meeting a local - Situ(O.gibbsi or O.tetricus)

I have to agree with Monty (and D, who seems to know a front end from a back end :roll:). As long at the chiton is still attached to the rock, it is alive.

Here is a photo of a chiton's mouth (mouth is on the right of the photo).
 

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Did the one that you lost look alive but just immobile when it died? ...

No, it was dead.... when I got home from work it was being devoured by brisstleworms.


Was the octopus following you, following offered food or climbing on your arm when it came out of the water?

I had been floating in the pool, allowing it told hold onto my fingers. Then after a while we were sitting on the edge of the pool looking in and watching, I put my hand back into the water above it's lair (about arm's depth) and it kept coming up to the surface and holding on, letting go and then returning.
I actually moved my hand a little further out of the water each time, and to my surprise it kept following until it was out on "dry land", all but the last few 5cm's (or so) of 2 arms. This was late last summer when I used to go down several times every weekend so it was quite used to me touching it and taking photos. haggs
 
... and I think it is just too cool just to have OhToo come up and want to be petted in his captive envirnoment :roll:. I could not live there I fear as I would become a water logged prune.
 
Here is a photo of a chiton's mouth (mouth is on the right of the photo).
That's pretty much what my two dead ones looked like. I put them in a shallow bowl of water because the did not look dead but would not curl into a ball like they should have (or move in any other way for that matter). I left them in the bowls for 24 hours just in case but they never moved and I have found nothing that says they play oposum. I have been having some fun reading a few of the studies that are fully on-line but so far I have not found anyone that tank raised them (older references - early 1900's - found that some species could not be tank raised but I am discounting that because of the change in how we keep marine tanks, the longer article I am reading now did get at least one species to spawn). It does appear that each species is different in it mating time of the year, individual preferences for dormant periods, eating habits and homing ability but so far these seem like ideal candidates for tank mates octos and some added entertainment for those of us that watch dark empty tanks :shock: hoping to see our nocturnals. One slight concern is what might be harbored on the shells and I have not found any references to salinity tollerances.
 
D .. a bit more to get you going... the tides and seas haven't been the best lately, so I went for a swim up the creek and I have found another 2 occies, they look to be the same sort as Situ, (from my little experience) the first one is called Sandy. Due to the fact that it's lair is on the sand bed under a rock. Sandy is about half grown (size wise) and was not worried at all upon my first approach, "she" just sat there and only moved back a little as moved within a few inches of her.


Rocky was much bigger, almost what I would say was a fully grown octopus, also named because of where it's lair was located, between 2 largish rocks. The colouring was much more vivid I asume to blend in with its surrounds.

These video's were much too large to "post", but because my son was home and "wrote" me a programme which allows me to halve the file size without losing quality, just by a "double click" of the mouse. So I can now post a few more when I have some time. haggs
 

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Today was a great day, the weather and water was clear, the sea was flat, even if it was a bit cool at 19 degrees. After finding plenty of "left overs" scattered around, it took a good half an hour of searching the rock pool before Situ's eye gave her away.
Standing out like a sore thumb, there was a white eye peering out from behind a 4cm shell, but there was to be no playing today. Judging by the large number of flat scallop type shells laying around she has had a good feed of them. At least I know where to look next time, she doesn't appear to have grown much over the last couple of weeks but then again she didn't reach out to see the length of her arms.

I also found a "bubble shell" that frequents the same pool. haggs
 

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Silly how seeing the peek-a-boo eyeball of a little missing friend on the other side of the world can make your day :razz:. Enjoyed the videos too and it is nice that your son will take the time to make life easier for your hobby fun.

Beautiful opisthobranch (I was going to say nudibranch but looked it up and found out it has a shell that it can fully retract into like a snail so I assume that is at least part of the difference between nudi and opistho). The diver I webmaster for is seeing many more of a particular nudi in the Florida waters this year (and last) but apparently this little guy lives all over and is not unusual. It will be interesting to note if you see it again. The blurb I read said they can be found from tital pools to 60 feet (20 cm) and in a wide range of places but this is the first one I have even seen a picture of. Soooo many interesting critters out our back doors (yours almost litterally :snorkel:)

I read a care sheet on the chitons the other day and it mentioned that they have problems righting themselves if flipped. Both the ones that died had been relocated and neither attached immediately so I am thinking that exposure, rather than drowning (they were not eaten) may have been the problem. The large one in the reef does keep partially out of the water most of the time though.
 
