Paroctopus Digueti (Pacific Pygmy Octopus) Perrier & Rochebrune, 1894

cthulhu77

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We are currently in the process of fabricating a number of tanks for the captive rearing of this little guy. They tend to last less than a year in tanks, but I have never raised one from the egg, so it is hard to say just how long the lifespan is...in the wild, it is less than twelve months also. Pics will accompany progress, but here are a few from the last time we were at the mud flats:

octopusdiguetiinshell1.jpg


as you can see, they love to hide from the birds by taking over abandoned or eaten shellfish shells.
 
and boy, do they have a food source! These are acres of hermit crabs...more than one could count !

tidalflats.jpg
 
Magnificent pictures!

I remember talking to someone at my university's oceanography school about octopus once...They often catch pygmys coming up on the gulf stream and put them in tanks. They sit all day staring at eachother through the opening of the clam shell.

I eagerly await any and all details about the hatchery!

Dan
 
Raising drawfs

I believe we have a dwarf octopus with eggs. I started another thread and somebody gave me a link here (hopefully I can find this thread again.) Anyways some of the eggs hatched and now I have atleast 2 babies swimming arround my tank. I read that nobody is really having any luck raising the babies of this species past 2 monthes. Why? I don't know a lot about the F1 stage what is that? Any ideas about feeding? Right now I am using peppermint shrimp babies. I have 3 breeding peppermints to supply thier babies as food. I learned this trick from a seahorse website. The shrimp reproduce rapidly. I think I will add some skunk cleaners for the same purpose, plus pick up a different hawain shrimp species and some copepods for a varied diet. Has anybody raised this type of ceph to an adult?
 
Congratulations ! Where are the cigars, though?
"F" refers to the captive bred and born generation...hence, the first batch of captive reared babies would be F1's, and when they reach adulthood...if they were then bred, and produced viable offspring, that generation would be F2...and so on, and so on.
We've managed in past years to raise the babies to near adulthood, but with heavy fatalities. If you have access to a lot of small critters, and it sounds like you do, you might have a lot of success.
Keep us posted! Remember, digueti is an incredibly short lived species...seems to be around six months to a year.

greg
 
Photo and more

Profesionals built the Titanic, amatuers built the ark ( and I can't spell!)
I really hate the border issues and I love cigars. Since this octopus was wild caught someone told me it might fall under the Wild Species Protection act. How would I know where is the list of protected animals. Which was news to me. Since everybody on this thread likes this species of octopus and it sounds like it only comes from the Sea of Cortez maybe somebody will know if this species is protected? If it is I need to figure how to get the octopus we have back to where we got it, if I'm not allowed to keep it. It was collected on the beach by me and I'm only a hobbyist who once wanted to be a marine biologist. Does anybody know the process to get a wild octopus and attempt to use it for breeding without getting in trouble. It would be wonderful If could find another shell full of eggs and try to aquaculture these animals. I really love clownfish and now that they are tank raised I really feel like that species existance is secure. Oh by the way I got a photo of one but I file is to big. I will be working out the tech issues here soon.
 
I don't know about Mexico and international issues, but in California you can apply for a permit from the Department of Fish and Game to collect animals from the wild. There are limitations on what type of octopus and where you can collect. You cannot collect from a protected area (when you receive your permit, they send you a map with the protected areas in California). You could also contact someone with a commercial collector's license in California and they could collect one for you. This, of course, does not help you with this species... but maybe it answers some of your questions... I hope :smile:
 
Octopus diguiti is abundant in the Sea of Cortez, but getting them into the US is a horrific process. Permits are difficult to obtain and take months if not years to get. We gave up. There are a few commercial collectors and importers who have permits and I have seen a few O. digueti showing up, but that's about it.

Roy
 
Thankyou for your replies

Thankyou for your replies. I will look into this issue, maybe I can get a permit and figure this process out. My wife is a lawyer in Mexico so I think I might have the upper hand here. The hard part I think is the US side of the border. I guess that's the part I will try and figure out. I think there is a real opportunity to import this species and then breed it so no more need to be collected from the wild. So far from what I've seen it looks like a very good aquarium pet and if it's popular aquaculture would ensure species survival in my opinion. It's a nobel cause atleast. If I get it figured out I'll post again and let you all know. Anymore tips about permits would be greatly appreciated
 
There aren't any specific guidlines to the take of wild octos in mexico...the laws do govern vertebrate fishes, though.
Two years ago, we began looking for permits to obtain digueti, and met with stone looks and a large amount of disbelief from the fisheries department. So many are consumed as food and for bait by the locals that they could not fathom why anyone would want to take any back as "pets".

For almost a decade, I've been trying to rear these little guys in the states, and haven't had too much luck...but with some new equipment, and more tanks, we are hoping to have a banner year in 2006/07. It would be awesome if we could hook up information, and if both of us can raise up a generation, do some swapping of little ones for diversity.
 
