[Octopus Eggs]: Trapper's Babies - Tank Raised Mercatoris

Enlarged suckers and hectocotylus

I have been trying to photograph Sisturus' enlarged suckers as he seems to have "extras". According to Mucktopus, the norm is two or four but Sisty has enlarged suckers on all eight arms and double enlarged suckers on most (if not all, very difficult to determine as he won't hold still with them exposed for long). Here is the best shot I have managed todate. Note the curled up hectocotylus as well.
 

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Baby update

So far so good, I think :hmm: I still have no idea how many babies I have or ever had in the nets. I still have a couple loose in the tank and can usually see them sometime after 1:00 AM. I only KNOW about two deaths. One that had lived in the red tube (and may have died many days before I realized it) of unknow cause and one I found in the overflow filter sponge (I rescued two from the sponge but this one managed to get below the exposed part at the top).

I put the octo from the red tube in a dish of saltwater and after two days, it looked no different than when I found it so I am not sure how long ago it died. I have not found other dead ones but have added a couple of snails to the nets for clean-up and would expect they would remove any remains before I would see them.

It appears that the little guys are eating the small shrimp I put in the nets as the shrimp disappear and I found a shrimp head in one net tonight. This group seems more recluse than their parents but it may be I just don't remember how hard it was to find them at this stage :wink:. They are still very, very small and well camoflaged in the white netting and grid.

All five adults are still doing well. All the males now spend at least some of their wake time near the top of the tank with occassional experimentations with their arms quickly out of the water (not long enough to break the water coverage though). Sisty started doing this several months ago but the others do it far less often and did not start until this month. During the day, they all remain hidden.

Mia has a new "big" octo trick that he has employed twice. He has squited water at me when I have annoyed but not frightened him. The spray does not get me wet but it does come about 4 inches above the tank.:heee:

Miss Broody has survived her first month post-hatching and is still taking a shrimp nightly and feeds on the Cyclop-eeze. She will drop her doorway after I start feeding the tank but I have only seen her leave her den once and that was a quick stretch without losing contact with the shell. I have noticed that she breathes very heavily during feeding and she seems to have some difficulty extracting the shrimp from the large pipette I use. She is conserably larger than any of the four males and I wonder if this is a distinct difference in the sexes (this is the first time I have seen her full body since she started brooding her eggs).
 
dwhatley;105644 said:
AM,
You know the drill. If your interested in going back to pygmies, let me know but I thought you were considering attempting brooding briareus(?)

Well, between being unable to determine the issues with the past two octos and the difficulty of finding another source I moved all my corals into the 75 and got a couple of frogfish. I still have my 30 gallon set up though :smile:

I might be able to keep a few, given they will tolerate each others company.
 
AM,
My 9 month old males are quite small compared with their mother (who was quite large - about twice the mantle size). Measuring Sisturus (good ole Sisty is always out at night and still plays with me for anywhere from 15 min to an hour), his head and mantle in a resting position is 1", his arms are about 2" from tip to beak.

At one month the babies are still too small to ship and I could not find more than 6 in the nets tonight. This does not mean that there are not more (and I suspect there are at least twice that many) but they have lots of hiding places and are very difficult to find. The six I found tonight came out for feeding (first time) so I got some kind of head count. I have not found any more dead and I do not believe they kill and eat each other (in spite of what has been posted, observation suggests otherwise) so I either have escapees roaming the tank or they are in the shells and between the grid rungs. I need to review my posts to see at what age I could consistently count their parents.

I have my original 5 living together as two males in my 15 gallon and 3 (two males and one female) in my 45 without problems. The boys will "attack" each other from time to time but there is no panic in the encounter and no detectable attempts at harm. My uneducated guess is that I am seeing dominance challenges. The two males in the larger tank don't seem to attack each other as often as Sisturus and Medusa but do hang out together in the back of the tank much of the time (where I can't observer well). Sisty and 'Dusa will touch each other without being in "attack" mode and the whole of their interaction seems more playful than aggressive (no ink, no damage, no color changes, no panic detachments).

The Mercs don't seem to be interested in attacking anything live other than crabs (they did eat live shrimp as babies). They leave the snails and hermits alone and never paid any attention to the small fish fry I raised for them (sailfin mollies). As adults, they do not even catch the shore shrimp but will eat it if I kill and immediately feed the body and tail section by hand (or in the case of the all the ones in the larger tank, with a long pipette). I am not sure Sisty and 'Dusa even eat the crabs (they do go missing after about a week though) but I have seen HideNSeek catch one recently and believe MIA catches them fairly regularly. At 9 months all of them come to the front of the tank at supper time but MIA only stays long enough to be seen and then goes to the back of the tank and waits for food to be delivered.

