Breeding O.bimaculoides

[cephalopoder]

Last winter I received a small wild caught O.bimaculoides from Jack at fishsupply. It was the smallest specimen I have ever received from him. It grew into an adult male and by fall and I figured I would try breeding it with a female. With no way to acquire a guaranteed female I took a chance and at the end of September I had Jack keep his eyes open for a very large bimac for me. It took a good month of looking but Jack came though as always with what he called a large bimac. The order was shipped and on 11/8/02. The next day I received an adult bimac that was smaller than the male I had. Luck was with me and I sexed it at being a female. Over the next 6 days I breed the female with my male. The mating was a little rough at first but it soon moved along nicely and over the course of a week I witnessed the male inserting its hectocotylus into the female’s mantle repeatedly.Playing a little sergio mendez seemed to have helped set the mood After 6 days I donated the male to a local reef store. The male passed away early December. It lived for about 9 months all together in captivity.
The female ate and moved around for about two weeks before boarding up in her PVC elbow and blocked it with shells and rocks. I assumed she was getting ready to lay eggs.
I never got a chance to see the eggs but I was pretty sure she was doing her thing. She would still eat for about a month although the amount of food she would consume reduced as time went on.
Last night I looked into my tank and saw three baby octopuses clinging on the glass.
Today I found even more and tonight I counted over a dozen so far. So after about 60 days at a water temp of 72F my bimac eggs have started hatching. The mother is still alive but has stopped eating as of 3 weeks ago. Now the challenge of supplying enough food begins! I will keep you all posted of my progress. And of course I will have to find homes for all the little ones should every thing go well!
I will post some pics soon!
Chris

[cephalopoder]

Here is one taken from this morning.

[febtober]

they are so cute that small. nice job getting them to breed and good luck raising the little guys.

[cephalopoder]

Here is a pic showing the small false eyespot on the young bimaculoides.

[OctoMonkey]

Hey chris
the babies eem to be really well developed at hatching!
never expected them to have the eyespot already!

Are they feeding yet?

C

[cephalopoder]

Here is a pic showing its ability to blend it with a rock.
Right from birth these babies look exactly like minature versions of the adults and have personalities. I have seen them squirt little bursts of ink and are even taking food from a probe.

[cephalopoder]

Colin
The little hatchlings are eating like pigs! They have cute little horns over each eye and all the features if the adults. The besy part is being able to watch them hunt during the day. I have thus far kept them in the main tank. They seem to do well and have a good supply of pods. Whlile the reast of america was sitting at home watching the superbowl, I was wearing hip waiters wading in the dark cold newengland ocean gathering food for the babies! Is that dedication or what!
I will post some pics of the adults mating soon.

[cephalopoder]

Here is a picture of the two bimacs mating. The modified third arm can clearly be seen reaching into the females mantle.

[johnrags1234]

Absolutely amazing! Will you be doing this often? The reason I ask is because I am looking to aquire a bimac. I would love CB, though I know fishsupply.com has great bimacs.

[cephalopoder]

Welcome johnrags1234
I would love to keep doing this, but I would like to get though this hatch out first and see how things go. The hardest part is getting a male and female that are both adults so they can be sexed. It is a very small window of opportunity and timing has to be perfect.
I have learned a few tricks along the way and made some great connections so every little piece of knowledge will make future attempts easier…..I hope lol.
I took this picture today. I had fed one of the babies a tiny limpet I captured off the glass. The little octo has a meal complete with bowl lol.
Chris

[jonbondy]

Chris:

I was delighted to learn about your new octopus babies.

Are you going to be able to write up your experience, so that some of the rest of us can give it a try?

Other than luck with timing and sex, what are the major obstacles we might encounter when trying this? I have my bimac in a 75 gallon tank: would this be large enough to house another bimac? Will it be difficult to feed the babies?



