Jon,
I wish I knew but probably so. I think the food needs to be dense and very small if they are ignoring the pods (but not so dense that it hampers breathing) and is one reason I would worry about letting them loose in the tank (as well as hungry hardware). If you have air stones, air line, valves and pump handy, you might make an airline octopus to move the water or experiment with an airline in one container but not in the others.
I saw a post from Roy earlier so he is not likely to see your request for help tonight but he has, by far, the greatest amount of experience with both this octo and with raising hatchlings. You might try a private PM so that he will see it next login.