Octopus

[DHyslop]

Hello everyone,

My name is Dan, and I’m not a diver, but I am looking for one.

A little background: I’m a saltwater aquarium enthusiast currently living in New England. There’s a small subset of hobbyists who keep octopus and cuttlefish in home aquariums. The favorite octopus is O. bimaculoides because it is generally diurnal, interactive and small enough to be quite happy in a 75 gallon tank. I’m sure all of you know this animal as the two-spot mudflat octopus.

In days long past it was common practice for aquarium distributors to have divers capture wild octopus and FedEx them out to buyers. This was not ideal because the animals sent were generally adults without long to live, not to mention the stress caused to the animal by being plucked out of the wild. A few years ago a place in Carlsbad started aquaculturing this species of octopus for the aquarium hobby. This octopus has relatively large, benthic hatchlings that are comparatively easy to feed. Captive breeding allowed younger octopus to be sent to hobbyists without environmental impact and with significantly less stress to the animal (a 1” octopus is going to be a lot happier going cross country in a bag of water than an 8” octopus!).

Unfortunately this breeder, Octopets, closed last month. Some California aquarium distributors (such as FishSupply and MarineDepot) have already returned to the practice of catching wild octopus for sale. I don’t believe this is an appealing option: I don’t think its right to take an animal from the wild in middle age and force it to change its lifestyle. What would be a much better option would be to obtain a few eggs and raise the fry in a captive environment. Octopus bimaculoides lays about 500 eggs in festoons of between 10 and 30 eggs each. Each egg is about a centimeter long, each festoon is about 10 cm. If I could find a diver who knows where there’s a population of this octopus and would be willing to steal a single festoon from the mother and ship it to me, I could start a generation of little guys and send them out to other hobbyists when they’re a few months old.

What do you guys think of this? Would there be anyone out there in southern California interested in helping me with this? I’d also like to know what a diver would consider fair compensation to be. To be honest, I don’t even know whether I should expect a lot of interest or a lot of boos and hisses. I’m also pursuing this through an aquarium fish distribution company; but I’m sure it will cost a lot more because the company will hire a fish store in California to hire a diver to send them to a fish store here, each of those steps in the ladder taking a commission.

Thanks for reading this, and I eagerly await feedback!

Dan Hyslop

 

[drbill]

Technically one who collects the eggs would undoubtedly need a California Dept. of Fish & Game collecting permit. Since it would be for commercial purposes, there may be more involved than that. I used to collect under a scientific permit but stopped decades ago.

I do applaud the intent of raising the young captively rather than collecting adults from their natural habitat.

 

[Diver0001]

HI Dan,

I sure got a good feeling from your post. It's nice to see that there are people out there who respect the animals and have the ambition to do something to improve the state of affairs.

Unfortunately I can't help you with your octopus eggs. We get droves of mating cuttlefish around here but no octopus.

R..

Hello everyone,

My name is Dan, and I’m not a diver, but I am looking for one.


Dan Hyslop

 

[Diver0001]

Technically one who collects the eggs would undoubtedly need a California Dept. of Fish & Game collecting permit. Since it would be for commercial purposes, there may be more involved than that. I used to collect under a scientific permit but stopped decades ago.

I do applaud the intent of raising the young captively rather than collecting adults from their natural habitat.

Come on, Bill...... don't tell me you're getting too old to engage in a little civil disobedience for a good cause..... Surely one of your students has a friend who knows somebody who...... All you need to do is make the introduction.

R..

 

[DHyslop]

Don't worry about it. I'm not about to encourage anyone to break the law on my behalf; publicly, at least! eyebrow

Your cuttlefish in the Netherlands is most likely Sepia officianalis, and is a creature I've always wanted to keep....the problem however, is they grow to be about 18" requiring a 200+ gallon tank for one individual! Ah...someday!

Dan

 

[Cacia]

Dan,

If you are really serious, google John P. Hoover. he writes fish ID books and if I rememeber correctly, at one time was an aquarists....He has a forward regarding collecting in one of his books. You could contact him and since he has been on the scene for a long time he would probably know if this idea is viable. Also, there are some very knowledgable people at the Waikiki aquarium.

(I thought Octupus blew O2 on their eggs or something. I thought they had to be attended by the mother .......I know here in Hawaii they sit on the eggs so there may be a reason it would be difficult to replicate that artificially.) You sound like you know quite a bit about this, using words like "festoon" so maybe you already know how this is done?

 

[D_O_H]

(I thought Octupus blew O2 on their eggs or something. I thought they had to be attended by the mother .......I know here in Hawaii they sit on the eggs so there may be a reason it would be difficult to replicate that artificially.)

I thought the same thing. At a minimum, you're likely to have a mad mamma octopus if you steal one of her egg packets.

Not that I'm casting dispersions on this idea, by the way. I fully support what you're trying to do.

 

[PhotoTJ]

An interesting idea, I frequintly see octopi, but have not seen a nesting mother. (Well, not that I was aware of.) I'll look into what would be necessary permit-wise.

 

[Diver0001]

Don't worry about it. I'm not about to encourage anyone to break the law on my behalf; publicly, at least! eyebrow

Dan

Break the law? I'm only suggesting that you might be interested in meeting some of his friends....

You're right about the cuttlefish around here. They're pretty big to keep in an aquarium and they have a short lifespan, only something like 18 months IIRC.

R..

 

[DHyslop]

Thanks for the lead, Catherine.

While the mother octopus doesn't exactly blow O2 on the eggs, she is working to the same goal: she is constantly rubbing them with her arms to keep them clean to increase gas exchange. Hatcheries usually replicate this using an airstone under each festoon. This keeps the eggs rubbing against eachother, and the upward current also reduces the amount of detritus that would settle on the eggs.

I have been spending some time with references from my university library: there is one particular article I have that goes into very specific detail about hatching eggs (so this idea isn't completely half-cocked!). Octopus mothers have sort of a mental change after egg-laying. They tend to become very passive (even mothers of infertile eggs), stop eating and just sit there rubbing the eggs. This happens to males, too, even though they don't have eggs to rub. I wouldn't expect any problems with momma being aggressive. Hatcheries do collect eggs from expectant mothers, but I haven't read anything specifically about that process. I think tonight I'll email some people I know who've had octo's lay eggs and ask about protective behavior.

And R: most cephalopods are known for their short lifespans...even this octopus doesn't live more than a year or 18 months. One of the reasons it hasn't become more popular in aquariums.

Dan