Look at O. digueti. I think the sizing and the eye papillae are a better match but would mean that she came from Southern California or Mexico.
I see no suggestion of a hectocotylus so agree with your feminine pronoun. At the end of her natural life, she will lay and brood eggs even if she has not mated. However, she appears old enough to have mated so you may have to opportunity to see eggs hatch and potentially raise one or two hatchlings. The chances of raising them are slim, regardless of egg size, A few dwarfs lay larger eggs that are not pelagic so the adventure will be interesting and I hope you will journal the full experience.
Thank You for all of Your answers and patience with My questioning. Hopefully She Will be around a little longer. I have already had Her for almost a Month now
There is one, Ameloctopus litoralis that is well known to do this but there are others that appear to have a similar construct on their arms and there is anecdotal evidence that it is not an uncommon event. All octopuses can regrow their arms and often loose parts of them while foraging.
If you can, use a zoom lens and photo them daily/every other day to watch for changes. If they are fertile, you will start to see a pair of black spots (eventually the eyes).
Thank You for all of Your help. Ok so here is the next question. I have done a lot of reading here and from what I have gathered, I have a large Egged Species and need to know how to care for Benthic Hatchlings in the event They are Fertile.
The biggest hurdle will be to get (and keep) them eating. Expect to lose most of them (even in nature, few make it past the hatchling stage). Feel free to try any small foods EXCEPT brine shrimp. We have found that both octo and cuttle hatchlings appear to eat the brine shrimp but fail to survive due to the inadequate nutrition (this includes enriched brine). Shore shrimp make good second foods but initial foods are difficult to define (I used frozen Cyclop-eze for the mercs and briareus but it is no longer available). I think I would try various frozen several times a day in addition to live mysid shrimp. If you separate the hatchlings into smaller containers, use the water from the main tank for initialization and water changes (vs not newly created water) as it appears that massive deaths occur after a water change.
It has been a l o n g time since I have attempted hatchlings but here is my journal for my attempt (2 successful to adult) with O. briareus. If you scan the Cephalopod journals until you see a prefix of Octopus Eggs and then click on the green prefix, a list of other egg hatching attempts will be displayed. Unfortunately, the prefixes are incomplete so you might also try searching for hatchlings or babies for other journaled methods.
How small are the eggs (give an example - like pea, grape seed, grain of rice - as people are miserable at guestimating small sizes)? It is hard to get an idea of size from the photo.
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