Now octo-PUSH! The moment sea mother hatched thousands of eight-legged babies



Scientists have caught on film the moment that thousands of tiny octopi emerged from their eggs and floated into the world.

The real octomum surprised biologists by giving birth soon after she was acquired by the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco in January - until that point, they had not known that she was female.



The Caribbean Octopus vulgaris laid thousands of eggs and attached them to a rock near the large glass bottle in which she had taken up residence.



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Tiny: The hatchlings were each just 0.04 inches long

After standing guard over her babies for three weeks, the eggs hatched, sending a stream of octopi floating up towards the water's surface. Biologist Richard Ross caught the event on film from start to finish and posted it on his blog at Advanced Aquarist.

The aquarium staff fed the hatchlings - which were each just 0.04 inches long - on even tinier brine shrimp and zooplankton.



But Mr Ross said the story had a sad ending as the octopi, also known as paralarvae, are hard to keep alive in captivity and the mother's life also ends soon after she gives birth.

On display: The octomum took up residence inside a glass bottle, giving visitors the opportunity to see the birth process

Seafood: Aquarium staff fed the octopi on brine shrimp and zooplankton

'While eggs being laid in captivity is generally an exciting event, this particular species, like many but not all octopus, stops eating after it lays eggs and dies soon after they hatch,' he said.

'Although we weren't able to raise the hatchlings to maturity, something few have done (if at all), we were able to keep them alive for 26 days, and the image of a waterfall of tiny octopus paralarve flowing up from the egg mass to the surface of the water is something I don’t think we will ever forget.'

O. vulgaris hatchlings hatching from Richard Ross on Vimeo.