But then Octavius retreated, hiding out in a cave for much of the day. And then one day toward the end of October, aquarium curator Devin Dumont went to clean the tank only to find thousands of nearly microscopic particles floating in it. "I noticed this cloud of moving dots and I realized, 'Oh my God, she had babies. There are babies. There are babies everywhere,'" Dumont told Savannah Now. "And a sort of panic ensued." He scooped them out of the tank into buckets so aquarium staff could take care of them, knowing all the while that this burst of new life meant the beginning of the end for Octavius.