A family from Oklahoma, us United States, wanted to innovate on the birthday gift for her 9-year-old son. To do this, they bought a pet octopus for the young man. What they didn’t realize was that the octopus, in reality, was about to “hatch” 50 eggs.
The family’s new pet ended up generating large expenses for the family of 36-year-old dentist Cameron Clifford. However, it is a dream come true for little Cal, who has been in love with the species since he was 3 years old: “Every birthday, every Christmas, every holiday, he always said: ‘All I want is an octopus,'” says his mother in an interview with the American newspaper New York Times.
The purchase of the little octopus was in October 2023. She acquired a female two-spotted octopus from the California, which was named Terrance. However, the new mascot soon drew attention for its somewhat large size, and shocked everyone when it started laying eggs.
The entire journey of assembling the aquarium, structural problems, hatching of the eggs and hatching were documented by the dentist and posted on TikTok. The profile has almost half a million followers and more than three million likes. Speaking to USAToday, Cameron joked, “Don’t buy a pet octopus unless you’re ready to lose sleep and your kids’ college fund at the same time.”
The purchase of the octopus, however, was a dream of the dentist’s son, who says that his son cried when he learned that he would have a pet octopus: “His ultimate dream, the best thing that could happen in someone’s life, had just become a possibility, and he just collapsed.”
She continued, “My friends and family, of course, as you probably guess, I was told, ‘Well, now you have to buy this for him. You can’t just say it in front of him and then turn around and just end that dream.”
Upon Terrance’s arrival, the octopus began to release the tiny eggs. The experts consulted by the dentist stated that they were not fertilized, and that it was a sign of the end of the life of the female octopus.
One day, however, Cameron picked up one of the eggs and freaked out: “I accidentally popped, and this drop comes out and spreads these tiny tentacles and gives three strokes to my point of view.” From there, the family began a mission to organize 50 new “homes” for the offspring of babies, in addition to spending thousands of dollars on shellfish, crabs and snails. In the middle of the process, there were still problems with spilled water and small shorts and electrical fires, all documented on TikTok.
Cameron recalled an accident involving water from one of the tanks: “I wish I hadn’t opened that valve like that and dumped all that dirty seawater on my children’s white carpet.”
The young man’s father began a search for aquariums to get rid of the cubs. “A lot of work and excitement and money and time. I don’t know if we are fully prepared for any of these challenges, but the hope is to relocate as many as possible,” he said.
“And those that we can’t, we’ll figure out a way to keep them alive and we’ll be responsible. It’s not a concrete plan, but we’re doing pretty well so far. The experience is overall joyful and rewarding,” the family added.
After two months of hatching the eggs, half of the offspring are still alive, which is higher than average. “Every scientist I talk to is always amazed that we were able to achieve such a high yield,” the father said.
Of little Terrence, Cameron stressed that she’s fine: “She’s living the rest of her life alone in her aquarium. She will likely die in the next few weeks, although my assumptions about her have been consistently wrong.”
About the TikTok exposure, the dentist stated, “I think there are a lot of people out there who had this crazy dream when they were kids, and then it disappeared as they got older. I think they also have a lot of empathy with this stereotypical story of a mother who decides to give her son a pet and then, Of course, it turns into someone who takes care of that pet almost exclusively, except with care in this case.”
