New Zebra O. chierchiae (now trying breeding!)

[Thales]

Those were with the 105 vr. The new lenses are for the video camera.

 

[Thales]

So, these occys have only one paper on them from around 1976. That paper says that they have a 4-7 day hatching period, but I have been getting hatchlings through day 16. Tonight, I fed the female a freshly dead 'shore' shrimp with tweezers (another difference from the '76 paper - the female is not supposed to feed through brooding), and she came mostly out of her barnacle den. While grabbing the tweezers, the den tipped over, and as she ate, she moved in such a way as to let me see inside of the den. Inside were at least 6 (maybe 9)mature eggs. You can clearly see the soon to hatch occy's inside the eggs. Super spiff!

 

[gholland]

Amazing photos Thales... simply amazing... wow! Keep up the good work!

 

[DWhatley]

It will be interesting now to see if she survives to mate again. Too bad you can't tell if your attempt at breeding her had any effect (i.e. are some of the hatchlings from what appeared to be a rejected mating). Any chance of testing?

 

[Thales]

I jumped the gun when I said she ejected the sperm packet...many were pumped in, one was ejected on tape.

If all the eggs would hatch, I would mate her again. I was planning to this weekend, but I guess not!

 

[Thales]

One more yesterday, and three more so far today.

Very different hatching period than the reported 4-7 day hatching period.

 

[Thales]

Total of 18 at this point. The female came completely out of her den last night, and there are still eggs in there. Hopefully, I will have time for pics soon.

 

[Tintenfisch]

Fascinating to be in on the whole process. And beautiful pics!!!

 

[esquid]

What are you planning on doing with the young if you can rear a good number of them?

 

[Thales]

Hey Kat! Still busy?

Currently I want to establish a breeding colony at my house and another at Roy's lab. Since these guys haven't been studied so much, it seems the first order of business is science, and the second order of business will be raising them for people who want them. I expect that if all goes well, we'll try to spread them around somehow.

There are no eggs left, and yesterday the female was out of her den. 23 total hatchlings. I am going to try to mate her with the other male this week for some quasi genetic diversity. Hopefully, Jon will come through and send some of his babies out or I can find some more broodstock. Without that, it seems like the breeding will be a downhill slide.

 

[Thales]

Adult colors seem established and a day 29 dime picture (ignore the file name!)

And its 24 hatchlings total.

 

[DWhatley]

Thales,
Is the mother responding to the food slave at all or is she still avoiding human interaction?

 

[gholland]

Thales,
Are you doing any hand-feeding or just letting them hunt for dinner? How do they react to your presence?
And what is the black substrate? Obsidian?

 

[Thales]

So far the female seem wary of me. All the adults are being 'hand' fed from long tweezers. In the evening the males will pop out and look at me, and they seem to know when they are going to be fed - as soon as the tweezers hit the water they reach for them. The female eats the same way as the males, except she doesn't/hasn't popped out of her den.

 

[gholland]

Oops. I wasn't clear... I was referring to how you feed the hatchlings and how they react to you.