Population biology of Octopus digueti and the morphology of American tropical octopods. Voight, Janet Ruth 1990 (Full dissertation available)

Abstract
My dissertation explores octopod ecoloy, morphology and evolution. Using an artificial shelter trap technique (Voight, 1988a), parameters of a wild population of Octopus digueti are monitored for one year. Octopus movement correlates with sea temperature but is reduced under full moonlight. Enlarged suckers reliably indicate male maturity in this species. This first definition of an age class in octopuses allows field growth rates to be compared to those from laboratory studies. Octopus digueti growth in the wild equals that in the lab; average life span may be only 6 months during which time individuals may grow from a hatching weight of 40 mg to over 40g. Individuals show the uniparous life history documented in lab studies. Cohorts appear not due to reproductive synchrony, but to seasonal temperature fluctuations. Genetic differences probably control individual growth rate and life span. To test the reliability of morphology of preserved octopus specimens, ln-transformed measurements are plotted versus ln mantle length. Body measurements are strongly correlated with size; preservation does not therefore eliminate information contained in specimens. Principal component analysis reveals shallow water tropical octopuses vary primarily in arm length, mantle length and sucker diameter. Trans-Atlantic conspecific populations are morphologically indistinguishable. Hypothesized species relationships (Voight, 1988b) are supported, despite considerable overlap among species. No secondary sexual dimorphism except enlarged suckers is present in these species. Octopuses from rocky habitats have longer arms and smaller mantles than do those from sandy habitats. In the Octopodidae, arm length, head width and sucker diameter contribute most size-free morphological variation. Sucker size correlates inversely with depth due to hydrostatic pressure. Arm length and head width variation correlate inversely with latitudinal distribution, and are associated with the number of sucker rows. Subfamilies defined by the number of sucker rows (Voss, 1988a), may represent overtly similar, paraphyletic groups. Cladistic analysis of the suborder Incirrata show that Voss' subfamilies are paraphyletic groups; Robson's (1932) subfamilies are supported. The Argonautida are the most primitive incirrate group, the Ctenoglossa and Octopodidae are sister taxa. The incirrate octopods may have evolved from a deep sea, rather than a shallow-water, ancestor.
 
Movement, injuries and growth of members of a natural population of the Pacific pygmy octopus, Octopus digueti
Janet R voight 2009 (subscription)

Abstract
Sampling inadequacies and an inability to distinguish age classes have limited our knowledge of octopus biology in nature. Using an artificial shelter sampling technique (Voight, 1988a), and defining mature males by the presence of enlarged suckers (Voight, In press), an intertidal population of Octopus digueti was monitored for one year.
In total, 803 octopuses were narcotized; the mass, sex, arm injuries and reproductive condition of each octopus were recorded. Captures were more frequent in lower intertidal areas offering higher shelter availability and a more moderate environment. Capture rates, assumed to indicate octopus movement, correlated with sea temperature except during full moon periods when they were reduced. Over 26%, of the octopuses handled had damaged arms or arm tips, with dorsal arm pairs more often injured. The overall sex ratio was significantly male biased, probably due to maturity-linked mobility differences between the sexes.
Reproduction occurred throughout the year; reproductively competent adults, brooding females and juveniles were present every month. However, annual temperature oscillations synchronize spring hatching of eggs spawned from winter to early spring, creating a clear spring cohort. Growth and age at maturity of males in the spring and autumn cohorts were estimated. Variance was too high for these parameters to be estimated in the winter cohort. Growth rates of males over 12 weeks of age did not differ from those reported in laboratory rearing studies. Estimated average age at maturity ranged from 20 to 32 weeks, depending on temperature.
 
Laboratory Growth, Reproduction and Life Span of the Pacific Pygmy Octopus,
Octopus digueti'
RANDAL H . D ER USHA, JOHN W. FORSYTHE AND R OGER T. HANLON2 1988 (pdf)


ABSTRACT:
Octopus digueti Perrier and Rochebrune, 1894 was reared through
its life cycle at 25°C in a closed seawater system using artificial sea water. Two
field-collected females produced 231 hatchlings: 193 hatchlings were groupcultured
while 24 were isolated at hatching and grown individually to allow
precise analyses of growth in length and weight over the life cycle. All octopuses
were fed primarily live shrimps. Maturing adults fed at a rate of 4.7% of body
weight per day and had a gross growth efficiency of 48% . Growth in weight was
exponential for the first 72 days and described best by the equation: WW(g) =
.0405e·0646t. The mean growth rate over this period was 6.4% increase in body
weight per day (%jd) , with no significant difference between male and female
growth. From 72 to 143 days , growth was logarithmic and described best by the
equation: WW(g) = (6.78 x 1O- 6) t3 .13 . Females grew slightly faster than males
over this growth phase. During the exponential growth phase, mantle length
increased at a mean rate of 2.1% per day, declining to 1.1% per day over the
logarithmic phase. No attempt was made to describe mathematically the period
of declining growth rate beyond day 143. The primary causes of early mortality
in group culture were escapes and cannibalism. Survival was good despite high
culture density: 73% survival to date of first egg laying (day Il l). Survival was
better among the isolated growth-study octopuses: 88% to the date of first egg
laying (day 130). Mean life span was 199 da ys in group-reared octopuses and
221 days in the growth-study octopuses. There was no significant difference
between male and female life span. Progeny of the group culture were reared at
similar stocking densities and fed predominantly fresh dead shrimp and crab
meat. This diet resulted in cannibalism, with only 6% survival to first egg laying
on day 128. Fecundity in this group was lower. Octopus digueti is a good
candidate for laboratory culture and biological experimentation because of its
small size, rapid growth, short life span, and good survival in group culture.
 

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