He is finally here!

[Lev]

After 10 months of waiting for a (healthy) octopus to appear, with an empty tank. Yesterday was the day. There it was in a little plastic container. The label read : "Octopus." The price was $89.99. I had a look at him, and he seemed extremely healthy. The LFS informed me that he hasn't inked once, and is already eating frozen foods. I bought him. I.D is in process. At first i though Mercatoris, but his mantle is about an inch and a half in length, much larger than any Mercatoris. He is about 3 and a half inches in diameter. He is red in colour. I will post pics soon, because it is bad luck to post pics on the first day (because every time I do that, the animal in question dies...) he is in my 45 Gallon Tank. I haven't tried feeding him yet.

 

[monty]

to your new octo!

 

[Lev]

She just laid eggs. Well, this sucks quite a bit. She is accepting frozen shrimp, though. I think it's a Mercatoris after all (albeit a large one.) Any hope of raising the young? I've raised peppermint shrimps before, and Almost raised Lysmata Amboinesis and Urocaridella Antonbrunii. Are these guys worth trying, or should i just give up?

 

[Animal Mother]

She just laid eggs. Well, this sucks quite a bit. She is accepting frozen shrimp, though. I think it's a Mercatoris after all (albeit a large one.) Any hope of raising the young? I've raised peppermint shrimps before, and Almost raised Lysmata Amboinesis and Urocaridella Antonbrunii. Are these guys worth trying, or should i just give up?

Sorry to hear about it happening so soon. That's a bummer.

If it is indeed a Mercatoris, it is a large egged species. Should be "relatively" easy if you have a source of tiny live food like pods and mysis shrimp and places to seperate them.

How large are the eggs?

 

[Lev]

About this big (vertical) [---] and about that wide as the bracket.

 

[Nancy]

Was just talking with someone in my LFS about their new offering, a jar of pod eggs and small creatures. This person had tried the product and said he had mysids within a few weeks, then amphipods. I believe Joefish tried a similar product with success.

This might be something for you to get soon if you want to try to raise the hatchlings. I believe those would be large eggs.

Nancy

 

[Lev]

I turned off the light, and she abandoned her post and began walking around the tank, hiding, like a normal octopus. She does not look pale. This is very strange indeed. She does not look (or act) like she's in senescence. She is pale, though, when she's near the eggs (the eggs are inside of a pale conch shell) Did she abandon her eggs? or is she going to get back to them later? if they are fertile I will try raising the larvae.

 

[Nancy]

There are some cases where the female lives beyond the her eggs hatching and continues on. Make sure you continue feeding her.

Nancy

 

[Lev]

Well, this morning she is sitting in a new burrow. She has taken a small piece of rock and is holding it at the opening. Did she abandon her original eggs, and lay more in her new burrow? The other burrow was rather more visible than the one she is in now, could that be the reason?

 

[Lev]

She is very eagerly taking live shrimps.

 

[Nancy]

That's good news!

Nancy

 

[William Tyson]

would it be possible for you to post pics of both the octo and the eggs?

 

[Lev]

I'll try.

 

[Indiana OCHO]

Nancy what is the name of the product you were talking about? I have eggs with babies I will need to feed. I was planning on ordering live and probably still will but I wouldn't mind having something else working too.

Good Luck with this one Lev. I hope she lives on and breaks the tradition.

 

[Animal Mother]

www.oceanpods.com might be helpful.