Breeding Octopus for school (education) and consumption

[Mullos]

Our school runs aquaculture technology as a course. We are investigating Octopus as a species that we may eventually breed and 'grow out' for education and school, student and family consumption. I can't find any information on breeding and growing Octopus in such a setting. Can anybody help? Where do all those BBQ'd, marinated 'baby octopus' come from? Are they farmed or harvested from the wild?

 

[Colin]

Hi Mullos, welcome to TONMO.com

nice project to try but i imagine it will be pretty tricky.

So far, it really hasn't proven to be easy in aquaculturing octopuses on a large scale. From time to time octopuses lay eggs in captivity and less frequently they are reared to a larger size but its not easy. As far as i know, noone is curently farming cephalopods for these reasons. Although in the US there are facilities like the NRCC who breed and catch cephs for research purposes.

I imagine that the expense of feeding the young ones is part of the problem. Many octopuses lay very small eggs and their paralarvae drift in the plankton for days to weeks before finally settling to a benthic life.

Yes, all the octopuses eaten by people will be wild caught, which is a very good reason why projects like the one you are considering should be investigated.

colin

 

[Mullos]

Sustaining Octopus for the future

Thanks Colin
Makes the whole issue a lot clearer. It's a challenge and a great place to start! School returns in Australia in late January. So I have time to work out where we can start. We have applied for a licence to collect 'undersized' fish species, I will check if I need a special licence to collect octopus. It's no joke that tonnes of baby octopus are sold each day and the resource must be managed otherwise...
NSW Fisheries has some very interesting projects running quite close to us at Nelson Bay. I have approached them on other issues and will contact them regarding Octopus. The other postings and sites have given me some valuable info on creating the prefered environment for octopus.
Mullos

 

[Colin]

I wonder if they ever get gravid females and could offer you a festoon or two of eggs to try and hatch and rear?

 

[Major Mess]

Hi

Though this thread is really old, i´d really like to know if the project was a success ! Did it work?

I could not find any information about commercial aquaculturing of cephs in the web, do you know anything about it?

Greetings