Great stuff, that (octo pics and clips). :biggrin2:

We had a few (two or three) chitons in our aquarium (I don't they were the same type though, they lived in the sand and the mantle didn't protrude from between the segments on the back). I think they lasted a few years with us (we might still have one or two, I'm not sure), the only one I'm fairly certain ended up dying did so because one time I spotted it near the top of the sand bed on the glass, my dad and I decided to try and examine it: when we grabbed it, it just curled up into a tight little ball and stayed that way. So, I think that your probably right about the problems with flipping.

And as a note, according to Animal Diversity Web, Nudibranchia is actually an Order of Subclass Opisthobranchia. Although, I think you're right about Nudibranchs being distinguished largely by a lack of shell ("nudi-"=> nudus = naked, "-branch" => branchia (I think thats it) = gill), but that probably isn't all. Otherwise, I think 'sea slug' and 'nudibranch' would be synonyms.
 
I went back to the pool yesterday afternoon about 5:00pm and hopped in, and found Situ in the same place as before, still very shy and not willing to play.

So I swam/waded around the pool a little more and thought that there was a lot of "left over" shells for one occy. I then found another.

I think maybe the real "Situ", she was closer to where I first saw her. I was also able to get closer and she finally reached out and made contact all be it brief, only after a minute and me taking a couple of photos. I did take a bit of video but even after shrinking it, its still too big to post, so I will have to do a bit more work and cut it down smaller.

This time I did take a bit of fresh fish to "encourage" them, but they only got that after I had finished taking the first lot of pictures (last image).

Feeling very happy, rinkled and starting to feel a little on the cool side I headed home. haggs
 

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Haggs,
You might look into joining Photobucket (Photo and Video Storage | Photobucket) until Tony gets the video software setup:sagrin:. They have a free (as well as paid) membership and will take longer videos (albeit not overly large) than are currently accepted on the site. It takes an eternity to upload them and they are converted so there is quality loss but many of us use it and then post the URL link with picture back to the TONMO site.

I did find an abstract that indicated these are, unfortunately, a small egged octopus:

Abstract Observations on mating, egg-laying and hatching of aquarium-held individuals of Octopus tetricus Gould, 1852 are described. Females were able to store viable spermatozoa for periods up to 114 days, and laid many small eggs in strings 10 to 12 cm long. The duration of embryonic development varied inversely with temperature. The newly hatched planktonic larvae were 2.5 mm long by 1.1 mm wide, but attempts to rear them were unsuccessful, the longest survival being 21 days. The females died following egg hatching.

21 days is a long time for any small egg octo though ...
 
When the eggs hatch into planktonic larvae would they eat the same as small fish?

my question is....if they do, would it be any different feeding the plantonic larvae of the occies, than feeding newly hatch clowns fish that I used to raise on rotifers then onto newly hatched live brine shrimp? I still have a lot to learn, so if this is all "old and doesn't work" forgive me.

I do have a photobucket account, so I will look into that for you. haggs
 
We don't quite know why the small egged species does not survive in an aquarium. Sedna had the most TONMO success that I can remember at 11 days (typical is 4). The abstract I quoted said the last died at 21 days which is puzzling since by that time, I would have thought they would start into the benthic stage and would be past the critical time. The article Sedna mentioned was about a success with Vulgaris in an ocean flow through tank (If I remember correctly). Each of us that has been presented with the opportunity has given it a go (I never even had hatchlings that I know of). The large egged species are no picnic but there have been a lot of successes raising 4-6 of the fry with Zyan Silver having the most success with almost 100 bimacs last year. Our East Coast Mercatoris (nocturnal dwarf) seem to survive in small numbers and can go on to reproduce with successful tank bred (Zyan went off to college and we never got reports of the tank raised reproducing, we do know that at least one pair mated, I just lost my last tank bred merc as an old man at 13 months and GHolland is hoping for tank bred mercs soon).
 
ahhh what a day, I went down and watched the sunrise this morning, and decided to go back home and hook up the trailer and go and get some water to do a water change. It was flat, clear and warmish about 21degrees.

About 10:00 I went back yet again, this time over to the island and found the 2 occies. I was just about to get out and head home when I found a 3rd one, it too looks to be the same species but a little smaller than the others.

I was so tempted to take this one home, it may still happen yet. Anyway heres a few photos from today and then I will try to put up a bit of video that I promised to do. haggs
 

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