O. chierchiae babies (LPSO) (timeline)

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Richard Ross (Thales) welcomes discussion on this article in the Exotics and Rare Species forum.

Octopus chierchiae is a small rarely seen octopus from Panama/Nicaragua. I was able to obtain 3 animals, 2 male and 1 female, and was able to mate them and have had a successful brood and hatching detailed below.
4/20/08 Mated female and Male #1
5/20/08 Eggs discovered. They may have been laid earlier, and were only discovered when trying to remove the female from her barnacle den to mate again. Upon discovery of eggs , she was immediately place back into her cube. Before and after egg discovery, the barnacle den was often oriented with the opening towards the sand, and she would hold it in that position.
5/20/08-
6/14/08
Female was fed freshly killed 'shore' shrimp every 3-6 days through out brooding
6/15/08 The female was lured out of her barnacle den with a 'shore' shrimp held in tweezers. She was very briefly completely out of her den with only one arm tip holding the barnacle and I was able to glimpse what looked to be very developed eggs before she went back in the den. The glimpse was brief, so I have no idea how many eggs there were.
6/16/08 Fed the female a dead 'shore' shrimp
6/17/08Day 1In the evening, discovered two hatchling octopus, #1 and #2 in the males cube directly to the right of the female. They were swimming mid height and against the glass. The current through the cubes comes from that direction and no hatchlings were ever found in the cube to the right of the female..
Hatchlings were placed in baby containers with pods caught from elsewhere in the system
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Hatchling #1​
6/18/08Day 2Discovered hatchling # 3 in the evening in the cube to the right of the female, swimming.
All hatchlings 'fed' RN Tigger Pods
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Hatchling #1​
6/19/08Day 3Discovered hatchling # 4 in the morning in the cube to the right of the female, on the substrate. Dr. Roy Caldwell picked up the baby that day for his Lab and UCB. Roy weighed it wet - 22.2mg.
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Hatchling #1​
6/20/08Day 4Discovered hatchlings #5 and #6 in the morning in the females cube, swimming against the right side.
Discovered hatchling #7 in the evening in the cube to the right of the female, swimming.
All hatchlings 'fed' RN Tigger Pods
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Hatchling # 1 Swimming​
6/21/08Day 5Fed female a dead 'shore' shrimp with tweezers.
Hatchling # 3 died for unknown reasons in the morning.
Hatchling #5 acting 'weak' in the evening (pics) staying at the bottom in one place, not swimming, arms curled?
All hatchlings 'fed' pods caught elsewhere in the system.
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Hatchling #1 in adult arms up swimming pose​
6/22/08Day 6# 5 died
Discovered hatchling #8 in the morning, hiding in a snail shell in the females cube.
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Hatchling #1, stripes are visible.
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Hatchling #4, photo by Roy Caldwell​
6/23/08Day 7Stripes visible on baby #1.
All hatchlings 'fed' RN Tigger Pods
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Hatchling # 1 with stripes and arm in defensive pose between the eyes​
6/24/08Day 8#8 died
Hatchling # 6 looking weak in the afternoon, and dead in the evening.
All hatchlings fed pods captured from elsewhere in. the system
Female came 90% out of her barnacle den to get a freshly dead 'shore' shrimp. I couldn't get a glimpse of the inside of her den. Two hours after giving her the shrimp, her den was opening towards the sand, and I found hatchling #9 swimming on the right side of the females cube.
6/25/08Day 9All babies fed Tigger Pods and pods from elsewhere in the system
6/26/08Day 10All babies fed Tigger Pods
6/27/08Day 11Hatchling # 10 discovered in the cube to the right of the females cube, in the afternoon, at the top of the waterline. The cube to the right of the females cube is also closer to a window, perhaps they are attracted to light?
Roy Cladwell reports the weight of Hatchling #4 is now 29.4 mg on its 8th day.
Female and males fed one thawed PE mysid each
All hatchlings fed pods for elsewhere in the system.
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Hatchling # 4, Photo by Roy Caldwell
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Female in 'protective of eggs' pose​
6/28/08Day 12Hatchling #11 discovered in the cube to the right of the females cube, around noon, at the top of the water line. The hatchling was placed in a 55 micron polyweld filter sleeve, and was actively hunting RN's Tigger-Pods, though it was not possible to determine if any were caught and consumed.
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Hatchling # 1​
6/29/08Day 13Hatchling #1 stalked and at a gammarus(?) amphipod on video. Click here for video.
Hatchling #11 and # 9 moved to Roy Cladwell's Lab.
6/30/08Day 14Each of the 4 hatchlings (#1,2,7,10) at my place got one local amphipod, pods form elsewhere in the system and Tigger Pods.
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7/1/08Day 15Found hatchling #1 eating a local amphipod in the morning.
Roy reports hatchling #9 died, and #11 looks weak though it grabbed an adult brine shrimp.
#9 weighed 17.0 mg and #11 weighed 16.1 mg - it is not unusual for later eggs/hatchlings to be smaller.
Added local pods to the 4 in the evening.
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Hatchling # 1 eating an amphipod​
7/2/08Day 16Hatchling #12 discovered in the cube to the right of the female, in the afternoon, at the water air boundry.
All the hatchlings containters were moved around for a slight reorganization of low and #1 and #2 were seen eating large amphipods.
Roy reports hatchling #4 inked copiously during a photo shoot.


