[Octopus]: Trapper - O.mercatoris

Trapper and Babies 9 week update

Trapper is still with me. She is more interactive with each week and it is going to be harder than I expected to see her out in the day (what I expect on her last 24-48 hours). I have found that I can get the cyclopese to her in better quantity (and somewhat less mess in the tank) by using a pipette. She now knows to expect food from it and quickly positions herself to feed when I put my hand in the tank and squeeze a small amount near her den. Every couple of days she decides to investigate my fingers (I think they "smell" like food) and will do a tug of war for a as long as a minute. She seems to do this more often if I "rearrange" the shell I use for feeding (I still put some in the shell after using the pipette). Tonight she did not pull her arms away when I touched the topside (she would withdraw her arm on prior occassions). If I hold a small block of frozen cyclopese, she still does not take it (probably the cold) but does eat it as it thaws and enters the water column. I am having difficulty trying to decide when she has had enough to eat. She eats heartily for fifteen - twenty minutes and then blows at the pipette but about ten minutes later seems to want more food. I have tried clam and krill to provide something more meaty but she only seems excited about the cyclopese.

All 5 babies are still doing well. I have started feeding them cyclopese with the pipette as well. Two and sometimes three of them will grab the end of the pipette and lift their shells an inch off the supporting grid. I do have to be careful to keep constant pressure on the squeeze bulb for fear of sucking them (or part of them) up into the pipette. I have small live shore shrimp and baby sailfin mollies in the breeder net at all times and have seen at least one catch and eat a shrimp when it came to eat the cyclopese near the octo's shell den. I am hoping they will be hunting on their own by the time the convention rolls around so that I can stock the net with shrimp for a couple of days. My son will be here to top off the tanks but goes to bed before they eat :hmm:
 
Trapper and Babies 10 weeks

I think Trap is doing her final tank walk. She came out of her den tonight and started wandering the tank. She has been coming in and out during feeding for the last week but has never left her den area. Tonight she ate very well but came fully out almost right away and has not returned to her shell.

I believe she is blind or almost blind now. I tried taking a few pictures with the flash (I have only a few since I have not wanted to use the flash) and the light did not seem to effect her. She has dissapeared from view at times but will come back up the tank side if I try to find her so I think she may still have some vision.

I experimented with putting my hand in the tank where she could reach it and she explored it with her arms, eventually crawling into my hand and wandering around in it for about 5 minutes (she has never done this before). Her arms are quite thin now and doing the cork screw routine while she holds on to the tank wall. I also noticed a significant change in the strength of her grip this week and an apparent lack of sensitivity to touch on the top (non-sucker side) of her arms.

The shrimp in the baby net are starting to disappear (they have not touched the fish) so I hope the little guys can be released to the tank or at least be eating primarily live food before TONMOCON. My son will be taking care of the tanks in our absence but he does not stay up late enough for their second feeding :roll: .
 
Trapper is a real trooper... I'm glad she came out to interact a bit.
 
Trap was out this AM and is still alive but is doing the typical nerveous tank walk 24/7. She has eaten tonight but the ends of her arms are very weak and she only uses the 1/3 near the body to traverse the tank walls. The arm that I thought had lost most of its suckers turns out not to have lost them but they have shrunken so much it is hard to see them at all (the are is missing some of them but from sometime prior to tank life). Fortunately, I can't detect excessive stress (she does not pattern much at all though) and she does occassionally go exploring in the live rock so I am going to assume that there is no major pain associated with the coming end.
 
How many months now? You really have had great success with Trapper and it is amazing that your babies are doing well also. Any new pics of the little ones? I also commend you on your continued documentation of Trappers' life. I've followed along from the beginning and it's nice to see someone who takes the time to keep us all posted on how she is progressing and what a great tribute to such a unique animal!:smile:
 
Carol,
Thanks for the encouragement with the journal. I had enjoyed Lev's so much that I wanted to do something similar with Trapper. I noted that it must have some kind of following as the times viewed go up more than my own posts :biggrin2: but even if unviewed, it helps me make myself document something weekly (something I just wouldn't do if I kept a private log).

