Out of sight from visitors and school field trips, Birch Aquarium in La Jolla is quietly raising more than 3,000 tiny octopus hatchlings, a big milestone for the Scripps-run facility and an unusual achievement for a species whose young typically drift out in the plankton. The nearly transparent paralarvae, each about the size of a grain of rice, are being kept behind the scenes while staff focus on feeding them and tracking their progress through a fragile early life stage.
Behind the Discovery
The brood turned up when staff noticed a female Red Octopus guarding strings of eggs tucked away in a back-of-house tank. The mother laid the clutch on June 7, and the eggs finished hatching on Oct. 16, producing more than 3,000 paralarvae, as reported by The…..