Mimic Octopus

[Burstsovenergy24]

Huh.

It's odd looking.
BOE, Steve, Carol, and Neil.

 

[dragonfish]

it may be trying to imitate the seabadger! or is it the seabadger who's trying to imitate the octopus? or are they imitating eachother?

OH NO!!! I've been thinking too hard! my head hurts

 

[joel_ang]

Thats one heck of a big mimic if you ask me. Do cephs ever eat seabadgers? Or vice versa?

 

[Colin]

The idea was that the mimic on the right was trying to look like a seabadger but never mind!!!!!

that's what they look like when they are peeking out of their dens

 

[um...]

Yeah, that was kinda spooky.

 

[Colin]

Thats one heck of a big mimic if you ask me. Do cephs ever eat seabadgers? Or vice versa?

seabadgers are actually a bit like cleaning shrimp in the way that they carefully clean all the suckers of the mimic, they have a symbiotic relationship and neither preys on each other...

 

[dragonfish]

don't forget to mention that they also eat any left over pieces of shell the octo missed.

they are great tank cleaners.

If I'm not mistaking, they can also be kept in small groups. never heard of any breedingresults though. btw, are they egglayers or livebearers?

 

[Burstsovenergy24]

How big are these seabadgers? They sound very helpful. Maybe I should get one!

 

[joel_ang]

Man the cleaner wrasse is gonna be jealous once I get hold of one. Do they also have relationships between cuttles? Then again what if its endangered? :o

 

[Colin]

sea badgers actually live in small colonies with a queen and workers. They have all different cast sizes fromteh small 3" maximum workers and cleaners to the large queen whcih can be up to three feet long ( a pic of a queen was already posted)

please note they are not endangered and can be kept in an aquarium but the aquarium needs to be big enough to house the queen, any workers kept without the queen wont act normally and soon die.

 

[joel_ang]

Oh crap, that means I gotta buy more. Any Ideas on minimum tank requirements?

 

[dragonfish]

A friend of mine kept a group of 5 animals. 1 queen en 4 workers. he had a tank of 7 ft by 3ft. this may sound a bit small for a queen seabadger, but like in bees and ants, the queen doesn't seem to move around a lot.

after a few years his queen died and this also ment the end for the workers, they died shortly after.

if you do get some, make sure there aren't any soldier seabadgers in the group. if that is the case, you best don't put your arms in the tank, you'll have them back in 5 or 6 pieces.

 

[joel_ang]

Should we exploit them for their seemingly beautiful coverings?

 

[um...]

"Seemingly" beautiful. They are, in fact, permeated by a huge quantity of slightly toxic mucous.

 

[joel_ang]

Look what I found. Even though these syringes don't look too extraordinary. The Blue one contains the agent for neutralizing the toxins, The Red one is an antivenin and the Green one is the vaccine.

Apparently the toxins cause severe pain and respiratory problems, though this is unlikely to be fatal since no one has been bitten, scientists warn swimmers to keep an eye out as they are expecting the population to increase.