[Octopus]: Trapper - O.mercatoris

Trap has accepted but then expelled without eating, her daily crab both last night and tonight. I tried hand feeding her a dead shrimp (which she may have consumed at least in part) and a damaged live shrimp that she expelled.

It seems she will take almost anything I put in front of her but getting her to eat it is another story. I know she would eat varying amounts of the crabs initially but I am not sure how much she has digested over the last month. She has never fully rejected two crabs in a row before tonight and I am thinking they are becoming too much work for her.

Still no more babies. Today I located three of the 5-6 (one known dead) but there may be others in the net still alive.
 
Trapper is now eating dead shore shrimp gut loaded with a small amount of tetracycline (she still wants nothing to do with anything alive). These are fresh kill and not frozen. She continues to stay in her den 24/7 but will readily take her 2 shrimp (about 1 hour apart) at night. This puts her at 3 weeks from the first hatching (the six babies hatched by ones or twos over 4 a day period). Lev's female lived 5 weeks after the hatching so I am hoping Trap will still be around for a couple more. I have noticed her eyes getting more prominent which fits with a description of normal sesenence but she still can change color and I don't see any skin problems (I rarely see her mantle though).

We have 5 confirmed live and still only the one dead baby. Size varies with the 5 live but I worry that they are not growing as fast as they should. I have been feeding a combination of new hatched brine, frozen cyclopese, frozen mysis and live pods every night. There is a tiny crab in the feeder net that has not been touched. I am hesitant to put shore shrimp in quite yet but will try small live mysis (supposed to have arrived today) if my shipment arrives alive.

All 5 babies are in a breeder net I found that is almost twice the size of a normal breeder net and has both a horizontal and a verticle divider. The octos can cross the divider easily but my thinking is that they can choose to be separate. There are 4 small shells in the upper section and I think they are used during the day. Two keep to themselves while three are often within a couple of inches of each other at night. The supports for the breeder are white so it takes me about an hour to locate everyone at night but eventually, I see each of them.
 
Hey! That's great the babies seem to be doing well and that Trapper is still eating. I'm thinking Biddle may be some type of dwarf. She was out tonight chasing my fingers!
 
Carol,
I noticed that you wished someone happy birthday from you and Spike but did not include Biddle so I am glad to know she is doing well. She is just the cutest little thing. I wish you would find out what she is though. I thought there were only about 4-6 known pygmy's so it seem she should fit a description somewhere. The fact that you have her playing is a lot for a dwarf so it would be interesting to have a clue to her identity (of course finding another could prove to be impossible).

The one thing I have found with Trap is that she doesn't seem to be afraid of my fingers IN the tank. She will reach out and touch (once a night only) a finger placed on the outside but then does her go away standard Mercatoris pose and if that doesn't work, she closes her door.
 
Biddle is actually doing very well as long as we don't startle her. She's quick to turn black and retreat to her den. Very skittish, but has taken to trying to catch my fingers and is getting very curious. Sometimes you walk by the tank and don't see her sitting on top of the barnacles watching. Someone here had a link, I think on the meet Biddle thread with a similar looking octopus, think it was links to Roy's site. Don't think it's in the bipedal family, but she does have the striped look to her legs but no webbing, very long legs. Did you see the new pics I posted in Biddles' thread?
 
Carol,
I NEVER miss a Biddle (or a Fontanelle:wink:) post and particularly like to read about their behavior. I am very fond of Trap and she doesn't do much of anything! It is going to be very interesting to see if her babies interact at all (if I can keep them alive!:hmm: ).
 
Trap came out of her den tonight and crawled around on the tank wall for about 5 minutes (first of this behavior since brooding). I'm guessing this means we are approaching the end. She did eat tonight so I am still keeping my fingers crossed that I will have a little more time with her.

The five babies are still alive and I have added live saltwater mysis and freshwater guppy fry to their nightly feeding but don't really know what they are eating. They seem most active when I put in the cyclopese so I will continue to shave that into the net.
 
Trapper and Babies 5 week update

Trapper and 5 of the 6 babies are still alive after 5 weeks. I am still feeding a variety of small things, both dead and alive but it appears they "filter feed" with arms split, some in the "air" and the rest supporting them on the bottom so that their mouths are fully exposed to the current.

There is 1 small shore shrimp, one snail (as clean up) and one small crab in the breeder net. They have been there for 2 weeks and have not been eaten or molested (nor have they consumed any octopuses).

