Cephalopods have an incredibly high food to biomass conversion rates - especially for protein. In other words, they are very good at turning what they eat into growth. They have fast life spans and high growth rates - these two traits make them an excellent candidate for commercial aquaculture. . . so far so good. . .
But they have other traits that make commercial rearing of them difficult.
The challenge for commercial rearing of cephalopods isn't getting the eggs to hatch. This is easily done by leaving them with the mother - the best option. However, they can also be raised artificially much like one would do for cichlid eggs. TONMO members that are interested in raising their ceph eggs may want to remove some of them and raise them at a colder temperature. One of the challenges with raising octopuses is that most people only get one shot at it. By separating some of the eggs and slowing down their development, you can give yourself a chance to learn from the first hatch and give yourself a second chance if things go wrong.
So what are the challenges?
One challenge is what to feed the hatchlings. Live food is required. Live mysid shrimp and amphipods work well, but they often cost more than the octopuses they are being fed to. Curstacean meat is worth more than octopus meat. Mysids often sell for 8 cents each which doesn't sound like much but really is. At the Aquarium of the Pacific our Mysid bill for our seadragosn was 6 figures. There is currently no simple frozen or prepared diet that can be fed to hatchling cephalopods.
Another challenge is that the small egged species have planktonic larvae. While these species are more prolific, their offspring are much smaller and a lot harder to raise in captivity. While I have raised a number of large egged species, including a deep-sea species, I have not raised any planktonic species. I can and has been done, but it ain't easy.
For experiments, I second the suggestion an unfed control. Hatchlings will live for some time, perhaps a week, on their reserves. A control gives experiments something meaningful to compare to.
James