7/3/08Day 17Hatchling # 7 dead or missing
Hatchling #12 discovered in the cube to the right of the female, in the afternoon, at the water air boundry.
Hatchling # 12 found alive 3/4 of an inch above the water line.
Fed the female a freshly dead 'shore' shrimp with tweezers, and she came mostly out of her barnacle den. While grabbing the tweezers, the den tipped over, and as she ate, she moved in such a way as to let me see inside of the den. Inside were at least 6 (maybe 9)mature eggs. A second clutch laid just after the first? A much longer hatching period than previously suspected? Maybe feeding her during brooding allowed her to 'double clutch'?
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Female with eggs​
7/4/08Day 18All hatchlings fed Tigger pods and amphipods
7/5/08Day 19All hatchlings fed amphipods
7/6/08Day 20All hatchlings fed pods found elsewhere in the system
7/7/08Day 21`Hatchling #13 discovered in the cube to the right of the female, in the afternoon, at the water air boundry.
7/8/08Day 22Hatchling #14 and #15 discovered in the cube to the right of the female, in the afternoon, at the water air boundry.
Hatchling # 16 discovered in the females cube, on a piece of tubing on the substrate.
7/9/08Day 23Discovered hatchling #17 in the females cube on the right side.
At 11:30 the female was completely out of her den, on the other side of the cube. The den still contained 5-7 maturing eggs.
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Eggs in the den​
7/10/08Day 24Hatchling # 17 is being kept in a polyweld fiter 'sock'. This morning it was about an inch above the waterline, dried and stuck to the polyweld. After weting, it was still alive and I was able to get it back into the water where it looks ok.
Discovered hatchling #18 in the cube to the right of the female, on the front glass in the afternoon.
Discovered hatchling #19 in the cube to the right of the female, in the afternoon, hiding in the screed that seperates the cubes.
Discovered hatchling #20 in the cube to the right of the female, on the front glass in the afternoon.
7/11/08Day 25Discovered hatchling #21 and #22 in the cube to the right of the female, on the front glass in the afternoon.
Hatchlings # 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 , 21, ane 22 went to Roy Caldwell's lab. During packing hatchling #17 inked a pseudomorph.
All adults fed thawed frozen shrimp. The female did not leave her den.
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Hatchling #17 inks a pseudomorph​
7/12/08Day 26Discovered hatchling #23, at 1am, in the cube to the left of the female, on the side glass which was lit by LED's. Attraction to light?
7/13/08Day 27Female was completely out of her den, and there were no eggs left in the den.
All hatchlings fed Tigger Pods
7/14/08Day 28Discovered hatchling #24, at 1am, in the cube to the left of the female, on the side glass which was lit by LED's. Must be a straggler hatchling that was hanging out somewhere in the system.
All hatchlings fed pods from elsewhere in the system.
Hatchling # 10 found dead and dried above the water line.
7/15/08Day 29Adult coloring seems established.
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Hatchling #1
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Hatchling # 1 with adult coloration​
7/16/08Day 30Hatchling # 14 found dead.
7/17/08Day 31Hatchling #23 found dead, dried above the water line.
#1, #2 , #13 and #22 ate amphipods immediately as they were added to their tanks.
Adults fed, male #2 moved very quickly out of its den to grab the shrimp.
Roy reports success with #4 living in a calcareous tube from a tube worm. I added: black tubing and calcareous tube with # 22, black tubing and snail shell with #2, black tubing with # 24, black tubing and calcareous tube with # 12, calcareous tube with # 13, and small barnacle and calcareous tube with #1. #24 denned in the black tubing within minutes of it being added.
9/9/08Day 856 left from the first clutch, and 20 or so from the second.
Here is hatchling # 15 from the first clutch at 85 days
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Original publish date
Jan 2, 2009
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About the Author
Thales
Richard currently works as an Aquatic Biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium in the California Academy of Sciences, maintaining many exhibits including the 212,000 gallon Phipipine Coral Reef. He has kept saltwater animals for over 25 years, and has worked in aquarium maintenance, retail, wholesale and has consulted for a coral farm/fish collecting station in the South Pacific. Richard enjoys all aspects of the aquarium hobby and is a regular author for trade publications, a frequent speaker at aquarium conferences and was a founder of one of the largest and most progressive reef clubs in Northern California, Bay Area Reefers. He is an avid underwater videographer and has been fortunate to scuba dive all over the world. At home he maintains a 300 gallon reef system and a 250 gallon cephalopod breeding system, and was one of the first people to close the life cycle of Sepia bandensis. When not doing all that stuff, he enjoys spending time with his patient wife, his incredible daughter and their menagerie of animals, both wet and dry.

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