Lab aquaculturist Felix Miranda has raised a brood of Caribbean reef octopus, Octopus briareus, from eggs in our laboratory. Their mother, a female from the Florida Keys whom we named Pippi Longstocking for her extremely long arms, arrived on January 29, 2025, already carrying sperm from the wild. Her eggs were first seen on February 11 and hatched in April. The hatchlings quickly fled and hid, and we first saw them out in the open in mid-June.
By early September about ten juveniles shared this tank. Read more about our Octopus briareus, and see how many you can find in the picture.