The baby octopuses were introduced to a new food source: baby crayfish. The crayfish were hatched and raised in the lab and the octopuses readily hunted and consumed them.
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Some of the octopuses seem to know when it is feeding time, indicated through their behavior. They gravitate towards the top of their containers in anticipation of the coming meal. It is hard to determine if any are developing personalities but certain individuals show more explorative behavior than others that prefer to hide. This is especially apparent during feeding and when the lights are first flipped on in the room.
The octopuses seem to be growing in size and appear to be more eagerly pursuing or hunting their live prey. They are now accepting blood worms, guppy and clownfish fry. We currently have 17 individuals separated into their own containers, while many more individuals share the remaining space in the aquarium.
We attempted to feed the some of the growing young thawed frozen-shrimp for the first time only to have it rejected by each individual. This is consistent with the behavior exhibited by baby octopuses of other species: they only go after live prey. Also, one of the young octopus passed away from unknown causes. When placed under the microscope, the octopus' chromatophores were still active and responsive to light and touch.
The mother O. bimaculoides (Jake) was found deceased with 9 infertile or undeveloped eggs remaining behind in the abalone shell used for brooding. Up until now, she has been with us for approximately 5 months.
The baby octopuses were given live guppy fry that were bred and raised. Highlighted throughout the video, the young octopus displays a hunting and ambush style behavior until they catch and consume the guppy fry.
After days of unsuccessful attempts, the octopus fry that hatched on April 1st have accepted live blood worms as a food source.
Hordes of young O. bimaculoides fry have begun to hatch and continue to dominate the tank. It is apparent when they hatch as they squirt a yet of ink the moment they escape their egg capsules.
The first of several hundreds of baby O. bimaculoides have finally hatched out of their egg capsules. The second they hatch, the baby larvae squirt ink and dash to any piece of rock or shell for shelter. Overall, approximately a dozen have hatched. They appear to be very active and display an interesting behavior: raising their two front tentacles towards any approaching figure, possibly as a warning sign. If the intruder does not back off, the baby octopus squirts ink and jets off.
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AuthorsAndrew and Alex are undergraduate students working in Gillette Lab at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Archives
April 2016
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