just noticed octopus eggs...

[Rudiger]

Hi. I just discovered this forum, and I recognize many of your names from tonmo.com. My octopus is species joubini, or so I was told. I put a lot of live rock in my tank the other day, and wanted to remove the fake plastic rock where my octo was living. After a little game of tug-o-war with my octopus she (I thought it was a he) eventually came out on her own. After removing the plastic rock I noticed the inside was covered with eggs, so thats why she wouldn't come out! I gave her the rock back and she is back inside it. I only got the octo 2 months ago, so there is a chance the eggs are fertile, Im guessing the eggs are a one or two weeks old (about two weeks ago she stopped coming out of her cave except for food).

Okay, here are my questions:

How long does it take before there are signs of something growing in the eggs? If the eggs are infertile Id like to get rid of the rock.

Anyone know how long it takes joubini eggs to hatch?

The octopus's last meal was four days ago, but I think she will take food when I feed her tonight. How much longer do you think she will live?

Thanks.

 

[cephalopoder]

Hi Rudiger. Welcome to Reef Centrals Cephalopod forum.
O.Joubini is a pygmy octopus living at depths of 30 feet or more. This species is usually out of the collection range of most divers. O mercatoris is a shallow water pygmy octopus in the same range as O. joubini. Often it is O. mercatoris that is sold under the joubini name. One way to tell them apart is when eggs are laid. Joubini lays lots of small eggs that hatch into planktonic young and O. mercatoris lays a smaller number of eggs the size of a grain of rice. These hatch into benthic young.
In about two weeks or so you should be able to see eye spots. But there is a good chance they are fertile any way if you have only had the octo for 2 months. The eggs should hatch somewhere in the ball park of 45 days give or take from the time they were laid.
If they are planktonic young, they will be impossible to rear. If they are benthic they can be reared. I would leave the rock with the eggs in either way. You will get to see the miracle of birth and you will have time to get ready if they are a large egg species so you can attempt rearing them.
The female will live for awhile until she shows sighs of senescence. She then can be a danger to the eggs and destroy them so you must be alert. Where in NH are you?
chris

 

[OctoMonkey]

Rudiger
you may want to check this link.........
http://www.jimbolouislabs.com/eggjournal.htm

Colin

 

[Rudiger]

I guess the octo is really O. mercatoris because it only layed about twenty eggs and they are big (size of a grain of rice). Cephalopoder- Im from hanover, Im a student at hanover high school. Where are in in NH? Im hoping the eggs are fertile. Right now the top (the part of the egg that goes to a point and attaches to the rock) quarter of the egg is clear, and the bottom 3/4 is white, or clear with white stuff in it. But it is solid white, no signs of eyes or ink sacs or anything.

 

[OctoMonkey]

Thats what my eggs (well the octo's eggs) looked like for the first few weeks. I think i noticed eyes after about 3 weeks or so????
Did you check Jim woods pages for info on O. mercatoris ??? There are some pics there plus pics of eggs etc.
C

 

[cephalopoder]

I am in Nashua. If you plan on raiseing any hatchlings you need to start now in getting preped. Email me off line if you want my number for some local help. Sounds like you have a excellent chance to be a father. Hopefully the eye spots will show up soon.
chris

 

[Rudiger]

Yeah I read that egg journal. Very informative and very amusing too. However, I am not able to do what he did. The limiting factors are space and money. With some careful engineering I can probably set up a 10 gallon tank next to my main tank and rig some system so that the 10 gallon shares its water with the main tank. Then I could move the rock with the eggs into the 10 gallon. This would actually be a nice set up because then I could get a bimac octopus to live in the main tank. Then I am left with the problem of food for the babies...

I don't think I would be able to, or really have the interest to grow microalgae to feed to amphipods to feed to copepodes to feed to the babies (or however the foodchain goes). I know it might sound cruel, but would it be possible to just let the little guys eat each other, get a little natural selection going, and in the end have one well fed baby octopus? On second thought though, I read they eat about three "prey items" their own body size each day, and there wouldn't even be enough of them to fullfil that requirement. Ill keep thinking.

pat

 

[cephalopoder]

If you want I could take the eggs off your hands. I have a full labratory set up just for rearing small hatchlings and infinite food resources.
chris

 

[Rudiger]

Actually in my next post I was planning on offering you the eggs, since you are within driving distance. Ill wait until I see eye spots developing, because right now I cannot tell if the eggs are fertile or not. If they are fertile I would love to offer them to you because I do not have the resources to care for them.

 

[cephalopoder]

Most excellent!
Thanks

 

[Rudiger]

I took another look at the eggs (its hard to do because they are behind the mother octo) and there are still no signs of eye patches. However, the eggs could still be as young as a week old, but more likely two+ weeks old. I was able to get some pictures of the eggs, and I also saw a weird ball of goo the size of a very large pea stuck to the cave wall with the eggs. Anyone know what this is? It might show up in the pictures. Ill post those in a little bit.

pat

 

[Rudiger]

Here are the eggs and that weird thing I mentioned. Although it looks like there are eye spots on the egg, that is just glare from the flashlight. The eggs are deep inside a plastic cave so to photograph them I had to use a light.

 

[Rudiger]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, in that picture that is just the eggs that are photographable. Deeper inside the cave I counted at least 43 more eggs.