Octopus babies!

[texasmetal]

My Abdopus' babies hatched this morning. It was like snow in the tank... only squid-shaped instead of flakes...

Itty bitty transparent-white gnat sized octopuses, with tiny arms, big mantles, and teeny tiny black eyes.
Unfortunately it's just about impossible to raise these kind, and momma will be dying very soon.

I was not prepared, thought I had another week or so. Going to buy some zooplankton and cyclopseeze when the LFS opens and I think I'm going to put them in some small 1 gallon plastic jugs we got for rearing seahorses. Saturate with food and do tons of water changes.

Crappy video. Can't make out details, but you can see the tiny white babies in the water column.

 

[saltn00b]

that is very cool texas. has anyone aquacultured octos?

 

[texasmetal]

The larger egged species have been successfully raised by hobbyists. A few people have made short aquaculture projects but no one has sustained it. One of them was a 17 year old kid but he went off to college... the others have been dwarfs. The small egged species, no. Only a few labs have successfully raised them.
This and most other species hatch as planktonic larvae. They're more like micro-squids than octopuses. I caught about 80 and I'm keeping them in round jugs. Need to find an air pump to keep the water moving. Going to have to do lots of water changes to keep up with all the food I'm going to have to give them. I'm going to be trying cyclopseeze and zooplankton. I wasn't prepared. I should have had some live copepods. They are about the size of sesame seeds and their arms only make up about 1/6th of their length, so you can see how getting small enough foods would be a problem.

 

[shaunalynna]

Thats pretty cool that the babies were born! I am sorry to hear about the mom though. Wish you the best in raising the babies!

 

[texasmetal]

Thanks! I believe I'm seeing a second batch of babies popping up in the display.

 

[texasmetal]

This is what they look like..

 

[guzman825]

wow! i didnt even know that was possible to hav octopus babies in the home aquarium. hope everything works out

 

[keri]

Wow, crazy!
I wish they lived longer tho

 

[earnit33]

That's really cool, good luck with the babies!

 

[texasmetal]

Well none of them made it past 4 days.
That's okay though, gotta learn somehow. I have a better idea of what to do next time. I'll eventually get it right.
Unfortunately momma didn't live much longer. I thought she was dead (laying on her side, pale grey, starfish eating her arms) and I grabbed an arm with my forceps and she apparently was still alive and had enough strength to hold onto the rock she was under and I ripped her arm off... very sad.