i have 5 large aquariums, several of which are plumbed together. they are 250,130,125,125,55g. also several 30g. there are about40 bimacs left from my initial 100 or so. the rest have been sent around the country. recognizing mating now makes me suspect that this is not an isolated event.i suspect that soon all the females will have spermatophores to be (hopefully) used for future use. all of the larger tanks have at least 6 animals. i hope to have a complete lifecycle occur in my system. i have found that this species ,given adequate or readily availabe food and enough dens, more than tolerates conspecifics. if there was any cannabaliism it was very rare. of course for the first 3 months they were all isolated. i dont see any true territorial behavior. are they asocial? well some seem to compete with each other for my attention. maybe raised in captivity they dont have the usual concerns of wild ones- they seem to make great pets.i would make the analogy of parrots. we breed macaws and a handfed baby will reciprocate a love that a wild caught adult will never be able to come close to ,not in a million years. they think they are more human than bird. i wouldn't say the octopuses have come that far, but they are fun. i cant wait for the june issue of TFH. the 2 bimacs pictured are among the very smallest.i would say mantle length is 2in. they are 3 in that tank kept at room temp. most are in chilled tanks. the size range is tremendous. some are easily more than twice that size. i was looking at the mother(in formalin) and noted that some are bigger than she was. they were born the week of august 5,2006. i'll be off to college in the fall but my dad will pick up the 'project' so he will keep everybody informed. Zy
prawnography! 
. We expect to be able to acquire a chiller by the time this generation is ready.
