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What do I do with all these EGGS??

Joined
Mar 24, 2004
Messages
11
I woke up one morning to find my octopus dead in the tank. Being highly attached to him, there was no way I could flush it, so I had to wait for my boyfriend to get back in town (two days later). Glad we waited. There were eggs in his (we THOUGHT it was a boy) mantle. As he was purchased less than three months ago, I am HOPING they are fertilized. However, I haven't the slightest on how to rear them. Any help?
 
IMO -

Without the help of a female octo, you are going to have a fun task.

The eggs need to be secured and gently aerated and cleaned almost continually.

Sorry to hear about your loss, but perhaps with determination you could rear the eggs!

After a few days you should see a black dot in the egg about the size of a pen head. This would be the best way to determine if the are fertilized.

If the eggs were stationary in the mantle, you really need to get them affixed somewhere in the tank and start some water flowing through them gently!

GL to you!!
 
I put them in a livebearing fish separation box (it's basically a net around a box frame) near the top of the tank. I don't think I see any black specs in the eggs, but there is a white glob in most of them. Some of them are red--I believe this is from the portion of her mantle where she had a sore. Do I need to take out the red ones?

I'm about to put in an air stone in there to provide more airation. Do I need anything else in there?

I was going to attach a picture of the eggs, but the USB isn't working.
 
Sorry if I misslead you, but what I ment by aeration, was to have water moving them. Typicaly an mother octo would spend all day spinning and cleaning the eggs by gently rubbing them. You need to replicate this behavior, not air, but with water cirrculation.

The eggs should not be resting on their sides if possible. I would get all of them just in case, but prolly low hopes here.

Does not sound like time was available for her to clump the eggs together, or am I wrong in assuming that?

Pics would be great if you can pull it off.
 
They weren't strung together at all. That's why I thought putting them in the fish breeding net providing enough airation to keep them from settling too much might help. Any suggestions?
 
To keep eggs in constant movement you could use a plastic bottle or bowl that has a rounded bottom, that way the water movement keeps the eggs moving, for movement a small airstone might work.

Keeping them clean and moving is a constant job for a female octopus, tricky to replicate
 
The eggs are quite large and there's not very many of them (~100).

I can't seem to keep them suspended. They keep settling around the parameter of the breeder box...though they look SO much cleaner than yesterday.

Still no sign of a black dot inside of them, though. There is a little string on the top of each individual on and I played around with the idea of stringing them together myself. But that seems like a lot of work if I'm not sure if they are fertilized or not. :o)
 

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