which octo?

[sulley]

unfortunately i see eggs in her den..d you said she wasnt near the end couold anything have kicked this in action?

 

[DWhatley]

d you said she wasnt near the end

Mantle size on yours(name?) is definite adult but not necessarily at the end of its life.

It does seem to be the time of year for spawning in this species and you may be lucky enough to have viable eggs (KaySoh - probably brooding and Legs - not yet brooding,will not have fertile eggs because of the age at capture, small possibility with Creepy but she is not brooding yet). I have wondered aloud if moving an octo to a tank environment advances the timeframe (not likely to be the case with Legs since she was raised from tiny in a tank). It may be that females about to brood are just easier to catch since they eat more just before brooding but Maya, as well as Serendipity, haunt me as I feel they brooded too young. Roy seems to think food (the abundance) may be a factor but I am thinking more about tempature right now.

 

[sulley]

maybe temp does have something to do with it,,, i live in buffalo and was quite cold for awhile, also to and from the store..my question is what is the best next step. just leave the lights off or keep them on the cycle? just dont want her to be too stressed just enjoy the rest of her time

 

[DWhatley]

A short trip (like to and from the store) should not be a concern as they see some fluctuation in water temp all year. It would be an interesting experiment with sibblings to alter the temperatures but the tank requirements for even a small test would not be easily managed.

I wish I had suggestions for comfort but I don't. We have never changed the lighting during brooding but that doesn't mean it would or would not make a difference. KaySoh will stll take a crab if she detects it near her den and we do continue to encourage feeding. I wish I had a photo of what we saw two days ago - straight out of a horror film. The crab was near the back of the tank on the rock one minute, two pink arms shot up the wall, found the crab and took it below the next. She does not take frozen shrimp now at all though.

 

[sulley]

did she eat the crab? wondering if it was just trying to protect eggs? tuck would take the food then later spit it out the backside

 

[DWhatley]

We are 90% sure she did. I have dropped a couple of crabs in the back that never reappeared and did not know if she was actually eating them but this time we saw hunting behavior (of sorts) and feel the was obtaining food and not protecting any eggs that may or may not be (we can't see) in the rocks below.

Edit: I found emptied claw and shell so I upping the percentage to 98% ;>)

 

[Animal Mother]

That's a heck of a deal! Good luck with it.

 

[sulley]

well yesterday morning i found her out of the den to my surprise on the other side of the tank....she quickly went back in when she saw me...offered frozen and she took it and it stayed in the den.. today i offered a fiddler and she gladly accepted...tough to see how the eggs are progressing but i can see glimpses of them when she is positioned right

 

[sulley]

she is still taking care of the eggs....hard to see if any development on them though as they are on the roof of her den and she is consistantly playing with them...when would they rot

 

[DWhatley]

Roy and I both had infertile hummelincki/filosus eggs to be gone in 2 weeks but I don't know what conditions might impact that. The large egged species seem to take quite awhile to hatch (the GPO brooding time is the longest I know of and are still small egged but in very cold water) and you can expect up to 10 weeks. I remember waiting for Connany's eggs to hatch and it seemed to take forever but you can scan for dates to get a more realilistic timeframe for a successful hatching

 

[sulley]

i can see the bottom of the eggs, hard to say if there is any development...she has been eating a lot lately though...definetely not interactive at all.. seen her outside of her den twice since she went in..just to keep ya updated

 

[sulley]

eggs still there...wont take frozen only live...

 

[sulley]

okay so tonight i decided to move one of the smaller rocks just to get a look at the eggs and low and behold they are still there and i can definetely see "spots" in them now... it has been roughly a month since she laid..also she really wont take crabs anymore...she just kills them then kicks them back out of her den....she does however love crayfish all of a sudden...is this normal? any advice on what to do from here? from what i have seen in the limited stories i have about a month left before they start to hatch

 

[DWhatley]

Crayfish is one food source I have been wanting to try for an occassional meal but I have not seen any live that are relatively small (I have to drive 40-50 miles to find live anything so I don't look often). I have asked but not had any volunteer answers about how a brooding female get freshwater to avoid dehydration when she fasts as it is my understanding that all saltwater creatures get their hydration from food and cannot assimilate it from the saltwater. The thought brings up a lot of questions and interesting things to look at if you have the equipment and time. I have seen reports that the female will eat some of her eggs to survive and I wonder if the sack content is saline or freshwater. Steve is going to put me on the list of folks who think round rocks are pertified squid eyes but I keep trying to answer the question with anecdotal observations. Since crayfish are freshwater critters, I have to wonder if you are not on to something we have overlooked.

The only timing I can remember would be to look at Connany's thread. I combined Joe's posts into one thread and you should be able to get an idea on timing for briareus. I want to say as long as 10 weeks but check out the thread to be sure as I may well be misremembering.

 

[sulley]

well if i did stumble onto something i tripped over a lot of things before.....it was the 10th thing i offered that she finally accepted lol.....went through every possible frozen...fiddlers, emeralds, pep shrimp etc..she would just kill them then quickly discard them out of her den...then the kid at the lfs said to try the crayfish...i saw a couple of sites that said it was fine so i tried it..she loves them... so those breeder net things for them after they hatch