Short :roll: recap:

Trapper arrived in Late December (the 20th I think) and her first baby hatched on March 17th. The barnicales like you have in Spikes tank were the perfect brooding den and should make it to a list of recommended tank decor. I turned the opening toward the glass once she chose it and she stayed there in the front during the entire brood and up until two days ago when she started her final walk. The position of the shell and its shape allowed me to experiment with food and I think that is partially why she has lived 10 weeks beyond expectations. Lev's Merc lived 5 weeks hidden in the tank so it may be that the Mercatoris naturally lives a little longer (especially the larger ones as Trap and Lev's were larger than many of the pygmies). Trap only hatched 6 eggs. I don't know if there were others that were abandon (Lev knew of abandoned eggs and had about 100 hatch). If small brood was all that Trapper laid, it may be another reason for her extended existence. My last thought on her longevity is emotional. Trap had at least an hour of attention from me every day since arriving. She did not interact until she was brooding (and many nights I never saw her before she started brooding but I still sat in front of the tank) but began immediately responding with out encouragement to my presence after the babies hatched. Not long after that she would even do the ET thing during the day.

I am hoping that the babies will interact early in their lives. Currently, one little guy (at least I think it is the same one) is less shy and does not immediately go back into its shell when I peek over the tank to feed. The others come back out once I start squirting Cyclopese but the one little guy just stays out. He does seem to have the best camo ability so I am not altogether sure it is a sign of familiarity. All 5 will feed on the Cyclopese at 9:00 is now and get their second feeding around midnight. Initially they would barely come out at midnight and would only be active somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 AM so I feel I am making progress (small minds, small pleasures).

Trap is still hanging in there (almost literally) and was anxious to eat tonight. She has been hanging on to the overflow and the near by pump since last night, is very pale, has little strength but seems to be constantly hungry. I have tried to get her to take slightly larger food (tiny Krill) but the only thing that excites her is the Cyclopese. When I offer my hand and fingers, she will reach out and touch them but not let me move her and has not crawled into my hand again.

My grandchildren are here tonight and were able to see her out in the open for the first time. They understand that she is dying of old age. They were here before I got home from work and came out to the garage to tell me she was out so I know they check out that tank first when they come over.

If all 5 babies make it (so far so good) I am not sure what to do. Their tank is 45 gallons + sump - live rock and, with the exception of some nitrate stays well cycled without much effort (there is just no substitution for GOOD live rock!). I think having only the 5 to care for has been key to the success so far (and will likely be the case with Jesse's ducklings) but I don't think the tank will support all five as adults. On the other hand, I am not sure I could give one up :hmm:. Winkin' and Blinkin' have the only other tank that might be viable (both growing and looking like little rolly pollies) for one of them but I would like to see if they will breed and am not going to be able to tell male from female :razz:. Needless to say, I am playing it by ear.

I never recorded what I did with the 6th baby that crawled out of the water and died. I think I mentioned I perserved it in a strong mixture of formalin and then got help here to put it in the safer alcohol but my grand daughter was hesitent to take it to school (one of those teachers that only teaches what it in the book and has no wider horizon herself - she had no clue why Ashley brought in pictures of our Abdominalis and Leafy Sea Dragons when they were studying Australia:roll:). TONMO had a post by a father requesting info on octopuses for a young son's report (same age as my granddaughter but very different kind of teacher) and I sent it to them. It arrived just in time and was a big enough hit (Arkansas, I think) that the teacher and student showed off the critter to the other class. I got a very nice thank you note from the young man and I was delighted the little guy had a positive use.

Pictures are all but impossible. The tank is low light to begin with and red light only when the babies are out. I don't want to risk a flash and none of the family has a really low light camera. Once they are bigger than a pinky finger nail, I will try a tirpod and long exposure.

well, maybe not so short:razz:
 
Trapper and Babies 11 weeks

Trapper now sits on top of the circulation pump to feed and sleeps behind it during the day. At least she is sleeping again and not displaying the anxious continuous movement of last week. She is still eating twice a night with gusto but has lost considerable weight. The ends of her arms have no gripping power and even close to the body the suckers do not stick like they did even two weekse ago.

I offered my hand again tonight and she crawled into it and was in no hurry to leave. I think she would have been content to stay there all night if I had not coaxed her back to her pump. I am wondering if something soft would be welcomed but can't quite come up with what to put in the tank.

The babies are still doing well. I need to feed less cyclopese so that they will hunt and will stop the second feeding (midnightish) after Trapper is gone.