I think, but cannot be sure, that the smaller tank has helped with having more human friendly octos. Medusa was very shy at first and I only saw arms for several months after introducing them to their own tank (out of the breeder net). Sisty has been active from the beginning and was the most active in the net. Medusa is still much shyer than Sisty but seems to watch him and copy his actions. He will take a shrimp by hand (from fingers) and stays out almost as much as Sisturus but is not at interactive. The three in the larger tank will only take shrimp from a large pipette (about 8" long) and only interact at feeding time. Besides the tank size difference, the smaller tank is in our eating area and more heavily trafficed which may have a greater impact than tank size (and would somewhat correlate with your observation that Einy liked to be around movement rather than bing isolated). Their only tank mates are serpent stars (and a very small common star in the 15 gallon and a pencil urchin in the 45), hermits, snails and bunches of brissle worms.
 
Picture of HideNSeek

Picture of HideNSeek (the father of my current babies) waiting for food to come down from above :hmm: You can see Miss Broody's arm inside the barnacle shell as well as my over population of bristle worms (they love Cyclop-eeze too).
 

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Sisturus' Newest "trick"

I have mentioned that none of my Mercs have never eaten snails or hermit but Sisty may have made a liar out of me last night. I fed them very late (early AM) and Sisturus was not at all happy with me. He decided to do a zoom to the back of the tank when I finally showed up and collected a snail crawling on the tank wall along the way. He seemed to use the snail as something to grasp and then popped his entire mantle and head out of the water several times. No pictures, of course but very strange behavior. He still had the snail shell with him tonight up until feeding time. Initially he was reluctant to come out of his den (most unusual as he is usually waiting on me) but eventually came out leaving the empty snail shell behind and acted normally.

It also appears that the two fiddlers I put in the tank last night have been consumed (or at least I can't find either one of them). Medusa and Sisty rarely eat the live fiddlers and one will usually stay in the tank a week or more before disappearing.

The appetities of all 5 seem to be increasing as they approached and surpassed 9 months old.
 
Second mating of Miss Broody and HideNSeek

It maybe the overly bright full moon or the fact that my brood is nearing their end but HideNSeek took up residence in Miss Broody's condo last night and mated with her for over an hour ronight (I was too excited to look at the time but I took photos over most of the event and they are time-stamped :smile:). It is highly unlikely that Miss Broody has eggs or would survive a second brooding but it was interesting to know that the Mercs would breed a second time. Miss Broody is the only female of this group so I would say "any port in a storm" but MIA has never demonstrated the mating behavior of HideNSeek (taking close residence a day or so before mating). The first time, HideNSeek mated for two different nights but was interupted with the camera flash during his first attempt. Tonight the camera did not scare him away (one may have inked though) and he spent a full hour poking around in her shell with his hectocotylus. This time I had an excellent view and could actually see the tip of the arm as he would investigate. He seemed to withdraw the arm and it would bunch up almost into a ball for a short period of time then he would straighten it and continue to prod and poke inside the shell, sometimes giving a shutter.

It was both terrifying and interesting as I was not 100% positive that he was trying to mate. There are so many references to predation that I was concerned he was attacking a weakened female but ultimately, it was clear I was seeing a second mating. I considered separating them but decided against interferring, knowing that Miss Broody was scheduled to expire soon (her hatchlings are over a month old) and if I separated them, HideNSeek would simply return after I stopped observing. Fortunately, my first inclination was correct and I still have not witnessed any kind of cannibalism with the Merc. Most of the babies have "disappeared" so I cannot say it has not happened but I have yet to see anything close to a killing.

Sadly, the pictures are ALL out of focus but here are the best of the bunch, notice the lump in the last picture, that is the best I could do trying to get a picture of HideNSeek drawing his hectocotylus up into a ball off and on during the event:
 

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Hey D - you will have real problems shooting into an aquarium if you aren't perpendicular to the pane. Shooting at an angle will distort the image and the camera will have problems with auto focus. Also, it looks like you have a plexi tank, which can cause distortions because of the bowing of the pane.

Other than that, what a great night you had!
 
