Surprise! It's a Mimic!

[davelin315]

By the way, although I'd rather wait until she is more used to me and commotion around her tank since I have no idea whether she's doing well or not I have decided to do a broadcast with her for an informal education group I put together (you may have seen @sedna present with Kestra recently). Feel free to join the group if you'd like to see her live! I broadcast only in the group via FB and all you have to do is answer 3 simple questions to get in (if you are friends with someone in the group already you are automatically approved upon answering the questions otherwise it's a manual approval).
Doing Our Part - Everyone's an Educator Now!

 

[DWhatley]

My HMart brought them in for a very short time in 2017. I saw a sign announcing that they would be available and called repeatedly until they showed up. It was kind of funny trying to explain that I did not want to eat them (bought 2) and that I needed some of their water to get them home. Here is my rather short journal for Thing One and Thing Two.

 

[TheSeeker]

She is so so beautiful! Please keep those photos coming...Does she have a spot on her mantle? I think she is doing extremely well considering the fact that not only she is eating but looks very curious about her new environment as well. Good job for keeping her happy!

 

[sedna]

I’m glad you’ll be doing a presentation about her! What do your kids think of her?

 

[davelin315]

I’m glad you’ll be doing a presentation about her! What do your kids think of her?

They think she's pretty cool! Not as cool as I do as I am the one that geeks out the most but still pretty cool!

 

[davelin315]

She is so so beautiful! Please keep those photos coming...Does she have a spot on her mantle? I think she is doing extremely well considering the fact that not only she is eating but looks very curious about her new environment as well. Good job for keeping her happy!

Were you asking because you see one or is there a spot somewhere that they have? I am so admittedly ignorant about this animal with the lack of husbandry notes available!

 

[davelin315]

And once again, she proves that middens are not for mimics... crab exoskeletons everywhere! I need to clean those out as I don't think she eats the claws

 

[davelin315]

And last night's feeding video. My phone broke it into 5 videos, all huge, so I put them in order in this album. The first video shows the action, the rest are when I left the video recording while I took care of other animals.
Mimic Feeding

 

[DWhatley]

Interesting that she is not actively hunting but spots food and waits for it to come within easy web-over pounce. I wonder if this will change when she becomes fully acclimated to the tank of if this is a common hunting style. The in situ pictures lead me to believe there is little for them to use as a perch but that impression could be totally misguided.

 

[sedna]

Interesting that she is not actively hunting but spots food and waits for it to come within easy web-over pounce. I wonder if this will change when she becomes fully acclimated to the tank of if this is a common hunting style. The in situ pictures lead me to believe there is little for them to use as a perch but that impression could be totally misguided.

Agreed, D! I think a briareus would have descended on that rock once the fiddlers were dropped in, and blanketed the entire thing under their webbing. I love watching different hunting styles!

 

[davelin315]

Interesting that she is not actively hunting but spots food and waits for it to come within easy web-over pounce. I wonder if this will change when she becomes fully acclimated to the tank of if this is a common hunting style. The in situ pictures lead me to believe there is little for them to use as a perch but that impression could be totally misguided.

She does hunt when I'm not watching I believe as the fiddlers and the emerald crabs don't venture onto the substrate unless I put them there, at least not that I've noticed. Emerald crabs in general will stay on rocks and prefer to be on structures and blend in or hide rather than be on substrate which affords them no protection whatsoever and despite the fiddler crabs being the opposite and spending their time on the ground in situations with deeper water they tend to go towards the highest point in an attempt to leave the water in my experience. The ones that my son keeps in his brackish system with mudskippers always stay either on the land portion or on structures that they can easily climb in and out of the water on. I am guessing that when I'm not watching she is hunting around but I don't have a phone that I can leave trained on her all day long to video what she's doing unfortunately. Would love to use an old iPad to set up an observation camera and have found a program that purports to do this but will have to see how it works.

All of that aside, other than the darkening when she sees food, I haven't noticed any sort of aggressive or obvious feeding behaviors other than the somewhat odd position she took with the fiddler in the last video where she grabbed it and then kind of lifted herself off the substrate and held the crab out while she bit into its head. I wonder if this might have been a behavior that is learned with crabs to prevent them from being able to pull themselves away while she is attempting to eat?

 

[sedna]

Excellent presentation on the Facebook page, Dave! My husband and I are alone at the family cottage- the first time alone together since March- and you were our dinner show tonight! Grilled lamb chops, Parmesan risotto and the Magnificent Mimic!

You’re right that her tell-tale triangle looks like the Star Fleet emblem! I highly approve- as many of my octopuses get Star Trek names- including Kestra.

 

[davelin315]

So she is not eating immediately anymore but then again, I've put about 30 crabs in since I got her and I find piles of exoskeleton and legs every day. She seems to want to avoid the fiddlers with large claws and all but the smallest of emerald crabs. I did notice during my presentation last night with her that she was missing a piece of arm and it may have been the molly or a crab that did it to her (the molly was caught red-handed, or red-mouthed, as it tried to nip the tips of her arms off). The molly got moved but the crabs were left in there as she has eaten them and I am curious if she is just avoiding them because she's full.

Beyond last night's live feed on FB I didn't take any new photos but I will if she exhibits anything different or if I get a chance to. If I happen to be near the tank while lights are off I'll try to film some night vision video but there's probably not even enough light to do that where the tank is at.

 

[davelin315]

So a little update on the Mimic. She still has the same arm that has had the tip severed recently since I got her but the other arm that had previously been damaged and had a tiny bit of growth upon arrival is continuing to regrow.

While that one continues to regrow I thought I would get a better estimate of her size so while she was on the tank wall I put a tape measure against it.

Based on these while at rest her mantle is about 3" from front to back (1st and 8th arms to the 4th and 5th arms) and seems to be about 2" from side to side.

 

[davelin315]

Also, while she seems to have stopped hitting crabs when I drop them in she is definitely still eating and is hunting on her own while I am not watching. I counted an additional 3 crabs she ate (2 fiddler's and an emerald) and possibly a 4th. I also noticed that she seems to be keeping a much lower profile to the tank bottom than before and also seems to want to dig a little bit as evidenced by the stirred up white sand from the bottom. This may have already been like this (will need to go back over photos and see) but she definitely seems to try to work her arms into the substrate a bit more than before and she is far flatter to the bottom than before.

And a close-up of the sand in the back corner where she spent some time last night.