horridus? eggs

[J.Scott]

My unidentified long arm species (horridus complex?) laid eggs almost 3 weeks ago.
Unfortunately, it has laid them under a huge rock weighing about 10kg, it has then gathered as many shells, bits of gravel, etc and heaped them round the rock. This makes getting any pics impossible without disturbing it. I have had a quick peak twice to check the eggs progress, and managed to snatch a couple of photos.
It looks like they they will be hatching soon, I know they are planktonic, which complicates things a bit. Anyway, I'm always up for a challenge and have set up several bare unfltered 15 gal tanks for rearing (hopefully).
I have access to some tiny copepods, and possibly some shrimp zoeae.
But, I was going to try newly hatched brineshrimp, if the paralarvae are 1-2mm, I think they may be able to manage these. Any advice?

J.Scott

 

[maractwin]

I didn't have success attempting to raise inklings from similar eggs.

Right before our eggs hatched, they turned opalescent (kind of pearly-grey colored). Though your "18 days" picture is starting to look like that. Ours took 28 days to hatch with the temperature between 74 & 80 degrees (we aimed for the cooler side of that range, but it turned hot outside and we don't have a strong enough air conditioner to keep up).

From my reading, no one has been successful with brine shrimp naupuli. I'd recommend the copepods and shrimp zoeae.

Please keep us informed how this goes.

-Mark

 

[J.Scott]

A few hatched today(20 days) their bigger than I thought, about 2mm. Although these have dissapeared, they can be hard to spot in a 100 gal tank! I'm expecting to see quite a few more when I go into the office tommorow. I hope!
The rearing tanks are ready to go. I found another article on Cephbase(6819) for rearing vulgaris with enriched artemia nauplii. But I'll try a variety of foods, so wish me luck.

J.Scott

 

[corw314]

LOTS of LUCK!!!!!! That is soooo exciting!! How long have you had your octo?


Carol

 

[Colin]

GOOD LUCK

 

[J.Scott]

I have had this Octopus since May 19th, it laid eggs exactly one month later. The eggs have taken 21 days to hatch, most hatching today, 10th July.
Although they only hatched today and are mainly free swimming, they are eating already!

Thanks for the support

J.Scott

 

[corw314]

Any news on the babies?

Carol

 

[J.Scott]

I've not been online much lately, hence the lack of info.
I did get the larvae eating, watching them eat very newly hatched artemia was a real buzz. Interestingly, the larvae were able to change colour, and were seen to fight/chase each other on oaccasions.

After 4 days they started to die in all the aquariums, and by the end of day five they had all died. despite my best efforts.
I have another horridus, that laid eggs about a week ago, so it looks like I'll be luck enough to have another try.

J.Scott

 

[Colin]

heh, best of luck again!!!

 

[joel_ang]

Wish you all the best !!

 

[corw314]

LUCK!!!!!!!!!

Did you get any pictures of the other babies???

Carol

 

[J.Scott]

Well my second batch of hatchlings hatched about a week before I expected. My food sources were not ready in time. Again, I kept them up until day 5. Many seem to go opaque before death, I'm guessing this could be some type of bacterial problem.
Anyway, attached is a picture of some hatchlings about 12 hours old that were caught from the main aquarium with a pipette. They seem to hatch about 30 mins after lights out.

J Scott