I add live mysis, new hatch brine or copepods along with frozen cyclopese and some very tiny baby fish food twice a night. I cut off the water circulating pump but not the main filter to sump pump all night. I am not sure which of the foods they are eating. The mysis disappear but may be escaping through the net since I have not seen anyone eat them. I continue to find pods in the macro algae so I don't know if the octos have an interest in them yet. From their behavior, I would guess that they are eating the brine and cyclopese as a main diet.

Trapper is becoming reluctant to eat her spiked shrimp but eventually takes it into her den and eats at least some of it. She seems to have some interest in exploring my fingers and I have started encouraging contact. I think she may have been showing an interest earlier but I missed the signs. My new boss is active with dog rescue and feels badly when she has a temporary ward that crys for its original owners and she can't communicate with the animal to tell it that life will be better soon. I just shake my head, laugh and tell her to imagine trying to communicate with an octopus :wink:
 
We have Trapper down in the List of Our Octopuses as a briareus, which is what you thought she might be at the start. Please refresh my memory - did you ever determine the species?

Nancy
 
Week 6 Trapper and babies still here

Trapper has survived for 6 weeks since her first egg hatched. However, she is eating less and maybe not at all. She reaches up and takes the offered shrimp some nights (others I have to coax her) but has begun throwing it out of her den rather than eating it. I think she takes it just to make me go away :roll:

I have not done an official count on the little guys in the last couple of days because I usually have to be up at 4:00 AM to see all of them at one time and now that I have to get up at 7:30 AM, I am rarely awake at that time :shock: . I did see two of them tonight and decided that they have officially doubled in size from birth. I still don't really know what they are eating but keep putting a variety of foods in the breeder net twice a night.
 
Trapper and Babies 7 week update

I keep holding my breath but Trap is still hanging in there. She is barely eating (if at all), is even less active and her arms look noticeably thinner now but she will still to the ET touch on the tank (which may actually be a "go away" signal but I chose to call it interacting :cool2: and my grandaughter will agree with my call) and will sometimes investigate my fingers when I give her her nightly shrimp. So far I have not seen the daytime death walk that I keep expecting.

The babies are stalking shore shrimp (Paul didn't have any tiny ones but Mariculture Technologies did and Phylis made sure I got tiny ones) and at least one has gotten the idea that they are food:biggrin2: , whoo hoo!.

Today was a real confidence booster that the little guys will survive in my care. Each of the 5 babies has taken a shell in the breeder net for daytime sleeping and I am beginning to see them regularly perched at the openings (BEFORE midnight - YES!). I take a frozen cube of mysis or clam and some cyclopese and defrost it in my fingers directly over each of the shells. Tonight one of the little guys stayed fully on top of his shell while I was feeding so I lowered the frozen cube to him. Instead of pulling back into the shell, he reached up and invistigated the cube in my fingers and took pieces of the clam, never retreating to his den. I immediately repeated the process with frozen mysis and he performed this stunt a second time. Fortunately for my overfeeding zeal, the unique breeder net I found has a horizontal divider plastic grid and the excess food that does not go through the net falls below the shell dens to be consumed by my nursery clean-up crew/potential live food critters. After my excessive frozen feed session, one of the little guys went below and started harassing the shrimp :smile: .
 
Trapper and Babies 8 week update

Babies are growing. I haven't counted them this week but I don't see any dead and saw 3 hunting in the bottom section of the net tonight. Two were entangled but it does not appear that either is damaged.

Trapper is still hanging in there. She quit eating her injected shrimp all together last week. I had noticed her flailing her arms whenever I fed the babies but didn't realize what she was doing. She is eating the cyclopese that I feed the babies twice a night. It appears that she has been slowly reverting to easier and smaller food and now only filter feeds. I have a hard time getting enough of the cyclopese to her and she seems to be constantly hungry. I have tried putting it in a bottle to prevent all of it from going up into the water column but she won't enter the bottle or put her arm inside. She knows the food is coming out of it and will "play" with the bottle but doesn't reach or go inside. The best I have been able to do is to take a frozen chunk and get it to sink to the bottom of a clam shell. Once she discovers the loose mixture she goes wild with her arms and encourges it to float so that she can eat it. I did see her get a chunkier piece and put it in her mouth but she doesn't try to just sit on top of the shell to eat the thicker soup within.

I also noticed that one of her arms has the appearance of being shortened and I wonder if she bit off the tip trying to eat the cyclopese or a shrimp. Additionally, she has always (while in my care) had "missing" suckers on one arm (about .25 inch section). I am not positive but it looks like all the suckers are gone from where they were originally missing all the way up to the tip.

Since I started feeding the cyclopese, Trapper will grab my fingers and pull. She blows the food that I am holding (it melts quickly) and never tries to take the frozen chunk directly but I think she is tasting the residue on my fingers.
 

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