- Joined
- Jan 18, 2008
- Messages
- 569
And Beluga with his crab...
The Nice Animal Mother;120570 said:Your pictures make me kinda miss Einy. I always enjoyed watching him take down fiddler crabs.
dwhatley;121147 said:It looks as if the crab is reacting to the cephlotoxin in the last second where its legs seemed to shake. Did you notice if the crab died and was then eaten or if Tarzan attacked it further to cause the death? I am reading Jacques Cousteau's The Soft Intelligence (still well worth the read) and he mentions noting the use of the toxin more as "spit" than bite as Tarzan appears to do in the video.
gholland;121150 said:Also, I'm assuming the dark spot visible inside Tarzan's mantle in that video is the ink sac? Or could it be something else, like the gill heart?
dwhatley;121160 said:It would seem that gills might be a very vunerable spot for a quick acting toxin and would not require the small beak to penetrate the shell (IME the Merc's beak can't even penetrate human skin).
Tonight, Medusa was in the live rock at the front of the tank and showed her eyes. After eating though she went back to the main rock and Sistrurus reacted quickly and they had a brief skirmish. Medusa made his/her way back into the LR and Sistrurus blocked the opening for a few seconds but did not follow. I am hoping this is a sign that he wants to mate but she is not ready rather than the possibility that they are both male. They have lived very close to each other without problems, choosing to be within arms reach until they were put into the larger tank (they still stayed close for about 2 weeks). Sistrurus' reaction was particularly surprising because he is extremely gentle. If I am seeing a mating behavior, it appears that if a male catches a female in the open, it may match the violence that Roy has seen.
I have seen Sisturus approach her and touch arm tips without any sign of aggression between them but at other times they will quickly meet beak to beak (without actually touching mouths) and seem to be squabbling. Neither turns deep red during these meetings and they are brief but it does make me nerveous. Tonight Medusa jetted across the tank in front of Sisturus and took a very aggressive (possibly defensive) position. She held two of her arms very rigidly out from her body (not the typical arms up between the eyes pose) and made a quivering motion with them. The whole length of the arm was in a tight motion, not just the tips like in the video that gave Sisturus his name. She did not attack but look ready to take on a ninja.
He is more interactive with Medusa and the contact is less aggressive. I have seen her reach out to touch him when he is doing his wall climbing and sometimes they tussle for a second or two but not violently and no one is missing arm tips or has sustained any damage. I don't know if this is courting behavior or just two octopuses reaching maturity in a small tank. Tonight they were both in the same barnacle cluster and when I sat in front of the tank both came out at about the same time. Sisty covered Medusa's shell, quivered and then arched over the opening for a maybe a minute but there was no biting and no arm reaching into the shell.
(D, didn't Trapper do this with you regularly?) The "contact" only lasted a few seconds, but it was very cool to interact from outside the tank like this!