Octo egg laying

[Sun_Shining]

Does anyone have any information on Mimic/Wonderpus octo's offspring? Are they phelagic or benthic?

We have a female mimic/wonderpus that is currently carrying her eggs around. She was with a male about three weeks ago and they showed either agreession or mating behavior when the "male" pinned the female flat on her back with all "his" arms laid out on her arms. We can't take credit for breeding them as the behavior occurred in the Invert Section of a really high quality LFS. We purchased the "male" and then went back for the female. The "male" had been there for a month, and the female a week or so.

The male unfortunately died from an injury to his sack (we are stumped on that one cause we were very very careful in setting up his tank). The female is carrying her eggs around her tank. (we have video and pics). We're waiting for her to deposit them. She is in a 65 tank with a 10" sand bed in which she has been building a burrow.

I have to say, this is one of the most bittersweet moments we've had in keeping unusual animals, cause we have this truly amazing animal laying eggs, which is awesome, but we know the end of her life span is at hand.

 

[Myopia]

Wow a mimic is very hard to keep, how long have you kept yours?

 

[OCTO OAKLEY]

hey i just aquired one yesterday! but umm do you know if there is anyway you would be able to send them pics and vids too me? if so send it to oakley_chlopitsky@hotmail.com so if you can please do! thanx!

 

[Myopia]

Or host them! I really want to see it.

 

[Feelers]

Mimic octopuses are in danger of being over-exploited and very little is known about them.
They were only discovered (supposedly) in 1998.

Perhaps you could contact the NRCC (national research center on cephalopods.) and possibly donate the eggs there. This is a small egg species - (ie has very small larvae) that would be very hard to raise.

If you havent already I would suggest joining up on www.tonmo.com. (the octopus news magazine online)

Aquaculturing this species hasnt been attempted (as far as I know) and could help prevent the damge being done to the natural population. On tonmo there are some breeders who could perhaps help point you in the right direction, or perhaps try to grow the eggs.

 

[mucktopus]

Both mimic and wunderpus are potentially overexploited (yes- very good info on Tonmo). They're differenct species though with different egg sizes, so I've included the link below that gives a little explanation about how to tell the difference between them. The mimic lays small eggs with planktonic young, while Wunderpus lays eggs that are of intermediate size, and no one knows if they're planktonic or crawl-away (although probably crawl-away). If they are crawl-away then you might have as good a chance as any at raising them by keeping hatchlings separate and feeding them amphipods, copepods and mysids, then increasing prey size as they get bigger. Shipping the eggs can be tough. "Righty" on Tonmo has written a fair bit about the risks of shipping cuttlefish eggs, and those are even robust, large eggs. Shipping small eggs would be pretty tough and their chances for survival in culture would be slim anyway (many discussions on Tonmo).

I'd love to see pics!

(scroll down to wunderpus to find out how to tell it apart from the mimic- Thaumoctopus mimicus)
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~chuffard/index_files/Cast.htm

 

[Sun_Shining]

Right now she has totally buried in her sand burrow and covered the opening with seashells. She was carrying her eggs around for a couple hours. We're hoping that she since she has buried with her eggs in the deep sand bed that maybe she has crawl away babies... otherwise how would they get out of the burrow to be come planktonic?
Thanks for the link. We've been to that site a couple times before we purchased her when we kept other species of octos. Thanks for the info!!

 

[mucktopus]

Sounds like the octopus is behaving normally. She'll probably push some of the rubble away before the eggs hatch to let the young get away easily. Keep an eye out for this behaviour, and fingers crossed for crawl-away young.

 

[Sun_Shining]

Will keep you posted. Fingers crossed is right!!

 

[Sun_Shining]

We believe that she is a wonderpus. She came out of her burrow last night and was cruising around the tank. We got a magnified picture of her eggs. They are small, almost clear, and a little bit bigger than her suckers near her mouth. We counted only seven before she moved.

My husband, the true genius behind our accomplishments, said there is a good chance that the eggs are infertile. We'll have to wait and see.

 

[mucktopus]

How exciting- and wow- that is tiny! Since she mated, I'd imaging some of them are fertile. The eggs will probably appear milky white for up to a week or two (maybe longer), and then start to show signs of development. At some point you'll see tiny black specks where the eyes will be. Tiny arms will start to form, and then chromatophores during the last stages. Thanks for the info- can't wait to hear how it turns out.

 

[Sun_Shining]

The reason I suggested they may be infertile is that we are still not sure if she actually mated. We did not witness the behavior and are not sure if it was aggression or mating. Its neat either way.

She made her current burrow on the corner of the by the glass. So we can see her while she is sleeping. Covered up the opening with seashells and rubble. Pretty cool.

 

[mucktopus]

"The reason I suggested they may be infertile is that we are still not sure if she actually mated. We did not witness the behavior and are not sure if it was aggression or mating. Its neat either way. "

That makes sense. I've never seen mating by this species but the male has a very short mating arm ("hectocotylus") so he has to mount the female to mate. All those long arms, flopping around- from what I hear it's really hard to tell the difference between fighing and mating.
Thanks for sharing this with us. I look forward to the updates.

 

[Boxingcrab]

Would love to see any pictures or videos if you happen to have any.

 

[nancyocto]

I talked with someone at the NRCC labs today - they would take wunderpus or mimic eggs and try to raise the hatchlings. You might want to contact them - they're in Galveston, Texas.

Nancy

 

[Sun_Shining]

We've raised high maintenance babies both free swimming and benthic before. We've raised H. Reidi and H. Ingens seahorses babies to adult-hood so we're no strangers to the process.

She is still coming out occasionally and cruising around the tank. Goes from burrow to burrow and is still carrying her eggs. I can't tell if they are developing though, she won't sit still long enough. Will keep you posted.

 

[nancyocto]

Could you please tell us about how you're keeping your wunderpus - tank temperature, pH, water parameters. Obviously you've had success.

Thanks very much,
Nancy

 

[Sun_Shining]

She is in a 65 gallon aquarium with a 8-10 inch sand bed.
There is a large Vortex Canister filter on it which turns over the water 3 times an hour, and a screen top on the tank.

The temp is 75, and there is little to no live rock in the tank. She buries in each corner and under the algae rock in the center of the tank. Salinity is at 1.025. The tank has been set up for a while and was well established as a reef tank before we moved all the live rock and out and added the deep sand bed.

she free swims across the tank, and climbs all over the glass.

 

[Gonodactylus]

If the eggs were fertile, they probably should have hatched by now. Any update would be appreciated.

Roy

 

[Sun_Shining]

Okay, sorry it has taken me so long to post. Her eggs were infertile and she stopped carrying them about a week after she laid them. Then sadly she did the egg laying octo thing and died two days ago. Working on getting some video and pics to post of her. What a wonderful animal.