A joint academic-industrial project to culture the Asian common octopus commercially using land-based aquaria

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A collection of determined, like-minded individuals has been assembled in Japan from an unusually broad variety of university, governmental and commercial organizations with one common aim: to successfully culture the common Asian octopus on a commercially sound basis. Experimental open and closed systems at the laboratory level are in use at two universites, and on a semi-commercial level in closed systems at a live-fish-holding facility. Initial culturing of small adults through to spawning individuals has been very successful, and the present focus is on raising paralarvae. Results include demonstration that non-copepod crustaceans dominate the diet of wild paralarvae off Japan.