Introducing Moomin! Any ideas on ID?

Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
63
Hello everyone,
I brought this beautiful girl (I am of course guessing on gender) home about 10 days ago, and she is doing wonderfully (all thanks to what I learnt on TONMO. I could never have done it without you guys). She spends most of her day inside a pot or her pipe, but comes out at least a couple of times a day for 10 - 30 minutes to jet about and watch what's going on beyond the tank. She is very friendly and happy to interact with my fingers, and when she has had enough she just crawls away to curl up again. She fed immediately, and has leapt upon every fiddler crab I have subsequently given her.
Anyway, I wondered if anyone could help ID her? It doesn't matter to me (I am smitten) but I want to make sure my temp range is about right (76F at present; she doesn't seem unhappy with this but I want to get it right).
She mostly looks like the first picture, and she often has a sort of resting flicker in her coloration (almost as if she is mimicking the play of light underwater). She will sometimes flash darker brown with white spots, especially when I'm playing with her, as shown in picture 2 (sorry it's a bit blurry). She is also often very dark all over (picture 3), particularly if she is inside or sitting on her black PVC pipe. I have also seen the "Pointy head, skunk stripe" pose (picture 4) several times. The final pictures (in the next post; I reached my 4 picture limit) are of her in a posture she did for about 20 mins yesterday. It looks aggressive to me (in my ignorance) and I was worried something had really stressed her out, but afterwards she just went to hang out on top of her pipe in normal colours, and she seems fine ever since. She has a mantle about 2 inch long, and arms about 5-6 inch fully extended (and incredibly fine at the tips) with a double row of suckers on each. Her web does not extend very far down her arms (perhaps 1.5 inch or so. She is mostly smooth textured, but does sometimes go a bit "wrinkly" on the mantle and she occasionally has little horns, one above each eye. I have not seen any evidence of eyespots.
Anyway; sorry about the essay and the huge number of pictures (believe me, a tiny fraction of the total I have taken!). Do I sound besotted? I am.
Thanks so much!
Lene
 

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Moomin has laid eggs

Hi All,
I’m sad to report that I found Moomin had laid eggs on Monday morning (of course this would happen since I am out of town for most of the next three weeks, so can’t check on her daily!). I have posted a picture below (sorry it’s a bit out-of focus. Egg strings marked with arrows). She did not choose to lay them inside any of her dens, but instead glued the eggs to the wall of the tank, in the corner.
Clearly, she is a small-egged species (and I was clearly right about calling her ‘she’ all this time!), so this rules out mercatoris. With regards the possibility of her being a marginatus, a (fairly superficial) search in the literature did not help me determine whether they are large- or small-egged. Does anyone know? I have never seen her walk bipedially. She also seems pretty big for either a marginatus or a hummelincki (ML approx 90mm); she is now the size of the brooding O. bimaculoides females that I have had recently, even at a pretty cool temp (72F).
She has been such a wonderful addition to the clan I would love to figure out what she is in case I ever come across another, so if anyone has other suggestions, I would love to hear them.
Having had her since September 2008 (and I got her from the LFS who had her for 3 weeks or so before that), it seems beyond the realms of possibility that the eggs are fertile. Just as well I suppose, as I don’t have the added heartache of knowing I wouldn’t be able to raise the planktonic babies…….
Anyway, Moomin was still eating as of Tuesday, so fingers crossed she will be around a little bit longer.
Lene.
 

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