Ink - O. Briareus

MimicryJP

O. vulgaris
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Jul 24, 2012
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Hows goin again TONMO?

Back again for another round since the wunderpus photogenicus (ursula) deceased only after a short couple months of having her.
On the bright side K&P aquatics has him/her ( o. Briareus #2 from availability thread) in transit right now as I should be receiving him/her by 10:30am tomorrow morning! Thanks again DWHATLEY for the heads up!

Jake
 
Pics

"INK" is doing good so far, I noticed it already ate a fiddler crab I had in there. Now it is currently in it's den, it moved from the critter cage to a spot were there is fake "toy" barrels, then went to the live rock after about an hour.

Jake

Edit: by the way K&P aquatics is great, they got her to me in perfect condition. Also great customer service! I originally wanted #3 because Phillip said it was the smallest, but once he got home and was packing it up they noticed she was missing a few legs... He emailed me right away and asked if I would rather have #2.
 

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Also, the fiddler crab remains are behind some of the live rock, I would have to move the live rock to get it out... Should I do that or just let it be for now while "INk" is adjusting?

Thanks
Jake
 
Jake,
I would leave the rock alone for at least a month and maybe longer if you don't see den protection boldness (arms coming out of the den while you are cleaning around it). When you do your next water change you can use a turkey baster to attempt to float any remains out but they will likely have disintegrated. A little extra on the water change is recommended when you know you have remains that can't be removed.

The only time I would go against this thought would be if you knew there was uneaten shrimp wedged somewhere as shrimp produce very heavy ammonia (so much so that they are used to create an ammonia pop when cycling a new tank) and should not be left even overnight.

Speaking of shrimp. We have found that leaving the shell on makes them far more acceptable to the little ones (and to O. mercatoris in general). Yeti still won't touch a piece offered if we remove the shell but jumps on shrimp from the same batch if the shell is present. She strips the shell before eating it and does not appear to need or eat the covering but after several experiments we are sure leaving the shell on makes a difference. Usually, you can eventually remove the shell and not have to worry with the clean up but Yeti has been very particular about this. Her oddity has at least allowed us to experiment and validate this observation :roll:

Kara and Philipp are a great couple to work with. Philipp is new to the business but is a quick and very interested study. Kara grew up in it :biggrin2:
 
DWhatley;192829 said:
Speaking of shrimp. We have found that leaving the shell on makes them far more acceptable to the little ones (and to O. mercatoris in general). Yeti still won't touch a piece offered if we remove the shell but jumps on shrimp from the same batch if the shell is present. She strips the shell before eating it and does not appear to need or eat the covering but after several experiments we are sure leaving the shell on makes a difference. Usually, you can eventually remove the shell and not have to worry with the clean up but Yeti has been very particular about this. Her oddity has at least allowed us to experiment and validate this observation :roll:

Kara and Philipp are a great couple to work with. Philipp is new to the business but is a quick and very interested study. Kara grew up in it :biggrin2:

Ok that's what I figured, she ate another one but I can at least get to these shells ha.
That's funny annnd interesting haha... I wonder if the shells on the shrimp make it look more "real/live" to them, or they just like peeling off the shell....maybe it's like us peeling a banana peel, why would you eat a banana without the peel on it first? haha :smile:

Jake
 
Jake,
The decline of the no shell shrimp is definitely tactile and not visual (O. briareus in particular appears to be quite far sighted and can't see at all well close up). One would think that the taste of a shellless shrimp would be stronger than one with a shell. I am quite comfortable with the observation but puzzled as to why. Initially, I wondered if there was something in the shell needed for the diet (this IS the case with nautilus) but the waste seems to be fully in tact and is removed immediately upon acceptance.

For years I swore O. mercatoris would not eat table shrimp (making them one of the more expensive species to keep). With our last one, for reasons unknown, Neal offered a piece with the shell on and she accepted it. It took a little to discover that the shell was the key but once we "got it" she was fully weaned to table shrimp (vs the live shore shrimp that I have to have mailed).
 
Their suckers act much like our tongue and is used for taste and to move food (I missed a great video two days ago with Yeti using her suckers to move a crab claw down her arm to her mouth, hopefully I will get another chance to film it). Only recently (relatively) did they prove there are chemical sensors there so that not only can they taste by touch but also by what is in the water. The sensors are not anywhere near a sensitive as those of a serpent/brittle star (or brissel worm or shark) but the do have some water sensing ability.

Here is a summary of some of the work and discoveries of the late Martin Wells
 
Thats a great article. This is very interesting..

Martin began his research into these creatures by studying tactile learning in octopuses. Acting on a suggestion from Professor JZ Young, who had already discovered a way of training octopuses to make visual discriminations, Martin and Joyce soon showed that these animals could discriminate between objects on the basis of touch, using the suckers on their arms. He also showed that octopus suckers contain chemoreceptors so the animal can learn to "taste" what it touches. This "tasting by touching" is extremely sensitive and enables octopuses to distinguish, for example, between clams and stones, as the arms explore their surroundings at night or in murky waters.

Awsome research.

Jake
 
Still very little sightings of Ink. Im trying to make dinner time around 6, seems to be working. Also yesterday night I watched Ink dig underneath some of the live rock, where now she has dissapeard. I'm gonna grab a red viewing light later today.

Jake
 
Got a first "real" appearance from Ink last night. I had the viewing red light lamp on and the rest of the room was dark, she made her way out as I placed a crab in there about 11pm. Took it a little bit to find it but you can definitely tell she is still acclimating. When Ink would leave the live rock it would go around the back wall of the tank and creep along side of it, keeping one arm or two on the rock most of the time until she can shoot to the toy barrels.. It tries not to touch the sand too much while its making its little adventure, until it reaches the opening of either of the dens when I'm guessing it feels more comfortable.

Tonight I placed a crab in a glass jar with no top on it... We'll see if she finds it.

Jake
 
Ink has been coming out between 11-midnight every night now and is beginning to just sit and wait by her den until I put a crab in the tank with him/her. i managed to get a couple photo's but the red lights are on, I still can't get her to come out before this time. I'm going to try and switch it's feeding schedule but I'm assuming it's going to take some time.

The picture with him/her under the live rock is when she just grabbed a crab. Also I've noticed one night she is curling the end of her tips, is this normal with briareus? There is also this weird white looking algae/soft coral growing everywhere (on glass and coral).. The larger ones look like white furry tubes with little tips sticking out of the top of it (maybe inch in total length), I've never seen anything like it and I've been doing sw for more than a few years, anybody know what it is? It must grow in low light, my tank lights are hardly ever on if they are it's only 6-7 hours a day.

Jake
 

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