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How to set my lights for octopus tank?

Thanks for your answers

the Octopus seemed to like the spot were she layed the eggs.
I belive the eggs were layed in back glass of dt that is black and they fell down.
I still see some eggs attached to the back black glass.
you can see some black dots in some of the eggs.
the thing is that octopus is not beside the eggs now, octopus is hidden in dark cave while eggs are in visible corner of dt. does this mean anything'?
octopus accepted food yesterday and also 1 hour ago so she is eating.
This photo shows the corner of dt were eggs were layed. it was a regular spot of the octo even though it was not hidden
corner with octo eggs.jpg

photo of some eggs still in back black glass
eggs in back glass.jpg

some of the eggs have some black spots
eggs with black spots.jpg

please tell me what you think?

thanks a lot
 
You can experiment. I think the eggs are too much in the open for her to tend them. I would suggest trying to make a dark cave around some of the eggs to see if she will explore and tend them. Alternately/additionally, you could try moving the eggs (or some of them) to her current den.

The black spots definitely suggest at least some of the eggs are fertile and are developing.
 
Thanks DWhatley

yesterday night we saw that she had a lot of eggs in the dark cave were she was staying (much more than in the corner) . We also saw that she came out to look for something and in her way to the cave she dropped the eggs. Today the eggs are not in the corner any more, she took them overnight.

you told me that the possibility to raise any of the hatchlings for more than a few days is dismally small, but I think at least I should try. can you give me some suggestions on how to do it?

I ordered the koralias but I have not recieved them and since babies are in the way I think I should not install them and just try to raise the new borns with the return pump flow as it it now?

how do I avoid the hatchling going to the overflow?

thanks a lot for your answer
 
I did not mean to dissuade you from trying but wanted to prepare you for what to expect. At this point the task is to enjoy the experience and maybe see how long you can manage to keep a few hatchling alive. If I remember correctly, the longest was 21 days and a few others achieved 2+ weeks but most instances have been less than a week. From memory (ie I have never gone back and verified this statistically), the animals that survived the longest were the ones left in the hatching tank. If you separate some out -- recommended, feel free to experiment, temperature, flow and food, I suggest using water from the primary tank and not freshly made water as anecdotal evidence suggest major die offs occur right after water changes.

That being said, the few successes in public aquariums have been attributed to food supply and explicitly, providing live crab zoea (hatchling crabs). Not having a supply of even frozen hatchling crabs, you can be creative with what you attempt to feed but keep in mind the tiny size. If you live near the ocean, a plankton tow (dragging a fine net over sea grasses in shallow areas) is likely to include something edible. For cuttlefish hatchlings, mysis shrimp are the most successful food and I have found these shrimp to feed well on frozen daphnia. Perhaps live daphnia would be eaten.

Here is a link to more discussions on hatchlings. It contains links to all the info I have been able to collect (and remembered to include) over the years.
 
Thanks a lot DWhatley,

the octopus stays all the time in her cave now.
is it because she is tendering the eggs?

there is a small portion of the eggs that is in a different spot, will this eggs also hatch or does she need to tender them?
I ask becuase I would like to clean detrietus but when doing some of the eggs with be sucked out, but if they are not going to hatch anyway it may be better to do the cleaning??

any suggestion on the material that I need to place in the overbox box to avoid the hatchlings going in overflow?


best regards
 
She will not tend the eggs outside the den so feel free to experiment. The one time I had this situation, the eggs simply disappeared, however, there was a serpent star in the tank and it may have eaten them.

Keeping the hatchlings out of the overflow is going to be difficult because they stay pelagic for over a month. If you put any kind of screening, including sponge (my normal recommendation) the hatchlings are so small that they will get trapped. What do you have in the sump where the overflow empties? If you can add a filter sock there, that might be the best choice and then check it every couple of days. I have an unproven theory that filter socks may be a good way to initially raise and feed hatchlings based on a single incident with a large egg species. I had developed a series of socks to receive overflow water but never had the opportunity to try the experiment. Other than that, I would recommend watching the sump and retrieving any that end up there vs trying to block the overflow.
 
Thanks DWhatley, I will not put anything to block the overflow as you suggest.
I can put two filter socks in sump so that everything that goes down passes through the filter socks. I have 2 types of socks, one that is finer than the other one, not sure wich one to put?

I have a couple of questions:
1.- I did not place the koralias in the tank becuase they may hurt the hatchling and just have the flow of the return pump, but there is some algae starting to grow on rocks. do you agree with not placing the koralias in tank?

2.- you said:" she will not tend the eggs outside the den". If she does NOT tend the eggs, does that mean that those eggs will not hatch? I ask becuase I am not familar with the process and do not not know if eggs hatch even if they are left alone and not tended but her.

thanks for the link, I will read it
 
I am not sure if we fully know all the things a mother octopus' egg attention accomplishes but it is thought that she keeps them algae free, keeps predators away and allows fresh oxygen to get to the inner part of the cluster. There does not appear to be an chemical process involved and eggs have been hatched without maternal care where the mother has died, experiments on egg hatching were being observed and in facilities for commercial reproduction. From what I know of these successful attempts, the only extra element added was a flow of water on the eggs. I don't know how strong the flow was but would expect it be strong enough to gently move the eggs without removing them from the substrate. There would be no harm in moving them into a separate space to experiment.
 
Thanks for your answer DWhatley,

something strange happened today.

The octopus moved a lot of eggs outside her den.
She still has eggs beside her inside the cave but she moved around half outside .
Her cave is beside the rock were she moved the eggs.

does it make any sense to you??
please lot at this photo, as you can see there is a mountain of eggs now. you can se a lot of back dots in the eggs.

lots of octo eggs.jpg

thanks a lot
 
This is not a behavior I have seen or heard about. @Neogonodactylus has mentioned that he has seen a female appear to eat or destroy infertile eggs but I don't know if she is able to detect eggs that have problems since you are seeing eyes in these.
 
DWhatley,

the octopus has continued to take out the eggs outside her den. not sure why but it is happening. also I am seeing more black dots in the eggs. please look at photos attached.
any comments??
more octo eggs.jpg

lots of black dots.jpg
 
No question about fertility, those dots are eyes. Can you tell if she still has a lot of eggs inside the den? Could she still be laying more and making room? The behavior has not been reported before so I have no good guesses as to what is going on other than that the eggs you are seeing are likely to continue to develop.
 
If I were to guess I would say that she layed just a little portion of the eggs there at the begining because she liked that placed for some reason and wanted to see if the eggs would be fine; since I did not touch the eggs and that little portion of the eggs was still there then she moved a big portion of the eggs to that place. Maybe she likes the flow there. In her cave I doubt there there is flow since I only have the flow from the return pumps becuase after I saw the eggs I did not place the koralias inside.

I will try to see if there are more eggs in her den and report back

now most of the eggs have eyes. does it mean soon they will hatch?
should I see any other change in the eggs before they hatch?
I could pulverize some coral food, and cyclopeze to see if they eat, but they will be so small there will be no way of knowing.

Thanks DWhatley
 
You should next see smaller red/brown dots on the body as the chromatophores develop. I am not sure if you will be able to see it but the hatchlings will flip twice within the egg. Here is a link to hatchlings of a large egged species that are a little farther along. Because yours are going hatch before they are fully formed (very short arms, very few chromatophores, much smaller and will be pelagic) you may not be able to see the arms and mantle direction but the development will be similar.

As I mentioned before, feel free to try most anything you can find to feed them as well as experimenting with environment. We don't have much in the way of positive results but try to enjoy the wonder and photograph as much as you can.
 

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