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Nervous mother to be....

delosa

O. vulgaris
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Apr 27, 2007
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76
I came home this morning to find Oscar laid eggs. First conclusion I came to was Oscar is a girl. My second thought was, what do I do now.

She is an o. filosus I got from saltwater.com. She laid the eggs in the live rock but pretty much out in the open so I can see them.

They are small so I guess there is no hope of raising any babies. I'm sad to know the end is near for Oscar and I'm helpless as far as the babies are concerned.

I took a quick picture so I could post it.
 

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Can you see little octopuses in the eggs? Sometimes females will lay eggs toward the end of their life it they are fertile or not. I would buy a breeder net or 2, wait for the eggs to hatch, and then see if you can put any of the little octos into the breeder. Net all intakes and outtakes so if they aren't benthic you have a chance at raising them and they don't all get sucked in to the filter. Oscar probably won't take food anymore. dwhatley had success feeding his Mercatoris cyclop-eeze during and after brooding. You could try that, but O. Filosus is not a dwarf and I don't think they filter feed like O. Mercatoris do. Good picture, try to get a close-up of the eggs if you have a good macro mode.
 
I can't get a closer picture yet. Oscar has all the eggs covered, but I will try to get one soon.

Does anyone know how long it takes the eggs to hatch?
 
If she really is O. filosus, the eggs are small (please estimate how big the eggs are) and the young will be planktonic, so you won't be able to raise them. Sorry....

Nancy
 
delosa,
You might want to give the cyclop-eeze a shot (frozen only, not the dried). I fear shipposhack is right about the Mercs naturally filter feeding and other may not at all (Jean, however, noted that some squid stomachs showed signs of it). I wasn't trying to feed the mother when I discovered she would eat it though. I was feeding the babies and noticed her actively putting her arms out of the den when I would feed. There is another thing you might try though. Trapper stopped taking live food on an air tube about mid-way through the brooding cycle. I found that she would take freshly killed dead crab and later freshly killed shrimp (I found that the freezer works well for this, just don't fully freeze them). I gut loaded the shrimp with some Tetracycline in attempt to ward off skin infection. I don't know if the gut loading made a difference but she lived 11 weeks after the babies were born and never seemed to be suffering (how can you tell for sure?). When she died she seemed just tired out and had almost no strength but would crawl onto my hand when I offered it as if the softness of skin was more comfortable than the rock. Good luck, any innovation you try with the new hatch is worth mentioning, for better or the expected.
 
shipposhack;99690 said:
dwhatley had success feeding his Mercatoris cyclop-eeze during and after brooding.

There ya go Monty :hmm: Surely Trapper LOOKs femanine even if I don't. Of course there is always AnimalMother to confuse the whole issue
 
She has the eggs covered up again so I can't see them. I would say the eggs are the size of a think piece of rice. They are solid white and I don't see any signs of life.
 
dwhatley;99718 said:
shipposhack;99690 said:
dwhatley had success feeding his Mercatoris cyclop-eeze during and after brooding.

There ya go Monty :hmm: Surely Trapper LOOKs femanine even if I don't. Of course there is always AnimalMother to confuse the whole issue

Haha, yeah but if you know the original reference, it's not that confusing :sagrin:
 
Shipposhack,
Actually that was good timing because of a recent discussion (wish Tony would add the devil's advocate smiley I made specifically for Monty)

Animal Mother,
I was always curious but am now afraid to ask
 

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dwhatley;99741 said:
Shipposhack,
Actually that was good timing because of a recent discussion (wish Tony would add the devil's advocate smiley I made specifically for Monty)

Animal Mother,
I was always curious but am now afraid to ask

Full Metal Jacket originally, but I fostered wildlife at home when I worked at a local animal shelter so that was the nickname given to me by my roommate.

Any good news Delosa? Too soon to ask probably.
 
Nothing yet. She laid the eggs on the side of a piece of live rock so I can see the eggs really well. I just wish I knew how long it is going to take for the eggs to hatch.
 
Not having seen Full Metal Jacket (for numerous reasons) I am not familiar with the character but did a quick search and found a more interesting reference:

“Animal Mother” in Joseph Campbell’s Primitive Mythology, which quotes a Siberian informant: “Every shaman must have an animal-mother or origin mother. It is usually pictured in the form of an elk, less often as a bear. The animal lives independently, separated from the shaman. Perhaps it can best be imagined as the fiery force of the shaman that flies over the earth.” According to another source, “it is the embodiment of the prophetic gift of the shaman; it is the shaman’s visionary power, which is able to penetrate the past and future.”

You can have your thread back now, delosa :oops: sorry for the sidebar
 

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