Where can I learn to rear O. Bimaculoides eggs?

[Joe-Ceph]

I'm planning to catch and keep wild Bimacs, so there's a chance I could get a fertile female that lays large eggs (Bimaculoides?). If that happens I'd like to be prepared with the knowledge and equipment to rear them. Can anyone point me to some references from which I can learn how to raise baby bimacs?

I also want to ask a few very preliminary questions:
1) Will Females lay unfertilized eggs, or will they just skip laying eggs if they've never mated?
2) Can I rely on the reported difference in eye-spots to differentiate between O. Bimaculoides (large eggs) and O. Bimaculatus (small eggs), or is that method unreliable?
3) Is there any chance that a wild caught female with a 2" or 2.5" mantle is fertile? Must they be fully grown adults to mate?
4) How easy/difficult is it to rear O.Bimaculoides eggs (or whichever of the two lays large eggs)?

Thanks!

 

[monty]

Zyan Silver described his setup and experience in some detail in the June 2007 Tropical Fish Hobbyist issue, that's the best info source I know of for bimacs in particular. marinebio_guy raised bimacs last year, too, but I don't remember him writing up much about it, although he might be happy to answer questions. The best forum info I can think of is dwhatley's journals about raising mercatoris babies, "Trapper's Babies" being the main thread, but I think some info is in other threads with "Trapper" in the name.

 

[daddysquoc]

the O. bimaculoides is the one that lays the large eggs. however, the eyespot thing is often pretty hard to know for sure. yes females can lay infertile eggs, and sadly they still die after brooding them.

 

[Joe-Ceph]

Where can I find the June 2007 TFH article?

Zyan Silver described his setup and experience in some detail in the June 2007 Tropical Fish Hobbyist issue

Zyan's article was entitled "An Octopus Success", but I can't find the article online, and I don't have a physical copy. Does anyone know where I can find the content? Can someone who has the issue scan the article and email it to me?

The issue is available on eBay for $20 () but I'd like to avoid going that route.

 

[monty]

Zyan's article was entitled "An Octopus Success", but I can't find the article online, and I don't have a physical copy. Does anyone know where I can find the content? Can someone who has the issue scan the article and email it to me?

The issue is available on eBay for $20 () but I'd like to avoid going that route.

You can get the issue from TFH directly for $10 including postage, so ebay is clearly not a good choice:

http://www.tfhmagazine.com/subscriptions/order-a-back-issue--article/

(they'll also send an article for $8, but the extra $2 is probably worth it for the other articles)

They also donated a box of this issue to TONMOCON2, but I don't know if there were leftovers, or who would have them (Tony? Someone at Mote?) or if they're allowed to be distributed. There was some talk about TFH allowing TONMO to post the articles with the authors' permissions after some time has elapsed, and I'm not sure what the status of that is, particularly since Zyan's been at school and not posting much.