The Once-ler

[DWhatley]

Sedna,
I think need to come up with a list of "criteria" to post in a hatchlings thread. The three weeks brood time and a rough guess on the house temps over that period as well as longevity and foods fed are all bullets (maybe moon phase as well) that we should keep on each brooding in addition to the individual logs on each octo.

So far, not even an arm wave from Serendipity. We are assuming all is normal but we have not seen her for almost 4 weeks.

Be careful with the Rotofeast. I over dosed a small tank with it with some baby seahorses and killed them in an hour. I don't mean that product is bad but that a little goes a long way and it will effect your water quality.

 

[sedna]

Tank water has been at 78F up until the last couple days, then only up to 79.1 or.2. I dialed it back on Monday, and since then it has been 78 plus a couple tenths up and down.

 

[Animal Mother]

My fingers are crossed.

 

[sedna]

Soooo many babies!

What a surprise this morning- no, not the diabetic kid with the tummy bug saying she was sick at 5:30 am, the hundred tiny octos I scoped out since I was up, anyway. It's my volunteer at school, I'l have to ditch early!

No brine shrimp hatchlings yet. The "frankentank" smells of acetic acid and really still should get 12 more hours to sit. There's a fan in it now to clear out the smell, otherwise, calamari, anyone? I'm feeling under the gun as I see how many little guys are already sitting on the bottom of the tank! Oh, Sedna, goddess of the sea, bestow your blessing upon my pelagic pusses, that they make it until the DOPPLE KREISEL can get going!!

 

[cuttlegirl]

It might be OK that the babies are on the bottom of the tank. Some octopus babies "settle" to the bottom after hatching. Not all octopus young stay in the water column. Did you get an ID on this octopus?

 

[sedna]

Cuttlegirl,

Roy says she's (the Once-ler) an aculeatus. I know, hopeless and all, but I have to try!!! I'm home for lunch right now, brine shrimp have hatched and we've fed them, actually saw some on the hunt!!

This afternoon I'll get their grow out tank filled and going- my husband is an engineer who specializes in fluid flow. He built me a homemade kreisel tank just 'cause he loves me!

 

[sedna]

The babies are on the front glass of the tank, going after all the 'pods I've been farming since Once-ler started brooding. I can't figure out how to get the brine shrimp out of the hatcher cup! D, you'll be getting a call this evening!

 

[cuttlegirl]

If you put a small light to one side of the hatcher cup, the baby brine should swim over to that side, then you can suck them out with a pipette.

 

[sedna]

pipette, DUH! Did I mention that today started at 5:30 am with a diabetic low to take care of... I still have to pack lunches for my all day field trip to the capitol building tomorrow with 4th grade...

The babies are all in the DOPPLEKRIESEL. Of course, we're not sure how fast they're supposed to be spinning around in there. It looks like to front load washing machines full of octo babies. But, as my 4th grader said, "It works just like you explained it. I'll post pics as soon as I can get to it.

For now, there seem to be at least 100 babies mostly split into the 2 chambers of the tank. There are still some in the parent tank and I'm not sure how to get them- I've syphoned out all the parent tank's H2O that I can. Also I'm too tired to care. I've been feeding freshly hatched baby brine shrimp and "rotifeast." I've also wiped the sides of the parent tank down with macroalgae to collect my own wild pods and threw that in for good measure.

The good part of being the "stay at home" mom is that NO ONE else will think to unplug a thing to vacuum. Of course, I'm actually supposed to be doing house work other than zoo keeping!

 

[DWhatley]

Sedna,
You can simply lift the cup out of the hatcher (it has a little handle) and carefully dip it on the surface of the tank until enough shrimp leave the cup then put the cup back into the hatcher. It is the hatcher that you can't move, not the collection cup.

After you have the kids to bed and have had a cup of something warm, you are STILL assigned to photograph this cool tank!!!

About how long did it take to see brine? They should continue to hatch over at least 6 hours. Don't forget to start the second hatcher because when they stop hatching, they start dieing. Use lots of hot water, no soap, to clean them and flush the cup very, very well (you can use a soft brush if necessary) to keep it draining.

I hope your daughter's sugar has shown taming!

 

[sedna]

DOPPLEKREISEL

So here it is, don't laugh, the basic premise was to make a kriesel tank using mostly what we already had! We were severely rushed once Flowmeister John finally figured out the plan. He basically built 2 tanks separated by a center chamber- mostly because the math worked best that way. Using aquarium sealant, we glued plexiglass into the corners of an old acrylic 35 gal tank to make baffles to direct the flow into a cirular pattern. The walls creating the vertical walls were cut and covered with fine mesh (a filter bag, actually). We sunk a power head into the center, with tubing splitting off into the two chambers. There is a valve to control the flow on each side. He drilled holes in some PVC pipe and attached it to the tubing.

The center chamber makes a great place to store the the power head, heater and some live rock where the octos theoretically can't get to, but there are already a couple of escapees.

I know there are tons of things I've left out! We will link a video to you tube tomorrow, sometime after the all day field trip the evening "Owl Prowl" at Young Naturalist group!

How do I get the rest of the little guys out without removing so much H2O but with less patience that chasing them with a turkey baster?

 

[DWhatley]

Terriffic! I really like the horizontal pipe and am thinking about changing my verticle one in the split tank. My compliments to John MacGyver. Great arrangement for the hatchers. I forgot to mention that I usually (I haven't hatched brine in awhile) dip the cup in some clean saltwater before dipping it into the tank just to eliminate as much of the hatching water as I can (IT will not show up well on a test strip!).

I can't suggest much of anything for catching your stragglers though. I quit trying to use the turkey baster because the mercs would stick to the inside and not want to come out! I have a net that I have found works for a lot of things that nets are not recommended for (like catching octo babies). It is not quite as fine as a brine net, is very inexpensive and is my most used style. It is almost square, made by TOMS and has a black plastic handle and rim. It comes folded but when you straighten it and click the sections into place, it is not meant to be folded again. If you have a brine net, you might try catching them in that (unless you happen to have the one I tried to describe) but don't bring it out of the water. Instead place a cup under it and transfer to the other tank with the net still in the water. If you don't have a brine net, a regular net may still work but is more risky (the brine nets are almost a cloth vs nylon webbing).

 

[Animal Mother]

Turkey baster worked great for me... yeah you have to catch them one by one, but they can't grip the inside of the baster like a fully-formed octopus.

 

[sedna]

I love sleep! The babies are still here, spinning away, despite my dream that the tank was leaking (is that a recurring dream for any other tank keepers?). The only few die offs so far are the couple that found their way into the dead spots that weren't sealed all the way. I won't be able to go after the ones in the big tank until this afternoon, the filter has been off since Wed. evening and it's making me nervous. I'm surprised at how many are still in the big tank! They are really strong swimmers, not getting stuck on the bottom at all.. I think most of the ones I saw at the bottom had just been kicked out of the den, then they swam away into the H2O column later.

 

[Nancy]

Glad they are doing so well!

I never noticed, until I started using turkey basters in my aquariums, that the opeing in the tip varies a lot depending on which model you buy. I prefer larger openings and that's probably what you're using, too.

Nancy