We're having babies, Brown Pacific Octopus babies

[mvanfleet]

Hey Guys,

I have this posted on reef2reef as well, but I was made aware of this forum and suggested I post here also.

About a month ago my wife and I got a Brown Pacific Octopus. We had done our research and had a tank setup waiting until we found one.

We have had it for about a month now. The first two weeks were great, she has lots of "toys" and we would "play" by moving her toys around only to wake up to her having moved them back to where she wanted them. After two weeks that had stopped, she stopped coming out. During our routing cleaning yesterday we found that she had laid eggs, which is why she stopped coming out, and she is caring for her eggs.

We have mixed emotions, sad because we know what this means for her, but excited, although extremely nervous, because we have the chance to care for all her young. I have taken care of many fry before, but NEVER octopus larvae.

I am looking for advice on what to expect, what food i should have ready and how often do they eat, how fine of netting do i need to cover the overflow with, how long can they live together before I need to separate them from each other, and is it okay to leave mom with the babies until she passes? and really any other advice you have to offer, I am ready to listen and learn.

She is in one of 3 tanks that I keep. It is a 50 gallon all in one and well secured (for her, not secure enough for Larvae). I keep her alone with only peppermint shrimp, hermit crabs and snails, all was meant for her food. No fish.

I also have a 250 Gallon and another 50 gallon that I use as a QT/monitoring tank. It only has a few damsel's and NO medication of any kind. So I have options for the shrimp, hermits and snails if I need to move them.

Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

[Tomh]

You definitely can’t keep anything with damsels! Other than that I will let someone else chime in! Thanks

 

[tonmo]

If I am looking at things correctly, it LOOKS like there are little black dots in those eggs, which suggests they are indeed fertile, and you will soon have babies! +1 on removing damsels.

You may want to also research what it takes to ship juvenile cephs; there's an article here:

Packing and Shipping Cephalopods

Best practices in cephalopod transport

tonmo.com

Hopefully we'll get some further expert support here (that's not me). I think "brown pacific" is considered a generic reference; knowing exact species would be helpful. Did you source this ceph from an LFS?

 

[Thales]

Can you get better pics of the octo and eggs so we can ID the octopus? Also, what temp are you keeping her. If you are keeping her at tropical temps, she is likely a small egged species and raising the paralarvae will be an exercise in frustration (no one have really been successful at it). If she is a cooler water octopus, or we can thell the size of the eggs, they may hatch into more benthic paralarvae and you will have a chance at raising them. I look forward to more info!

 

[mvanfleet]

Can you get better pics of the octo and eggs so we can ID the octopus? Also, what temp are you keeping her. If you are keeping her at tropical temps, she is likely a small egged species and raising the paralarvae will be an exercise in frustration (no one have really been successful at it). If she is a cooler water octopus, or we can thell the size of the eggs, they may hatch into more benthic paralarvae and you will have a chance at raising them. I look forward to more info!

Temp is at 78*. I got her online from saltwaterfish.com, and they just list her as Brown Pacific octopus. It is frustrating because i know it is a "general" classification, i just wish i knew her exact species. I will try to get better pictures, i was worried about stressing her out as I have to move around the rock she has made her den in.

 

[mvanfleet]

If I am looking at things correctly, it LOOKS like there are little black dots in those eggs, which suggests they are indeed fertile, and you will soon have babies! +1 on removing damsels.

You may want to also research what it takes to ship juvenile cephs; there's an article here:

Packing and Shipping Cephalopods

Best practices in cephalopod transport

tonmo.com

Hopefully we'll get some further expert support here (that's not me). I think "brown pacific" is considered a generic reference; knowing exact species would be helpful. Did you source this ceph from an LFS?

I also noticed those black dots and came to the same conclusion about them being fertile. Thank you for the link, I will check it out. I got her online at saltwaterfish.com and they just have her listed as a Brown pacific, which I have learned is a generic classification.

 

[mvanfleet]

I am most concerned with food for the babies. I really want to be prepared. I understand with a small egg species I, and my wife, will be left broken hearted. But I want to prepare for the chance that the babies will survive. What do i feed them? I am worried i wont be able to find the food locally. Are there any special tank preparations I need to make? other than all power-heads off and i have gotten a fine mesh to place over the overflow to prevent them getting into the sump?

 

[Thales]

I am most concerned with food for the babies. I really want to be prepared. I understand with a small egg species I, and my wife, will be left broken hearted. But I want to prepare for the chance that the babies will survive. What do i feed them? I am worried i wont be able to find the food locally.

We don't know. If you are keeping it tropical temps it is likely a small egged species. The seeming most reasonable food is crab zoea, and you would need different sizes at different paralarval stages. Raising zoea is a whole, not easy, project in itself. Sadly, the readily available food have been tried a bunch and will kind of just be a waste of effort and money on your part. You could do plankton tows and hope to get something that htey can eat, but as they grow you are going to need different foods.

Are there any special tank preparations I need to make? other than all power-heads off and i have gotten a fine mesh to place over the overflow to prevent them getting into the sump?

Best bet is raise them in a black round tub, or molar system.

Sorry to sound like a dream crusher, but I and a lot of other folks have banged our collective heads against this a whole lot.

We don't know, and the odds that you are going to stumble across something easily available with the time you have left before hatching, if they eggs are viable, is low.
Keeping cephs is wonderful and terrible.

 

[Hadla]

Shoot I wish you were closer as I’d love to raise some!

I’ll keep my fingers crossed and congrats! I’m hoping my merc is female and lays fertilized eggs

 

[tonmo]

thinking of you, @mvanfleet -- how has this developed?

 

[mvanfleet]

thinking of you, @mvanfleet -- how has this developed?

Not great and very sad. We had not seen her for a couple weeks and during this last weekends cleaning we found her den empty and what I suspect were decomposing tentacles. I vacuumed up what looked like uneaten food on the sand bed before finding her, so I am thinking that was the babies as we don't feed that tank that much. But we had been away for a couple days so i thought maybe my wife feed extra to the crabs and shrimp before we left. So not a happy ending, but I did what I could. I wish I would have seen the eggs hatch.