Newborn Octopus

[Paul B]

I got a new scanner and wanted to try it out. These are newborn octopus about an hour old. I aquired a pregnant female and these die after laying eggs so I figured I would try to raise them. They all hatched out overnight . They lived a while but unfortunatelyI could not get them to adulthood.
I do like to eat them though.
Paulhttp://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/13094octopus.jpg

[FalsePerc]

Very cool! Too bad they did not make it...

[cephalopoder]

The young require lots of live foods such as amphipods, isopods and mysid shrimp. Some species like O.bimaculoides can be batch reared. O.briareus hatchlings need to be reared in seperate rearing chambers or the will slowly eat each other. Pygmy octopus like o.mercatoris are a little more tricky due to their small size but they will actually do ok for a week or so on enriched brine shrimp untill you can order or catch the required amount of live food. Artemia will not work for the other species however. Nutrition is critical for the first few months and the food needs to contain lots of HUFAs and they prey needs to be enriched with various mico algaes like nanno, isocrysis.... It can be done but it takes total devotion and lots of live food and high water quality.
I live close to the ocean so it was easy for me to get live food when I reared mine. I also had quite a few buckers and tanks of mysids and amphipods being cultured. It's alot of fun but very time consuming and can get quite costly.

[Paul B]

I too live by the ocean but they hatched un announced in the middle of winter while I was also raising many seahorses. I did not figure they would live but I tried anyway. All I had was live brine shrimp which they ate. When they grabbed a shrimp they would wrestle with it and squirt ink. They disappeared into the rock after a couple of weeks and I never saw them again.
Paul

[cephalopoder]

They will not survive on feeding brine shrimp at all. Brine will hold over O.mercatoris for a very short time but all other species it it worthless. Chances are they ran out of food and died after a few days. I collect amphipods in the ocean during winter months no problem. I have noticed pods are actually easier to catch in the winter months because they are breeding and are all loaded with babies up here in the north. They need to be caught at night during the low tide. In 30 minutes on a good night I can collect thousands. It is tuff though when you are caught off guard and not expecting them. Do you know waht species of octopus you had? any pics?

[Jake]

I live in the Salem Mass and would be very interested in your technique for catching pods. Also I know a while back you had a bunch of baby octos available - any chance of more in the future?

[Paul B]

I have no idea what kind of octopus it was, it was a long time ago. I also collect amphipods and pods and I too find more of them in the winter. I have a boat and they are all over the mooring lines. in the winter I find them by the thousands under rocks on muddy beaches.
Paul

[gwrulzmylife]

A dedicated tank for pods seems to be a must for my operation, and I'm not even breeding!

[cephalopoder]

I am not sure what surprises await me this winter but I will keep you posted if anything happens. As for pods, I go to the north shore during low tides and use a under water light and waiters to scoop up pods with a net. It can only be done at night and the water must be dead calm.