O. bimaculoides babies; one month old today!

[Cryp_Sis]

01/17/08 Since No.s 2 and 4 are eating everything I put in front of them, and to increase the chances of no.s 1 and 3 catching shrimp when I am not around, I add 15-20 shrimp to each baby’s tank. Within minutes No. 4 has caught so many in her web she is barely able to move; she only has the very tips of her arms free, while the rest grip a huge ball of shrimp. I hope Octopuses don’t get indigestion!
No. 3 hunts down a shrimp by herself, so I have to assume she is doing okay.

01/19/08 There are still a lot of live shrimp left in no.3’s tank, so I offer her a shrimp between the forceps. If I gently touch the shrimp to her suckers, she will take it from the forceps. She refuses a second shrimp though. I don’t see no. 2 hunt, but there is only one live shrimp left from yesterday, so I assume she is eating okay when I am not around.

01/20/08 I hand- feed No. 3 two live shrimp with forceps, as on 01/19. She refuses a third. If nothing else my reflexes have improved (catching a live mysid between forceps is not easy!). All the others take at least one shrimp by hunting them down, and I also hand-feed no. 1 two shrimp (I am going to end up with some extremely spoilt babies, aren’t I?). None of the babies is hunting as actively as they were last week. Maybe they are just approaching satiation? I did give them an awful lot of food over the weekend!

 

[Cryp_Sis]

Not to be demanding, but could you share some pictures of you set up?

Here you are. It's my lab I'm afraid, rather than a home aquarium, so NOT pretty (but is is functional!). The first is an overview of the tanks on the shelves. The second focusses on the lower tank (water conditioning tank) and the third is a close-up of the baby tanks within the water conditioning tank.
I will post baby pictures tonight, I promise. They are on my home computer, not at work.

 

[Cryp_Sis]

Okay, just to test the image size.
This is my first hatchling. There is an out-of-focus penny in the foreground for scale.

 

[Cryp_Sis]

Here are two photos a friend of mine took on day two, followed by two pictures of week-old babies

 

[Cryp_Sis]

And finally (for now) a close-up of a ten-day baby showing all the chromatophores she has developed, plus the first adult-like hunting posture.
I must get some more up-to-date photos. My boyfriend rented a macro lens for his camera for the above photos; well worth the $16 a day!

 

[Animal Mother]

Awesome.

 

[monty]

great shots, and great work! Thanks for the detailed reports.

 

[bluespotocto]

Wow that is so cool! Wait are you allowed to sell the babies?

 

[Cryp_Sis]

01/21/09 I hand-feed no. 3 two shrimp but she drops the second before finishing it and cannot be persuaded to take any more. She is very obviously smaller than her siblings.

01/22/09 No.3 has hunted down a shrimp by herself! I didn’t see it happen, but she clearly has a shrimp in her web that I did not give her. I don’t want to disturb her feeding so I don’t try to hand-feed her until the shrimp has completely gone. She refuses any more by hand though. No. 1 also catches a couple of shrimp after I hand-feed her one.

01/24/09 No. 3 refuses a shrimp four times before eventually taking it. She drops half of it without eating it though, and won’t take any more. I’m pretty worried about her.

01/25/09 Unfortunately no. 3 died overnight. I really feel I did the best I could by hand-feeding her, but it is still very disheartening. At least the other three all hunted down several shrimp while I was watching.
Here are some more photos.

 

[Cryp_Sis]

Wait are you allowed to sell the babies?

I have no idea about what is required in terms of selling the babies I'm afraid. My plan is to keep as many as survive to adulthood (I have the capacity for all three of them until they are quite a bit bigger, and can easily incorporate another tank in my system after that) but just at present I am pretty pessimistic about any of them making it. With only 3 left the odds are not really in my favour. Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm though. If anyone has any idea what I might be doing wrong to have lost 8 out of 11, suggestions would be very welcome.
Thanks,
Lene.