my octo just got here !

[k0mpresd]

he/she is so small.

 

[DinoIgnacio]

cool! i'm still waiting for mine. what state are you from? i'm trying to figure out how long mine will take from dan in florida.

 

[k0mpresd]

im in north carolina.

 

[DinoIgnacio]

Cool. I hope mine gets here tomorrow.
Congratulations on your little guy!

 

[k0mpresd]

thanks ! i called him yesterday to find out when he mailed and he said monday. so i knew it was coming today.

i got him in the tank. he found a perfect size hole in the first rock he came to. and hes been there ever since.

 

[k0mpresd]

this little guy can hide. and he ate at least 2 blue leg hermits last night. so thats a good sign i guess. eating on the first night.

 

[k0mpresd]

continuing my monologue. i dropped a hermit crab in front of him today while it looked like he was just sort of watching what was going on. reached out, touched it, and then sort of just sat there. also showed it a krill with my hand. again, just sort of touched it. tried the krill again later on, and again, just sort of touched it and crawled back up in his hole. im thinking tomorrow i go and try to get a small emerald crab or peppermint shrimp at the fish store. because they are the cheapest inverts they have.

if someone does happen to read my post here, does it sound like hes doing ok ? he ate 2 blue leg hermits the first night, which was weds but hasnt seem to eat anything else. and i really have no idea what gender it is.

 

[marineboy]

Do you know what species it is? Looked like O. mercatoris to me

 

[Animal Mother]

The merc's are very shy. Maybe it was your presence that made it shy away from the food.

 

[DWhatley]

It is interesting that you are seeing that much interaction from a merc and it worries me a little about it's age. These are very shy animals and they don't sit out in the open much (Sisturus was very unusual and I raised him from birth). Be sure you have your rocks piled so it can fully hide in the day light. If you can get some shore shrimp and try to stick feed (see Dino's post on how I accomplish this), you may be more successful in getting him/her to eat while you watch. Fiddler crabs are also a food that they have a hard time resisting. You can push the claw of a male into the stick tube and offer it on a stick as well but the octo will have no problem hunting it (unlike the live shore shrimp which are hard for them to catch). I break the claws of the male fiddlers so that they cannot pinch. Some say this is not necessary but once you get pinched you will understand why I don't put them in there with the capability.

 

[k0mpresd]

well he wasnt sitting out in the open. he was still up in his den. which goes up into a rock. but he was down far enough where i could see him. he uses a small peice of rock and a hermit shell for a "door". he is definitely awake during the day when the light is on though. i added 2 peppermint shrimp to the tank yesterday. everytime they came near to his den he would reach out and swat at them. i dont think it was a feeding strike because eventually he put his door back up. i ordered some shore shrimp last week but paul said they wont ship until tomorrow. im out of town now so he was he alone last night. im interested to see if he had anybody for dinner last night.

 

[k0mpresd]

i was able to get him to take a thawed krill off of a stick. he only ate part of it. but did eat some of it at least. looks like he had a hermit crab or two last night as well.

is white a neutral mood color? because when hes just chilling in his den hes white, as best as i can tell. but whenever tentacles come out, theyre brown. and he was brown in the bag when i first got him.

 

[DWhatley]

The coloration sounds normal for the mercs and seems to be lighting dependent. Sisturus and Dusa always appeared white when only the red light was visible but with a flash or anytime I would see them in the open with the lights on, the redish brown was the entire body color. I say appeared white because I am not sure what effect the red light had/has on my own eyes. When Trapper (their mother) was out in the open all the time (after brooding her eggs) she no longer could change color and was white even in the normal room lighting. Being unable to fully color is a sign of old age but white in the dark (that includes under red light only) it seems to be quite normal.

Good job on the Krill, I was never able to get them to eat anything frozen other than fiddlers and then it was hit or miss.

Greg's Journals: http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/9144/

Have some terrific pictures of his tank raised mercs and some good feeding notes.

My mercatoris journals also contain photos of the mercs at various life stages. This link:

http://www.tonmo.com/community/index.php?threads/9449/

is to the current, last of my brood but it contains a link to his parents and that contains a link to their mother (wild caught).

 

[k0mpresd]

thanks. ill read over them. so it sounds like my little guy is doing ok?

 

[DWhatley]

My best guess from 3 wild caught is, if they live more than two weeks, your good to go. If they are going to expire, it seems that they die in almost exactly that amount of time.