Oklahoma family whose pet octopus laid FIFTY eggs reveals how they're looking after the consortium

Release time：2024-05-21 14:26:46 Source：Stellar Space news portal

An Oklahoma family whose pet octopus laid fifty eggs has revealed how they are looking after the hatchlings with ingenious homemade aquariums.

Cameran Clifford, 36, and his wife bought Terrance the sea creature for their son Cal's ninth birthday in October.

He found the female California two-spot in a local aquarium after his son became infatuated with them from the age of three. 

Now, the family has created their own system to care of the babies as they make 'tiny octopus homes' using household materials until they are big enough to be moved.

Cameran Clifford and his family have created ingenious homemade aquariums to house 50 octopus babies. (pictured: the hatchlings living inside their own individual containers inside a large aquarium) 

Terrance the octopus was introduced to the family after Cameran Clifford (third left), 36, and his wife bought the creature for their son Cal's (first left) ninth birthday in October. They did not realize that Terrance was a pregnant female octopus until February 

One of the babies is seen in Cal's hand as it squirmed around. Cameron said that transporting the hatchlings 'at this size' is 'extremely risky' 

In one video, posted to the family's TikTok, known as doctoktopus, Cal was seen holding one of the babies in his hand as it squirmed around. 

'Baby bimacs are exponentially more sensitive to water parameters than adults, especially temperature,' they explained in the video. 

'Because of this, transporting them this size is extremely risky, basically a death sentence.' 

In a separate shot, a large aquarium is seen full of foliage, bright lights and containers of baby octopi. 

'So it's up to us to take care of them. We can do this,' the dedicated father said as he showed his wife, who he referred to as his 'sous vet', carefully cleaning the glass for the tank. 

As she cleaned, Cameron showed the makes-shift set up the family has gone on to create as they take on their new role as octopus caregivers. 

When the father told his son that they could order an octopus from a local aquarium store, Cal immediately burst into tears. 

'His ultimate dream, his cloud nine, the greatest thing that could ever possibly happen in one's life had just become a possibility, and he just broke down,' Cameron said. 

'My friends and family, of course, all, as you probably imagine, said to me, 'Well, now you have to get it for him. You can't just dangle that in front of him and then turn around and just flatline that dream',' the father added. 

The father and son began preparing for the arrival of the pet octopus as Cameron ordered a saltwater tank, a water cycling system and food supplies for Terrence, mostly from Facebook marketplace. He thought it would cost around $600. 

But what the family didn't realize was that Terrence was actually a female, who started releasing 'a chandelier' of little eggs two months after it arrived. 

@doctoktopus

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♬ original sound - TikToktopus

As the family arranged 50 separate homes for the unexpected offspring, they spent thousands of dollars on clams, crabs, and snails, and had to cover the cost to repair the damage to their house from spilled water and a small electrical fire

When Clifford told his son that they could order an octopus from a local aquarium store, the nine-year-old immediately burst into tears as he's asked for the creature since he was three

He was told by experts that the eggs were unfertilized, and the release of eggs only signals the end of the life span of the female octopus. 

Until one night in February, Clifford picked up an egg and was absolutely shocked.  

'I accidentally popped it, and this droplet comes out and spreads out these tiny tentacles and does three swim strokes across my viewpoint,' he said. 

Though it has been a fun and interesting adventure, the father made it clear that they have run into some struggles along the way. 

'At one point, we ran out of tiny octopus homes,' Cameron said as he showed one of the babies inside a 'super hipster restaurant bottle'  as it latched onto the glass and moved up and down. 

As the family arranged 50 separate homes for the unexpected offspring, they spent thousands of dollars on clams, crabs, and snails, and had to cover the cost to repair the damage to their house from spilled water and a small electrical fire. 

Speaking of one particularly messy incident, Clifford said: 'I wish I wouldn't have opened that valve that way and dumped all that dirty seawater onto my kids' white carpet.' 

'Do not get a pet octopus unless you're ready to lose sleep and your kids' college fund simultaneously,' he told USAToday, jokingly.

Meanwhile, the desperate father started calling aquariums and research facilities and begging them to take the babies off his hands. 

'It's a lot of work,' he said. 'A lot of work and emotion and money and time.' 

'I don't know that we've been fully prepared for any of these challenges, but the hope is to re-home as many as we can.' 

Separate containers, each filled with a baby octopus, are seen stack one on top of the other as a red light illuminates on them. The family has named the octopus' new home 'Clamsterdam' 

@doctoktopus

Terrance signals the end of her life-cyxle, but we have no idea how mich time we have left wirh her. #octopus #marinebiology #shrimpdaddy #saltwateraquarium #fyp #cephalopod #petoctopus #aquarium #octomom #biology #mom

♬ Heartbeats - Remastered 2023 - José González

In a video, Cameron said that it takes about two to three hours a day to care for the babies and their mother. 

In another shot, the containers were stacked one on top of the other as a red light shined down on their homes. The family has named the octopus' new home 'Clamsterdam.' 

'Although it was eminent that we would statistically lose most of the hatchlings in the coming weeks...we resolved to enjoy the journey,' Cameron said. 

The experience is overall joyful and rewarding as he said: 'It's been an absolutely fun experience, not just for me, but also for my kids.' 

Two months after hatching, half of the babies are still alive, an astonishingly higher survival rate than the average. 

'Every scientist I speak to is always kind of astonished by that fact that we were able to get such a high yield in a kid's bathroom,' he said. 

And Terrence is still alive, Cameron said. 

'She's doing good. She is just living out the rest of her life in her tank by herself. She will probably die in the next several weeks, although my assumptions of her have been wrong consistently.'

The family has become famous too, as their page has amassed more than 400 thousand followers on TikTok. 

'I think there's a lot of people out there that had this crazy pipe dream when they were a kid, and then it just kind of fizzled away as they got older,' he said. 

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