My New Baby

[Old Dog]

In May I collected a Fitch's pygmy octopus (O. fitchii) on a trip to the Sea of Cortez. I found her hiding inside a clamshell from which she was very reluctant to leave. A few days after getting her home, I discovered that she had a clutch of eggs in each half of the shell. She had also lain a clutch in a temporary aquarium while I was setting up her permanent home. Sadly, she died a couple of weeks ago, so I removed all other animals from the aquarium and placed the shell between the filter and aerator to keep water and air passing over them. Sunday morning, I was rewarded when a little speck on the side of the glass turned out to be a baby octopus (and a cute little son of a Fitch, he is!) I've only seen him swimming about a few times and I've not seen any other little ones. Does anyone know if these little guys eat their siblings while still in the eggcase? I'd hoped to have a couple survive so I could give one to my daughter and take another to the college aquarium.

Ray

 

[clownfish]

wow, that is cool you should talk to Nancy or cheak out the ceph care on the top tool bar that will help. oh ya the will eat each other but if you kep them in seporate containers thay can remember they can get stuck in the air hose.

 

[cthulhu77]

Have reared quite a few of the little O. digueti from rocky point, and yep, they did eat each other with relish ! In a big enough tank, with a fair amount of small food though, you should be ok...Aquarium Arts (on baseline, just east of dobson ) has live rock that you can get with all kinds of little octo food bits on them...if you can, get the uncultured rock...more of the small stuff.

Pics?

greg

 

[Nancy]

Eggs hatch over a period of time (at least a couple of days) and not all at once. Some could have hatched when you weren't watching. The hatchlings have a way of disappearing, if you have live rock and places to hide, so more may show up.

This is a large egg species, so you have a chance at raising the young. You'll need lots of small food (like amphipods) - Greg has a good suggestion about the rock.

Nancy

 

[Old Dog]

The sand and rocks in the aquarium were all brought from Cholla Bay within a hundred yards of where the mother was found. I've been dropping a cube of frozen brine shrimp into the tank every day. Also, I wrapped cheesecloth around the filter intake and I've been cleaning it off every day.

 

[cthulhu77]

the brine shrimp you can do without...they have almost zero nutritional value...get some uncured rock about once a week or so, and you should be fine (and it's cheap !!! )
good luck, fellow Zoni !

greg