• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

We've got eggs!

Mark, if TONMO gave an award for animal husbandry, you would win!

Have they grown appreciably since hatching? They must be eating, and like Colin, I want to know (and I bet other readers do too) if you can see them eating. Would that take a great deal of luck with the microscope?

We are taking up so much of your time with our questions, when you would probably rather be watching inklings!

Melissa
 
Growth?

They haven't grown that I can measure. We're probably getting a different individual each time I put one under the microscope, so it's hard to be certain. But I'd say most of them are actually between 2mm and 2.5mm. At 60x magnification, the field is 3.5mm wide, so I'm using their size relative to the size of the picture to estimate length.

We think we've seen feeding behavior, but we're not certain. We haven't captured it under the microscope. But to the naked eye, sometimes it looks like they're feeding. When we turn on a bright desk lamp to the side of the tank (only occasionally) the rotifers move towards the light, and the inklings seem to follow.

I'm hoping to borrow some time at a biology lab at a local university in the next few days. Hopefully I'll be able to better observe things on a better microscope.


There's bad news today too. We had substantial deaths in about half of the rearing chambers. In studying the differences between the chambers where they did well and those where many died, I think we've been overfeeding them. We're probably overwhelming them with rotifers that die before they can be eaten. So I've flushed the water in the rearing chambers, re-stocked them with fresh hatchlings, and am now being much more controlled about the feeding. I got a good maginying glass and was able to estimate the density of our rotifer cultures at 80/ml for one and 100/ml for the other. So now I'm using a syringe to draw a calibrated amount of solution from the rotifer culture in an attempt to keep the prey density at 100-200/liter by adding a little bit many times a day.

We also setup a third tank, using a different paradigm. This is a bare 10G tank, filled with about 8G of salt water. There's a heater and an airstone and that's it. We put in about 100 inklings, and am dosing it with "Ultimate", the water conditioner we were sent with the rotifer culture. This de-toxifies ammonia etc. so that you don't need a bio filter.

We're probably got another day of fresh hatchlings before I won't be able to re-stock from any further problems. And I'm not getting any of my work done this week. It's a good thing I'm self-employed (though my clients aren't happy...).

-Mark
 
I must say, this is terribly fascinating to follow. I've always wondered about the rearing of paralarval cephalopods. I wish you luck!
 
Re: Pictures

Congradulations on the inklets. Penelope's webcam was the first thing that brought me to Tonmo.

maractwin said:
So far we haven't killed any of the inklings. This means that he is swimming in circles in the drop of water on the microscope while I'm trying to snap pictures. I know the right way is to add a drop of alcohol, killing it so that it stays still and I can get pictures. But I haven't been willing to do that yet.

Good!, please don't kill the little babies for a better picture. The pictures are awesome as is! What will you guys do with all of them?!? Unlike practically everything else that size these beasties have the potential to grow to be as big, beautiful and intelligent as Penelope. They're not inconsequencial paramisia or water-flees. Good luck with them - I'm sure you could sell a few to good homes on Tonmo. :smile:
 
They're not inconsequencial paramisia or water-flees

Bah! nothing wrong with paramecium or Brachiopods! I'm rearing some Triops right now and enjoying that nearly as much as octos... :lol: :lol:

Only time will tell with the paralarvae... They are much more difficult to rear than larvae from large egg species... not that it can't be done, it has, but it will be a great achievment if the larvae eventually settle and grow on from there :smile:



fingers crossed
 
nah, I agree...... I am gulity of sending millions of daphnia to their premature deaths in all sorts of aquaria! :?
 
Colin the paramecia murderer. hehe. Colin the ripper...
I did want to say though, that this thread is absolutely amazing to me...you have a lot of dedication, Mark. I too am self employed, but I have to bow to your octo-raising project :notworth: !!!
Very impressive. I am also out to buy a microscope-dig/pic at Toysrus this weekend...great idea!
Thanks!
Greg
 
Sad news

We just lost the last of the inklings. So five and half days was the longest we could keep them alive. They held on longest in the rearing chambers in Mom's tank.

I've certainly learned a lot from this. I may well want to try again at some point. There are a number of things I would do differently. And I'm not convinced that rotifers are a good first food for them.

I'll probably write an article about this experience to try to share some of this.

-Mark
 
Dont worry about it Mark, it is a very tricky thing to do...

Perhaps getting bimac eggs or briareus or some other large egg species would be a way of getting experience at rearing larvae which are easier to start with?

As you said, you have learned a lot from this and so have the rest of the TONMO.com community so please continue to share any observations and future projects.

all the best
Colin
 

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