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My octo just laid eggs

zooom101

Pygmy Octopus
Registered
Joined
Dec 18, 2003
Messages
7
Hey guys,
I have posted here before. It was maybe a year ago when I had my first octopus. But, he is gone now and I have another.
I've only had her about 3 weeks. Since I've had her, she's been a lot more secluded than my last octopus. She hides between some rocks all day, and only comes out at night to eat(I guess she eats at night, the shrimp I put in there seem to keep disappearing.) But, just ten minutes ago I noticed that hanging from the rock she is always in are little eggs. They're about 1cm long and are shaped like teardrops.
I know that octo's dont live long after the lay eggs. Can these eggs be raised by me in the tank that I have her in right now? Or, should I try and remove them. Also, I put two damsels in her tank two days ago before I knew about the eggs. Will they try and eat the eggs? Or is it ok for them to stay in there?
I really dont have much information to go by when it comes to rearing baby octo's. Any suggestions would be a great help.
 
zooom101 said:
Hey guys,
I have posted here before. It was maybe a year ago when I had my first octopus. But, he is gone now and I have another.
I've only had her about 3 weeks. Since I've had her, she's been a lot more secluded than my last octopus. She hides between some rocks all day, and only comes out at night to eat(I guess she eats at night, the shrimp I put in there seem to keep disappearing.) But, just ten minutes ago I noticed that hanging from the rock she is always in are little eggs. They're about 1cm long and are shaped like teardrops.
I know that octo's dont live long after the lay eggs. Can these eggs be raised by me in the tank that I have her in right now? Or, should I try and remove them. Also, I put two damsels in her tank two days ago before I knew about the eggs. Will they try and eat the eggs? Or is it ok for them to stay in there?
I really dont have much information to go by when it comes to rearing baby octo's. Any suggestions would be a great help.


Congratulations!! (I think!)

I think I am in the same boat as you -- how did you see the eggs? My octopus was sold as joubini and is reddish and was rather large, and has basically made a den and only came out at total night to eat. Lately I'm not even sure she has been coming out at night.. but its hard to say. I DO see her in there, just her eye most of the time and one tentacle or so. I think she is/has laid eggs, but I have no idea how to tell since she doesn't leave and the place is really blocked in. How'd it happen for you? What species of octopus did you have?

I'd be afraid of the shrimp more than the damsels, I think.. whether or not you could raise the eggs would depend on the species. It's never easy, but some are more realistically possible than others. Braerious (if you spell it right) seems to be possible, as Nancy has had success, but many others are not feasible.

Robert
 
Well, the way I have my tank setup, I have two very large rocks in the center sitting on top of each other with other smaller rocks on either side. There is a large space/cave between the two large rocks. Once the octo found that cave, she hasn't left it. I've never seen her actually come out.


Until recently she was eating fine. Yesterday I noticed that she didn't eat all of a piece of fish that I gave her. She maybe ate half of it. So, I think that might have something to do with her eggs.

I have no idea what species she is. My LFS doesn't know anything about octopuses. It was ordered under the name "dwarf octopus."


I really have no idea what to do. I'm kinda scared about the damsel because its a pain to get it out of there without disrupting the rocks that the octo is in. I dont think that the shrimp will disrupt the eggs as long as mama octopus is there.


If it is possible, I would like to make my best effort to try and raise them.

Any help is greatly appreciated,
Billy
 
I'd be pretty worried about the damsels, if they don't bother the eggs now, they might prey on the born octos, shrimp might also do the same.

How big is your octo now? If the octo is a large egg species like bimacs or briaerius it would be alot easier to raise. On the other hand, if its a small egg species, the young will be planktonic and really hard to care for. If you plan on raising them, be sure your tank has lots of rotifers, copepods and amphipods.

Also, check if the eggs are fertile, as time goes by, if you see black dots in the eggs it means they are developing (I'm not sure if this applies for small egg species though).
 
There are a lot of recent posts about octo eggs and hatchlings in this forum and maybe also under Octopus Q&A

An egg one cm long would probably be a "large" egg and the hatchlings easier to raise. You could leave them where they are and let her take care of them.

This is the time of year for egg laying - sometimes people are successful at raising the hatchlings.

Good luck to you both!

Nancy
 
I would definately be worried about the damsels,not so much goin after the eggs but more on feeding on the little ones after they have hatched.I'm supprised the shrimp are still around.I put 2 peppermint shrimp and 3 damsels in my tank before I knew there were eggs and the shrimp did not last 30 seconds but I ended up having to take the damsels out because she would not eat them. I think it was about 3 weeks into it or so when i finally notice the little black dots and new that they were fertile.I had about 60-70 hatch last week and I gave about half of them to people to try to raise and am leaving the ones i have left in with mama to see what happens.I have quite a bit of live rock in the tank and a couple of days after they hatched they all diappeared into the rock and have not seen them since.As far as feeding goes,after mine layed eggs she cut way down on eating frozen food so I feed her crawdads now to and she will gobble them up fast.I heard that they were nutritious for them,but just incase they are not I buy a couple dozen at a time and feed them vitamin supplemented foods.Congrats and good luck..........
 

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