[Featured]: Tank raised in the classroom

[tonmo]

TONMO staff member Dr. Greg Barord (@gjbarord) is a renown nautilus expert and researcher. Currently, he's raising tank-hatched cephs in his classroom in Iowa. Per Dr. Barord: "Next up on our goals here in Iowa.... raising multiple species of octopus!!!! This egg hatched during class a few days ago and is doing well!!"
Thanks for sharing these pics & vids, Greg!

 

[pkilian]

The eggs look great Greg! What are you feeding them? Have you had any issues with your babies climbing out of the enclosures or did you fashion a lid for each one?

 

[gjbarord]

The eggs look great Greg! What are you feeding them? Have you had any issues with your babies climbing out of the enclosures or did you fashion a lid for each one?

We are feeding them a combo of frozen squid, shrimp, and krill - whichever one they will eat each day. We tried live grass shrimp hatchlings and amphipods but it did not go for them... We had lids but they were not perfect, so we'll hone that for the next batch. At this size, I am not concerned with them crawling out. The top of the enclosures are out of the water a good 8cm or so,. Will keep y'all posted on the progress!

Greg

 

[pkilian]

Sounds great! I've had some success with lids made from this foam on amazon, but I agree that the risk of squishing with the lids is pretty high and the animals likely won't escape, esp at this age. I'm excited to see how this goes for you!

Others have had success by not using lids at all and instead using some window weatherstripping around the inner edge of the PVC enclosure

Have you added anything to the enclosures to serve as dens?

 

[gjbarord]

@pkilian , haven't used that weatherstripping before, but looks like a great option! Have used astroturf, etc.

We have added some small PVC pieces and some mussel and clam shells that have been used often by the octos!

Greg