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OMG! Ossie gave birth

I can probably take a few more..I just made a mini housing complex and got some tige pods..

Im feeling a little lazy in driving over there though...When are you available?
 
We should be home most of the day today. Tomorrow, W'll be at home all day and I'll be home in the evening. On the 4th, things are up in the air because W. seems like she's about to get sick.

If you still have the box that I put the cups in, just cut out a similar size for how many you want. Otherwise, I might be able to recreate the set-up.

How are yours doing?
 
Bye Bye Babies

Well, in about two hours, 23-24 of the babies are going to Dr. Roy Caldwell's lab. Paradox has six of them, and Righty is taking five this coming weekend.

It looks like only 5 casualties so far, but I'm unable to determine if the rest has eaten the tigger pods or not. Everytime I think I see a tigger carcass, it moves after a while.

We'll probably do a water change this evening after the two dozen are gone.

I've been able to shoot a couple of movies, plus take a few photos. I will try and upload those as soon as I can. There's not much to see but what there is, is VERY VERY cute.

Ossie is very pale from what I can see. She flicked out a tentacle at me a few times today when I waved at her. I don't think she's eaten but there's plenty of food for her inside her tank.

One of the babies was so cute last night when I dripped a tigger pod into his cup. He turned red, then did a flip (it almost looked like it was turning itself inside out!). It stretched itself out to almost twice its size, then then started stalking the pod. Very cute.

Will update more if there's more news but at this time, i think it's just a matter of trying to get them to eat and not be afraid of the tigger pods.
 
Wow,

You have done an amazing job keeping the babies alive, it is usually the first couple of days that are the hardest. They are adorable as babies, it's hard to imagine something so small with a personality isn't it?
 
Thanks Cuttlegirl and yes! They already display personality. Most seem laid-back but two are showing signs of the same indignant entitlement to life that Ossie had.

The people from the lab came by and were surprised. They had thought that the babies were of the same species they had earlier this year; those were large-egged babies. Apparently, Ossie's a true Mercatoris and we have small-egged babies, which make them extremely hard to care for. They were surprised by the small casaulty rate (6 out of 42?). I asked them to keep me apprised of their well-being.
 
Photos of the Babies

Borrowed a friend's camera that has a macro setting on it and got some photos. These are two of the best, cropped. The orange thing floating above the baby in the 2nd photo is a tigger pod. These are clear plastic 10 oz tumblers we have them in; that's how small these cuties are.

babyocto2.jpg

babyocto1.jpg
 
Amazing! Amazingly small! I wasn't sure what I was supposed to look for in that video. I think I saw the little guy jetting across the cup in the second video, but at first I thought it was just some seabug or fleck of dust.

It will be interesting to see a photographic timeline of these guys as they grow.

Perhaps we should start a ophthalmology trust fund for ceph breeders.
 
Right now, I'm not holding out hope for these guys. Every time I check, they haven't eaten their tigger pods. I'm hoping there's microscopic stuff in the water that they're feeding on, which is accounting for their survival.

I'm wondering if I should try feeding them the stuff I've been feeding the pods. They do seem to perk up right after a water change... so should I shift their water changes to daily instead of every other day? So many questions...

And the thing is, I really feel like I can't experiment with these guys because I promised Righty 5 of them and he can't take them until this weekend. I just hope they survive until he gets them.

Paradox, any updates on yours?
 
I had 2 die, and Im not super hopeful of the other 2 as well. I just cant get them to eat anything. They have tiger pods and Plankton as food, but they still do not eat and eventually get weak and die.

i dont think theres much else I can try unless someone with real experience has any suggestions..

Mine are kept in a small modified tupperware and have constant circulation of water. My water is perfect with a temp ranging 75-79 degrees. Salinity at .025. My cuttles in the same system are thriving and begging for food as we speak.
 
We need to get more information from Dr. Caldwell's lab about how they're raising the hatchlings they took.

But, on one of my visits to the NRCC, I tried to find out as much as I could about how they fed their hatchlings. It was not enough that there was food present - new food had to be added several times a day. You have to interest the hatchlings in their food. Also, they have to have just exactly the right size of food. So adding a bit more food from time to time might help.

Even under the best of circumstances, you'll lose some.

Nancy
 
Dr. Caldwell told me in an email that they raised them in plastic cups. However, his assistant who came to pick up the young octos said that the last time she tried to raise some, they died within 2 days, and when the student that's going to be raising these 24, tried with another batch, they lasted 7 days.

I had another casualty today, but I'm switching to feeding them several times a day. You guys would laugh at me peering intently into the bowl where we're housing the pods, trying to pick out the teeniest ones to feed the octos.

I also set up a fan above the cups to try and get the water circulating a bit within the cups. The octos seemed to perk up after I started the fan so that may help. Also am trying Phyto-feast inside one of the cups.

I'm also wondering since I'm keeping them in transparent cups, whether that's a detriment or a plus. I heard that octopuses learn from another while housed in separate tanks; hence the decision to have transparent cups.
 

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