that lay small eggs are called joubini, but it sounds like we inherited a lot of confusion from the actual professional octopodiatrists' taxonomic debates. (Or maybe it's settled; Nesis and the FAO guide version that covers octopods predate the 1990 paper, and from the PDF newsletter, it sounds like the 1990 paper says "maybe mercatoris, maybe an unnamed species" which could explain why Norman's 2003 book just says "a similar large-egg species" and doesn't give a name.

In any case, I'm sure we'd love to hear more about your octo experiences, whatever it may be!

 

[DWhatley]

I don't think his octo is Merc/Joubini. The mantle and webbing are way to big and there is too much light in the tank for the activity. A Merc/Joubini would have difficulty holding one large crab at a time - at 11 + months mine are just now comfortable with one medium one. The purple tips along the suckers, mantle, webbing and arm length, thickness around the upper arms look very much like Octane (Hummelincki) but the color, smoothness of skin while hunting, missing eye spot and eggs size say otherwise.

Is OJ nocturnal? Have you a clue where she came from (ocean and/or geographic area?)

Scratch that - The octo opening the jar is Vulgaris, the babies are Mer/Joubini. Do you have any pictures of your actual octopus and/or her babies?

 

[locolady]

Still tryin to get the camera workin,an update though the mama octo is no more -she died yesterday having reared over 100 hundred babies ,out of them there are still 76-has them seperated now.Stickums made the jar of fame -they really enjoy live mysid,and limpits because they are small along with all the other little shrimps that came in on rock months ago -cleaned the fluvalve out for those-haha,one other thing I tried and they seem to like it is minced frozen cod.

 

[Octavarium]

Paul Sachs fiddler crabs every other day, fresh scallops or Ecuadorian shrimp I get weekly from my GF's dads fish store as a staple.

 

[DWhatley]

Sounds like you need to work hard to keep that GF

 

[Octavarium]

Believe me, sometimes thats all the keeps this relationship going! Hope she never goes on this site

 

[iwun1]

i was just unsure do the octopuses leave the hermits shell when they eat them and is going to a fish store and buying all difrent kinds of human seafood ok for a octopus or are they treated with things that are deadly?Is feeding thawed mysis shrimp ok?

 

[Animal Mother]

i was just unsure do the octopuses leave the hermits shell when they eat them and is going to a fish store and buying all difrent kinds of human seafood ok for a octopus or are they treated with things that are deadly?Is feeding thawed mysis shrimp ok?

Yes they leave the shell, and yes you can feed raw shrimp and such from the grocery store.

 

[DWhatley]

One observational note about the raw/frozen shrimp. Some of the fresh shrimp sold at the grocery are actually thawed frozen (many will now say "previously frozen" somewhere in the display). If you have a fish or international market that is convenient, I recommend trying that for the chance at the freshest. We have noticed that some of the raw shrimp we have bought turns pink when thawed and Octane won't eat it. After mulling about for an explanation, we wonder if they might put lemon juice on them at the store which will "cook" the shrimp.