I don't think Miss Broody was overly pleased with HideNSeek's amorous overatures. Sometime after my photographs, she moved to another shell (she had not left her brooding residence for more than 5 minutes since release to the tank). When I tried to encourage her to take a shrimp, she left her new dwelling and scampered off into the live rock. This is the first time I have seen her even investigate the main tank. I could not find her at all last night. Tonight she was in yet another of the barnacle condo shells until HideNSeek snuck up on the shell. He acted strangely and was sneaking to the shell entrance in full camo. Once at the front of the chamber, Miss Broody sprung out at him. He dodged her, commandeered the shell and took up a feeding pose. Miss Broody darted for cover under the LR but continued to watch the outside world until she noticed I was watching her, then she again vanished. All very unusual.

Sisty and Medusa are together more and more often but with little or no fighting. They do appear to be trying to mate with each other during the encounters and I have gotten a very clear look at the tip of the hectocotylus as they explore for an opening. Randy little critters - brings to mind the opening clip of the Mr. Hell video :sly:
 
10 Month Update

Miss Broody has disappeared and has not been seen for two weeks. I see a shell that is wedged up into a live rock cubby but it has not moved (a near by shell has) and her arms don't come out when I feed Cyclop-eeze. She left her den several days after her second mating with HideNSeek and I am afraid she has not eaten since.

HideNSeek and MIA come out for feeding at night but don't interact much with each other or with me. Both will take a freshly killed shore shrimp most nights but will often hide afterwards rather than staying out or exploring. They seem to be eating more crabs now but I don't see them catch them.

Sisty and Dusa still live well together. We see them out touching each other early (for them - about 10:30 ish) most every night but I am having a hard time getting pictures. They are also showing some physical signs of aging but are much more interactive than the other two males in the larger tank.

Babies are two months old but I still don't know how many have survived. There are two that feed openly at night but I think there are more that come out later and eat the live shrimp. I separated one that was more aggressive than I felt was safe in the net but I believe he escaped into the tank through a hole I failed to notice and cover (I spotted one loose two nights ago but could not catch it). I think there were fewer hatchlings than I originally guestimated now that I know they have been escaping but I really can't guess on the numbers with any feeling of confidence other than I know two died and I counted ten alive at one point. I have not found any more dead but know there are fewer than ten left. The ones I do see are about the size of an eraser.
 

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Wonderful journals D! We picked up a merc from our lfs about 4 weeks ago and this week we discovered that she is expecting! Your accounts are going to be so helpful! Thanks a million and best wishes for continued success!
Greg
 
BTW, what was your routine regarding reef additives (if any) while you had octo eggs (Reef Plus Vitamin Amino Acid Supplement, Reef Complete Calcium Supplement, etc.)? Up to this point, my wife has added such things to all six of our tanks twice a week for corals, liverock, etc., but had a moment of concern when she remembered that we now have octo eggs in one. Thanks!
Greg
 
Greg,
Octo biology is so different from most other things that the recommendations are to NOT add the typical enhancers. Since I don't keep much other livestock with my octos, I have followed this advice. It is not that vitamins, calcium and iodine (the things I personally add to my reef tanks) are known as negatives it is just that the effects are unknown. I have not had the rate of success (83% - lost one of the 6 born when it climbed out of the water) I had with the first goup. I can think of four things that are different

1. There were considerably more fry so underfeeding and possibly predation may have been a problem.
2. I fed live shrimp earlier this time and they eat less Cyclop-eeze in favor of the shrimp.
3. I did not include new hatch brine in the first weeks of feeding (I am wondering if it might help hydration since there is no nutrition but it is not a proper food and should never be the only food)
4. This batch is inbred (first is unknown).

I don't know which, if any of the above are impactive. I will suggest, however, that you find some frozen Cyclop-eeze to feed both the new borns and the mother when she stops eating (you can offer it to her now as I feed this to mine nightly along with shore shrimp (freshly killed nightly) and crab (live in the tank about one a week are consumed). I thaw it in a small dish with saltwater and use a plastic pipette to put it in the tank/breeder net. Do not squirt it directly on the octos though as they do not seem to like the "wind" from the squirting. Also be sure it is well diluted as it seems to bother them if it is too dense (I don't think this is a major thing but they do eat better if it is well diluted and I think it has to do with breathing - just conjecture).

Please start (if you have not already) a journal on your new critter!
 

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