Squirt- O. Bimaculoides

Really good photos of squirt stalking and eating a crab!:biggrin2: She was perched on top of a rock this morning just watching every thing.
 

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bluespotocto;150161 said:
Well that knocks that off the list. My dad is getting on my back about the price of live food and squirt isnt really taking frozen stuff yet.
I suspect that bimacs greatly prefer scallop to shrimp, so if you haven't tried it yet, try it. Costco sells loose thawed scallops on Fridays and Saturdays, so you can buy just one scallop (for a few cents) and try it.

You caught your own octopus, so I assume you live close enough to the beach that you can go collect your own octo food (for free) and keep it alive in a critter keeper or something in the tank. I suggest you head back to campus point during low tide, and collect any tiny mollusks you can find on the rocks. It should be easy to find little limpets, chitons, snails, and hermit crabs. crab any small crabs you can find, and look for small muscles. You may have to open them for your octo, but they will be live. Avoid cowries (they produce large amounts of slime when attacked). Look for little bumps, or holes, in the wet sand at low tide. Dig down about 1.5 inches and you'll find olive shells. I haven't tried feeding them to an octopus, but if you break the shell with a hammer, or pliers, I'll bet a little octopus would love them.

Take a knife to cut muscles free, and to scrape limpets off of the rocks, and take a glove so you can grab shore crabs without fear of a pinch. There is also a kind of limpet that lives on the central flat strap of kelp (the part that the leaves grow out of) and those are easy to get off.

There will be super low tides for a few days starting on Feb 25th, but those will be the last very low tides during daylight hours for a while. Here is a link for a tide predictor that allows you to get a listing of upcoming low tides, just select your area.

self caught live food is a hassle to collect and keep alive, but it beats paying for live food, and it will work for a month or two until you find a frozen food that your octopus will eat.

Oh, also, I found that a new octopus (scared) wouldn't take muscles unless I opened them, and left them in front of their den over night. (open them with a thin bladed knife)
 
i collected a ton of mussels when i first got her and i cracked them open in put them right in-front of her. She would touch it then push it away. My first bimac would take them whenever. Squirt only eats crabs. I will try the scallops. thanks!
 
Neal and I were discussing the odd size differences in same species octos and he came up with a thought that may have some merit on what and how much they eat. He wondered aloud if what they first start eating as juveniles (ie find close by) impacts what and how much they will naturally eat as they grow even if other food becomes available later in life.
 
There is a study on Sepia officinalis by Anne-Sophie Darmaillacq, Clémence Lesimple and Ludovich Dickel published in Animal Behavior (2008, 76, 131-134) which supports not just this idea ("food imprinting", which is supported by earlier studies by Darmaillacq), but that learning can begin while still in the egg. The study showed that cuttle eggs exposed to crabs hatched cuttles which preferred crabs, compared to the control group which preferred the shrimp it was exposed to as embryos. It may be the same with octopuses.

I hope you find that as interesting as I do. Good observations!

-Jon
 
I saw that when it was first published and at least one member (Paradox) experimented with the idea to try to get new hatch cuttles to eat sooner. I don't believe he saw any tangible results though.
 
Got some more photos of squirt. she is starting to sit out in the open more and more. the last one is one with her eating a crab.:biggrin2:
 

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Squirt came out to catch a crab then another dumb crab that ran right by her when she was eating it. The urchin that is close to her is about 3/4 inch so you can see how big she is.
 

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Find the octo?

The first 2 are of her starting to come out more. Then the last 2 are of her hiding. I was looking for her all yesterday and then realized she was under my nose the whole time. these arent very good photos of her hiding. I know other people have much better.
 

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FINALLY!!!!!!

She came out and swam around then i gave here a crab!:biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2::biggrin2:
 

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