capt. ahab has eggs... and it wasnt me

[joefish84]

well ahab has had been doing some remodeling and cleaning of the den lately and i couldnt figure out what was going on... well tonight at about 130 i go into the kitchen to check on the octo and i look under the tank where ive been able to see it through the cleaned out gravel with a flashlight and low and behold there are a few strands of eggs and she is in the process of laying more... right now each egg is probably a millimeter long and round. im guessing that they will elongate and get larger over the next few days. i need to make a call to my friend and get a pack of reef bugs sent to me so that there is a large copepod population in the tank within a few weeks.also im gonna need some reccomendations on blocking off my overflow box and wether or not i should take out the 802 powerhead. also should i try and catch the 2 cardinals and the lawnmower blenny or not worry about them and just keep them well fed enough that they wont be intersted in baby octos... anyway just trying to plan this out in advance. any advice would be great... oh yeah ive also got a few extra small aquariums that i could set up and use to try seperating some of the babys and raising them individually but for the most part im gonna just try the survival of the fittest stratigy and let them just attempt to survive in the 125. just double checking on my biology... briareus(which is what i think i have), are large egg species that hatch benthic young, correct?

 

[DHyslop]

Briareus eggs should be 10-14 mm long and 4-5 mm wide. Those eggs would have to grow real big real fast to be Briareus! If they ultimately are you can expect hatching in 50-80 days at 19-25 degrees C.

Otherwise, if they're planktonic (more likely) you're pretty much out of luck unless you want to go hard-core and build a Kriesel!

Dan

 

[joefish84]

i thought large egg species were eggs 1 -5 mm long... 10+ is like half an inch...

 

[DHyslop]

The large eggs measure 10 - 14 mm long and 4 - 5 mm wide, with a stalk 5 - 10 mm long. The stalks of seven to 34 eggs (mean 25) were intertwined onto a central strand 8 - 10 cm long that was attached by the female to the substratum.

Hanlon and Wolterding, 1989, Behavior, body patterning, growth and life history of Octopus briareus cultured in the laboratory. American Malacological Bulletin, (7) 1

Bimac eggs are roughly the same size.

Dan

 

[joefish84]

ok

heres a pic of what ahab looked like when i got her and was acclimating her. and you can tell from the other pics what she generally looks like. think you could give me a positive id?

 

[joefish84]

heres the eggs freshly laid.

 

[Nancy]

The reason no one has given you a positive ID is that no one can tell for sure. It's often difficult even for marine biologists working with octos, although it's easier if you see the octopus rather than just photos.

It was easy when we could buy from Octopets - we knew what we were getting. An octo can look something like a briareus, for instance, but not be a briareus.

My guess is you don't have a briareus, if the eggs are that small. (The egg size is one of the identifying features of an octopus. )

Sorry that ahab has proceeded to egg laying so soon. You seem well set up to raise hatchlings from larger eggs. Hope you get an opportunity to do this next time.

Nancy

 

[Nancy]

Interesting pic - usually we can't see into dens!

Don't give up yet, until we fully determine whether these are large or small eggs.

Nancy

 

[Nancy]

Are the eggs in strands? - this isn't apparent from the pic.

Nancy

 

[joefish84]

ok ive been doing some research and i think i found out what species i have... its a briareus wanna be called OCTOPUS ALECTO... if anyone can give me more info on this species and let me know if its a large egg or small i would greatly appreciate it

 

[joefish84]

yeah theyre in strands