pigmy octopus eggs hatched( advice needed)

[BeaU]

Me and my girlfriend have had our pygmy octopus for about 2 months now. Reccently noticed it stopped eating and coming out. When we investigated why we found an egg sack that the octopus had laid and was protecting. We expected the eggs to take longer to hatch so we didn't do the necessary research. Today when we looked at the tank there were over 200 very small octpi. we currently have the octopus and eggs in a 30 gallon tank. we know very little about raising the octopi and any advice would be greatly appreciated.
we are currently hatching brine shrimp eggs and hopefully they are eating them.
also do we need to seperate them? .(i heard octopi will eat each other). and if we do need to seperate them how should we do it? at this point we are thinking about putting them in ice cube trays.

octopus covering her eggs

 

[monty]

to TONMO!

Raising baby octos is pretty hard... try reading D's thread on raising Trapper's babies for starters, she's done well with raising a few of them, so she's probably a good source of advice...

 

[gravesly]

when my octos eggs hatched, it was an exciting and horribly sad day.
Creepers had passed only moments after the young started coming out. That and my well intentioned gf let the youngins get swooped into fliter.
BUT, before that, they DID seem to be attacking and eating the rottifers we put into the tank.
I had no success, but I hope this helps a bit.
Cheers,
Geoffrey

 

[BeaU]

I have read most of the forum about trapper and it was very informing. Thats to bad about creepers and her babes. Hopefully I can get a few to survive. my GF and I are going to do the best we can.
thnx for the replies .

 

[DWhatley]

Beau,

I would recommend choosing 5 or 6 for separation and special attention. The large breeder net worked very well (and is still being used but I have now separated them into two groups in two large nets). The six I had never attacked each other fatally but I am still careful to keep their shells two full arm lengths apart and provide empty, smaller shells to be used as doorways. I recommend separating the small number because most people reporting in (Zyan Silver is the exception with his terrific success with his 100 bimacs but he has huge water volume) have lost all of their babies and I think the reason may be trying to save too many. Certainly attempt to feed and raise as many as you can but I recommend that you remove the smaller number to a net where you can control the environment and hand feed nightly.

One of the advantages of the net that I found is that it has a built in platform (the original net was the standard Lee's/Tom's variety) to set the shell on and allow live food to swim underneath. The platform also helps with water circulation and removing the food. If you read my posts you will note that I swear by Cyclop-eeze (frozen) and am still feeding it to my little guys. The Mercatoris (and I would extrapolate to other pygmies) definitely filter feed even as adults and this food has been very successful for me. Mine will now catch shrimp but will expel what they have not consumed if I put more Cyclop-eeze near them. I am trying to mix some smaller frozen mysis in with the hand fed food but so far they have not eaten it. I turn my circulating pump off at night when I feed and face it to push water through the nets during the day to remove any remaining Cyclop-eeze (which is then happily eaten by my clean-up crew.

Drawing from my own experience and from Lev's your mom should continue to live a few weeks yet (Mercs seem to live a little longer than the larger females for some reason). Lev's lived on for 5 weeks and trapper for almost 13 (considered very unusual but we really don't know much about what happens in the wild). If you can get her to eat, your chances are better (she will not care for the young but I don't think she will eat them - my totally undocumentable theory is that she can't). You will know that she will expire within a week when you see her come out and stay out of her den.

Good luck with them and please let us know what you try and the success and failure of the attempts. If I can be of help, PM me any time.

 

[BeaU]

sad news
After i woke up this morning i couldn't find a single one floating around freely.. There are still the 4 alive out that i seperated and 4 of the ones i seperated have died. Our mom octopus is still alive and seems in good spirit.