MEET 'octavia'!

[dawnchihuahua]

How adorable!!! I them!

 

[rcl]

They are doing great, it seems! I counted 27 of them a couple days ago, which is when they are maybe 1 week old or so? They seem to be getting larger!! I'm going to be feeding them some live brine shrimp starting tomorrow when these eggs hatch. That will be interesting I think, and good for them too! They like to eat food!

Lastnight octavia made a guest appearance by coming out of her den and crawling around some! This is the first time I had seen her since she was in the creature cup and I got her. Really cool, but I'm thinking that the end is probably near for her.....


Does anybody have any information on around what size/age the octo babies might become cannibalistic? I am considering making many small 'creature cages' for them, but I don't want to do it until it is neccessary because I feel that allowing them freedom gives them a much larger change of living. Also how old should they be before they are considered to be past the high-mortality zone? Any information on this?

Thanks for the positive comments everybody!

Robert

 

[Colin]

Hi robert, glad things are going ok

The could be cannabalistic right from the start, I'd suggest putting in as many cut pieces of 1" pvc tube as you can just now and a bunch of shells etc as hiding places until you have a number you can easily rear seperatly.

I agree that leaving them be just now is a good idea and that if they are all feeding well then they are past a large part of the high risk zone

keep it up

 

[Nancy]

Based on talks with people who have raised octo hatchlings and our TONMO experiences, I'm not sure there's ever a time when they're not cannabalistic! But having lots of hiding places as Colin suggests and plenty of food should make cannabalism less attractive.

You're doing very well! Keep us posted!

Nancy

 

[rcl]

Sry for leaving everyone hanging, I have been *ultra* busy recently

Sadly I think the babies have perished.... about 2 weeks ago I saw 2 of them dead in the sand and I saw a third one jetting around, and he stopped jetting and fell to the sand.. tank params seem to be fine, I'm thinking this might have been some kind of nutritional cutoff or something like that. I guess there could be more, but they sure are hiding if that's the case....

And (the real reason for the post), yesterday octavia was found after some brave rock lifting by myself. She was a good octopus and mother, and it's nice that she got to have a place to lay her eggs and rear her young! We will all remember her

(RIP octavia, Apr 29, 2005)

Robert