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Survival rate of an octopus who has laid eggs

Perky

Cuttlefish
Registered
Joined
Apr 15, 2008
Messages
28
Hi,

It's been a very long time since I last posted on this site. However I'm now back working in the aquarium field and am a proud carer for a lesser octopus (Eledone cirrhosa). Unfortunatly she laid eggs within two weeks of me starting my new position. They were definitley not fertile as she hasn't had any action with a male so I removed them from the tank straight away. Funny thing she is now feeding and activily coming out of her den (pouncing on her food) and even playing with feeder sticks.

My question is has anybody seen this sort of behaviour before. I've worked with a couple of other larger species before (one being GPO) and alas they always hid in there dens after laying and died within a couple of weeks even if they eggs were doomed to never hatch. Were now two weeks and counting... after the removal of the eggs.

Anybody got any ideas on this particular type of behaviour/species?
 
Perky,
There is one octo identified by Roy Caldwell that does not die after egg hatching. There are numerous recent thread about some that Thales and Roy are trying to raise but here is the post that briefly discusses O. chierchiae.
 
Cheers for the link. I believe not that much is known about the lesser in regards to their breeding (but I may be wrong). Although I believe some of the other aquariums my one is joined to have seen mortality pretty soon after laying in this species.

Hopefully Popeye(the lesser octopus) will survive for a long while yet.

On a side note yes Jean it is me finally got myself back into the marine field. Can't put anything past you can I. We're just about to get about 40 cuttles in where I work so I'm going to be a proud carer for 40 cuttles, popeye and two nautilis so excited!
 
If you have access to this there appears to have been a 10 year study done on your little girl that might give you more info. It seems this one live 2+ years but the spawning info is in the pay for section :banghead: so it is difficult to determine how useful the information might be in regards to answering your question.
 
Hopefully I'll be able to get access to this in a couple of weeks (bu going down to my local uni) so will be able to tell if it is useful or not. She laid again this morning :cry: but again once I removed the eggs seemed as happy as can be and is eating fine. Thanks for all the help on this.
 
Perky;124537 said:
.On a side note yes Jean it is me finally got myself back into the marine field. ..!

I'm a little slower; I just saw a familiar name online that I hadn't seen in an eternity, and had to check out your profile to make sure it was the same person from many years ago.

Kerry, do tell, what are you up to these days?
 
Steve,

Have been lurking on the forum for awhile but have only just got back into the wonderful world of cephalopods after travelling the world and working for the british govenrment in a very boring job (which i quit last month).

As such I'm working at the local aquarium, however on my days off I'm starting to read papers so that by the end of next year I might be ready to embark on a PHD.

I've seen you've been pretty busy yourself with the colossal squid and all.
 

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