I am going to try to preserve Trapper in Formaline and then alcohol to send to Dylan. I have discussed the idea with his mother and she feels he will enjoy having her. Any tips on this procedure are welcomed and I plan to reread Steve's instructions before I begin. The sixth baby that died preserved well but I left it in Formaline for an extended period of time (several months) before I put it in alcohol. I am hoping to complete this procedure in two or three days.
 

Attachments

  • conv_290906.jpg
    conv_290906.jpg
    1.7 MB · Views: 143
  • conv_290907.jpg
    conv_290907.jpg
    1.5 MB · Views: 168
Carolina Biological makes a preservative called CaroSafe that is less toxic than alcohol. You have to be associated with a school or business to order it. I have used it as a preservative too and it works, although the liquid will become a little cloudy after a couple of months. I think that Ward's makes a comparable preservative but I can't remember the name.
 
I was finally able to read this entire thread and am truly touched at how much care you have given these animals. I am so grateful that you have even considered giving trapper to Dylan, and it truly does mean a lot. If there is anyway that I can help, or anything that you find you may need for the preservation, please don't hesitate to let us know (I still haven't mentioned it to him just in case:smile: Thank you again, and such a nice job keeping the updates going on this, I am sure that is time consuming, but also very valuable information.


tinak
 
I have the first octopus I was able to successfully keep probably 23 years ago, a bimac preserved in formaldehyde in my closet. I got it from my local veterinarian who my mom worked for at the time.
 
Once the specimen is fixed in the formalin, I would decant it and store the specimen in alcohol (which you should be able to get from a pharmacy, although good vodka works :biggrin2:), much less toxic than the formalin. I would also seal the lid, you may be able to get the wax that's used for sealing jars of preserves which would give an effective seal to the jar, just to avoid any leakage!!!
 
Jean,
Thanks, I will point Tina back here if she misses the post. I had already suggested that she seal the final jar with glue or wax (I will only provide a temporary one for shipping). I also recommended plastic rather than glass if she can find something very clear.

I preserved the baby by first using a strong formaline mixture and then transferring it to alcohol BUT I did not remove the formalin or "decant" it since I didn't realize I was supposed to :oops: until Steve said something about one of his critters being soaked in saltwater to remove the formaline. Any suggestions on time in the formaline bath and/or the best way to "decant" the preserved animal would be most appreciated.

Carol,
I was debating about preserving Trapper (the Davy Jones commode was just to difficult to accept) but didn't really want her little carcus around my already over collected house. Tina gave me a great opportunity to let her continue to teach so I am feeling much better about the coming event.

Unfortunately, planning her preservation seems a bit like picking out your own coffin :-/
 
Our lab instructions!

Tissues can be left in buffered (our buffer of choice is borax)neutralized formalin for several months, but formalin hardens specimens; therefore, after fixation, longterm storage in alcohol may be better. After preservation the specimen should therefore be washed in water and transferred into ethanol for permanent storage.

For permanent liquid storage of specimens in alcohol, after fixation in 10% buffered formalin solution the specimen must be washed by keeping it in slowly flowing water for 24 hours (for instance in a box closed with gauze) for removal of formalin remnants. Then the specimen should be kept in distilled water for about 30 minutes (exchanging the water twice would be best). When the formalin is completely removed, the specimen can be transferred into 50 % alcohol for 30 minutes, then into 70% alcohol for some time. For longterm storage in a collection, a final transfer into 80% alcohol is recommended.

Steve may have different techniques.


J
 
Jean,
Thanks for the timing on the liquid exchange! What is my "fixing" minimum time in the Formaline before I can "rinse and hold" (American dishwaser cycle :biggrin2:)
 
Pipette Feeding

Trapper no longer stays in a den since she started her final walk (happily longer than expected, again). She was (actually is constantly) hungry with the lights still on so we shot a short video of her feeding. Unfortunately it is too long to upload but here is a link to my photobucket site:

Photo and Video Storage | Photobucket

You will note the red Cyclopeese leaving the pipette and then disappearing as Trapper "sucks" it into her mouth. One behavior we did not catch but observe frequently is Trapper using her arms to catch the particles and then transfering them to her mouth, reminiscent of a child sucking its thumb :smile:
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top