An Oklahoma family whose pet octopus laid fifty eggs has revealed how they care for the babies with ingenious home aquariums.
Cameron Clifford, 36, and his wife bought Terrance the sea creature for their son Cal’s ninth birthday in October.
He found the female California twospot at a local aquarium after his son fell in love with them since he was three years old.
Now, the family has created their own system of caring for the babies as they build “little octopus houses” using household materials until they are big enough to be moved.
Cameron Clifford and his family have created ingenious home aquariums to house 50 baby octopuses. (Pictured: The hatchlings live inside their own individual containers within a large aquarium)
Terrance the octopus was introduced to the family after Cameron Clifford (third left), 36, and his wife bought the creature for their son Cal’s (first left) ninth birthday in October. They didn’t realize Terrance was a pregnant female pulp until February
One of the babies is seen in Cal’s hand while squirming. Cameron said transporting hatchlings ‘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.
“Baby bimacs are exponentially more sensitive to water parameters than adults, especially temperature,” they explain in the video.
“So transporting them of this size is extremely risky, basically a death sentence.”
In a separate shot, you see a large aquarium filled with foliage, bright lights, and containers of baby octopuses.
‘So it’s up to us to look after them. We can do it,” the dedicated father said as he showed him his wife, whom he called his “sous vet,” carefully cleaning the glass of the tank.
While cleaning, Cameron showed off the makeshift setup the family has created as they take on their new role as octopus keepers.
When the father told his son that they could order an octopus from a local aquarium store, Cal immediately burst into tears.
“His last dream, his cloud nine, the biggest thing that could happen in one’s life, had become a possibility, and it just fell apart,” Cameron said.
‘My friends and family, of course, all, as you can probably imagine, said to me, ‘Well, now you have to get it for him.’ ‘You can’t just hang that in front of him and then turn around and just ruin that dream,’ the father added.
The father and son began preparing for the pet octopus’s arrival when Cameron ordered a saltwater tank, a water cycle system and food supplies for Terrence, primarily from the Facebook Marketplace. He thought it would cost about $600.
But what the family didn’t realize was that Terrence was actually a female, who began releasing “a chandelier” of tiny eggs two months after her arrival.
As the family set up 50 separate homes for the unexpected offspring, they spent thousands of dollars on clams, crabs and snails, and had to cover the cost of repairing damage to their home from spilled water and a small electrical fire.
When Clifford told his son they could order an octopus from a local aquarium store, the nine-year-old immediately burst into tears because he had asked about the creature since he was three.
The experts told him that the eggs were not fertilized and that the release of the eggs only signals the end of the female octopus’s life.
Until one night in February, Clifford picked up an egg and was absolutely shocked.
“I accidentally blew it up, and this blob comes out and extends these little tentacles and it’s three strokes from my point of view,” he said.
Although it has been a fun and interesting adventure, the father made it clear that they have encountered some difficulties along the way.
“At one point, we ran out of tiny octopus houses,” Cameron said while showing one of the babies inside a “super hipster restaurant bottle” that clung to the glass and moved up and down.
As the family set up 50 separate homes for the unexpected offspring, they spent thousands of dollars on clams, crabs and snails, and had to cover the cost of repairing damage to their home from spilled water and a small electrical fire.
Speaking of one particularly messy incident, Clifford said: “I wish I hadn’t opened that valve like that and dumped all that dirty seawater all over my kids’ white carpet.”
“Don’t get a pet octopus unless you’re willing to lose sleep and your kids’ college fund simultaneously,” he said. USA Todayjoking.
Meanwhile, the desperate father began calling aquariums and research centers and begging them to take the babies off his hands.
“It’s a lot of work,” he said. “A lot of work, emotion, money and time.”
“I don’t know if we’ve been fully prepared for any of these challenges, but the hope is to rehouse as many as we can.”
Separate containers, each filled with a baby octopus, are seen stacked on top of each other as a red light shines above them. The family has named the octopus’s new home ‘Clamsterdam’
In a video, Cameron said it takes two to three hours a day to care for babies and their mother.
“Although it was eminent that statistically we would lose the majority of the calves in the next few weeks… we decided to enjoy the trip,” Cameron said.
The experience is overall joyful and rewarding, as he said: “It’s been an absolutely fun experience, not only for me, but for my children as well.”
Two months after birth, half of babies are still alive, a survival rate surprisingly higher than average.
“All the scientists I talk to are always surprised by the fact that we were able to get such a high yield in a child’s bathroom,” he said.
And Terrence is still alive, Cameron said.
‘She is fine. She is simply living the rest of her life alone in her tank. She will probably die in the next few weeks, although my assumptions about her have always been wrong.
The family has also become famous, as their page has accumulated more than 400 thousand followers on TikTok.
“I think there are a lot of people who had this crazy dream when they were kids, and then it fizzled out as they got older,” he said.