Mongo, the mighty merc

Mongo rocks!

This weekend we've had Mongo for 2 weeks. I'm still not sure about his sex, I never see him all the way out to see the 3rd right arm, and when I see the 1st four suckers, it's in that classic merc pose in the den door, so that all I see is eyes and just the 1st 4 suckers... Those 4 seem to be uniform is size if that means anything.

Mongo continues to eat hermit crabs, at least once a day. He has his own sacrificial alter, a shell outside his den. I need only to drop a hermit into the shell and before the crab knows it, arms have snatched it up lickety split! I know this is making it so he doesn't need to come out of the den, so I'm not promoting less shy behavior. I don't think it makes much difference- if I don't feed him he only hunts for himself when I'm not around.

I added another layer of red report cover to dim things more. I see him hanging farther out of the den before. Not sure if it's due to the dimmer lights, becoming more used to us, or both.
 

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you should try adding more hermit crabs at a time. twice ive added 10x blue legs. and each time my merc will come out and pick up ~5 of them and carry them back to her den. maybe she has a hermit crab fetish or something ?
 
Mongo, interior designer

The last two mornings I've noticed that Mongo has moved things around in the night. I never see him outside of his den, so it is funny to find evidence. Yesterday he had put one piece of macro algae on the ceiling of his den, hanging out like a flag pole by a front door. This morning, the algae flag was hanging on the barnacle apartment next door. Also, I leave a LEGO diver figure in the LR, from time to time it is floating at the top of the water. As the dive mask is still on (all other octos I've had pulled the face mask off, even Aku. My kids think this is funny...) I think he just ejects the toy as an unwanted object, not play with it at all.

During the day, he sits in his den with his growing pile of hermit crab shells. Soon he won't fit in there if he doesn't clean them out. It's as bad as my kids leaving clothes on the floor. Mongo, clean your room! I haven't given him a crab directly in a couple of days, though. I remember a comment somewhere about longer lives out of tank octos and not over feeding. I decided to always leave a couple live hermits wandering around, and let him hunt as he needs.

He's still really shy. I don't see ever handling this guy- which is o.k. if that's his choice. I still spend a lot of time near the tank, reading or having a snack. He sees me at regular intervals throughout the day, and in the evening does hang farther out of his den to look back at us.

What is the size of a full grown merc?

Today's anagram (I forgot last time):
Moon G.
 
If you look at the last page of Trapper's thread you will see three preserved generations, all different sizes, each progressively smaller and all full grown, adults that lived a full life span (more than a year for the tank raised/bred and long past hatching on the wc. The two children were males but the tank raised and tank bred famales were no larger than the equivalent generation males. I believe that Trapper was overly large even for a wc.
 
How safe is it to leave the carapaces in the tank like that? I yank them out everyday out of fear of contaminating the water. Am I being too cautious?
 
DinoIgnacio;132699 said:
How safe is it to leave the carapaces in the tank like that? I yank them out everyday out of fear of contaminating the water. Am I being too cautious?

With the size and filtration style of your tank, no. Erroring on the cautious side, water quality wise has no negative effects.
 
DinoIgnacio;132699 said:
How safe is it to leave the carapaces in the tank like that? I yank them out everyday out of fear of contaminating the water. Am I being too cautious?

I never find carapaces from the hermits, only empty shells. It just bugs me that the empty shells are littering up the den. Being a mom for a decade has caught up to me. :bugout: This morning, I did find Mongo in a different den, so maybe it finally got too crowded for him.

When I find carapaces from other types of food or "left over" I always clean that out. Again, probably the mom thing...
 
i dont think its being a mom. i try to clean out anything i can and im a 25yr old dude. being bugged my empty shells is a bit over the top though. kidding of course. :tongue:
 
congrats on your new friend, i believe my new octo is a merc as well

one thing that i foung strange is that he(or she) wont eat the blue foots or turbo snails that were already in the tank and ive only had success with emerald crabs, however he does hold the hermits hostage as a cover for his den, sometimes 2 at a time

also friend gave me a red LED which he doesnt seem to mind but it runs on batteries so i might just opt for a nicer one i saw at my LPS

good luck with mongo!
 

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