O. bimaculoides Eggs

[spk]

Folks,
Please can you help. I am doing some volunteer work with a local aquarium in the UK and we have an O. Bimaculoides Octopus, that has kindly laid some eggs.

I will start a log shortly on this thread, to keep you all updated, but was wondering if there are any of you that have some detail on the changes that occur within the eggs themselves.

It would be good to see if we can track the development changes and alos give us some indication as to them being fertile or not.

She is captive caught, and has no suitors to date that we are aware of. We are hoping that she has collect a sperm parcel from the wild, but like all things cannot be sure.

Thanks in advance
Steve

 

[devi]

There's some info about eggs of a different species (o.briareus) over here - Mama Cass p10
But it seems to hold true for large egg species I believe? Someone will correct me if I'm wrong I'm sure!
What aquarium are you at? And is the octo on show with the eggs? I'm in the UK and worked at an aquarium for a short while.

 

[spk]

Hi there,
yes the Octo is on show and she is still very visible, lookng after her eggs.
I am at the Chessington Seal Life centre and am there most Saturdays.

Thanks for the information will have a look and see what is what.

 

[CaptFish]

to TONMO

Thanks for sharing the experience.

If the eggs are viable they will develop two little black eye-spots.

 

[DWhatley]

I did an egg stage photo for Kooah's eggs (but have not done one for Cassy's yet) that you can find here(click on the photo to enlarge it). If you read the parts either journal at the time of egg discovery, you will notice me looking for those little black spot for the eyes. Initially, they are not always visible so you need to watch patiently in the beginning. Cassy's egg photos are a bit clearer nearer the hatching and I still have some to post but the ones that are there are marked with the number of days since being laid.

How long has she been in captivity? 4 months is thought to be pretty much the longest time that prior mating will produce fertile eggs. My first O. mercatoris was in the aquarium for that amount of time and only produced 6 eggs but 5 survived. The one partially journaled bimac produce roughly 100 hatchlings and over half survived. My luck with O. briareus has not been high. From the over 50 hatchlings from Kooah (wild mated) only two survived. It does not appear that any of the 17 viable eggs from that tank pairing have lived more than a couple of days.