Jon

[cephalopoder]

Hi Jon
I am keeping a log on everything that takes place.
I will post it down the road.
The whole process is a challenge to be honest. The hardest part I feel is getting a male and female of the right age. The average life span of an octopus is a year so you don't have much time to locate the opposite sex once you determine the sex of the one you have.
Food is the other challenge. Baby octopuses need about 3-5 prey items each day. They also require live food. Brine shrimp will not work; it does not contain enough HUFAs. You need prey like, amphipods, copepods, mysid shrimp, isopods. If you have ten baby octopuses, you will need 30-50 prey items a day. Multiply that by 7 days a week and at a minimum you are looking at 210 live prey items a week, 850 prey items the first month. Now if you have more than 10 hatchlings let’s say 50 the amount of live food can get mind blowing. Living by the ocean is a major plus. I reared one baby O.mercatoris last year from an egg. I had a 20 gallon tub of amphipods and macro algae that I was growing for about 3 months before hand. The tub was depleted in a few weeks and trips to the ocean were needed every other week. You can order things like live mysids but it gets very costly. So your best bet if you want to rear octopuses down the road is to find a way to acquire a good food source first. This is critical and the foundation for success. A 75 would be plenty big enough.
chris

[johnrags1234]

How much time does an endeaver like this take up? You must be one dedicated cepholapoder! I am going to my LFS today to check out what octos they have in. I wont be buying any of course, I have ALOT more research ahead of me!

[cephalopoder]

Well johnrags.... It takes up all your time lol. I would really recommend keeping octos for a few years before taking the breeding challenge. You are going to need a lot of prep work. Its a blast though!

[cephalopoder]

Thought I would post a pic of the amount of food you need to get you by for about a week with a brood of baby cephs. This is a 5 gallon bucket of amphipods from a trip to the ocean.

[johnrags1234]

WOW! Looks like fun! lol. How much mortality occurs with the foodstuffs? How big are they [octos] now?!?!? Isnt the ocean kinda cold to be waiding in this time of year?

Good luck!
john

[cephalopoder]

You do loose some pods each day. BUt in a good haul you can afford to loose some because you get thousands. THe most important thing is to let them warm up slowly to room temperture.
The amphipods range in size from just born to about 1/2" The isopods "Ideotea baltica" can get larger to almost 1". The isopods are much more hardy than the amphipods and keep better.
The water temp is fine! My waders are great. But then again your talking to some one that has cut a hole though 20" of ice in mid february and gone ice dive in a wetsuit! (not drysuit)

[cephalopoder]

Just a update. Its been 3 weeks from hatching and I have about 20 babies all doing well.
Momma octo past away last week. The little ones have pretty much been hand fed every day for the last two weeks. Here is one of the newest pics of a baby in excited posture.

[cephalopoder]

Its been over a month now and the little guys are doing great. They have doubbled in size and are now taking small whole ghost shrimp. It looks like they are hitting a growth spurt and are more bold every day. Some get so excited to be fed they make a mad swim across the tank and lunge at the feeding stick. When they shoot out ink it looks like little smoke signals comming from the rocks.
I have to admit that rearing baby bimacs is much more fun than pygmy octopuses that are nocturnal.

[noni]

hey chris, just like you said, i put a cap on the elbow and she went in to do her thing. she has not eaten all day even when i put a juicy live morsel in her pvc cave. do you think i got lucky?

[cephalopoder]

Maybe George, it's that time of the year. I would leave a few of your shrimps in the tank and see if they get eaten. I would also put in some shells and rocks if you don't already have some in with her. If your octo blocks up the entrence, keeps refusing to eat or slows down on eating and won't come out of ther elbow... You could have a gravid female. Best of luck to you!

[noni]

Thanks for the info, I will keep you posted on her progress.
It is an exciting time for me and my family to actually be a part of another one of natures miracles.

[noni]

I saw the eggs today. we have a gravid female after all. I saw at least 25 or more in back of tube. she came out to feed and let me look inside.

[wee-reefer]

Neat-o, I think they are some awesome creatures! Too bad I don't live closer, I'd love to have one Keep up the great work!!

[cephalopoder]

Awesome job george!
Well you have 2 months to get ready. Man you must be excited! Round up a small tank and get it plumbed for the hatchlings. It will make it easier to feed them.