Cuttlegirl and Carol, thanks for your concern and suggestions for Ossie.
Life has been crazy here. It looks like I'm going to have to sue my upstairs neighbor for damages because it's been close to four weeks and she's done nothing. Therefore, the larger tank is sitting on my floor looking forlorn and lonely without critters in it.
As for Ossie, she's still stuck in the small 5.5 gallon tank. She hasn't been venturing out lately (but it could be the glow of the TV) so neither of us has seen much of her except tentacles darting out of her den.
We were afraid that she was getting bored, so we got her favorite food (tiny red crabs that look like crabs and aren't hermits) which are expensive as all out (compared to ghost shrimp) and then as a last minute gift, we got a green chromis for her to play with.
Since I had been worried about her eating habits, we were watching for remains very carefully. Sure enough, one of the two crabs we got was eaten on the first night.
And that night, we saw tentacles come flickering out of her den to experience Flit (the green chromis). Flit chose (we thought stupidly but it may end up being a good choice) the back of her den as her hiding spot. Flit was a VERY nervous nellie her first night, but since then has settled into a seemingly calm existence. She is still sleeping behind Ossie's den but we haven't really observed how they are together yet.
Here's the neat thing: the second crab was left alone.
Why is it neat? Well, we've come to two conclusions about why the crab was left alone. First off, Ossie has a tendency to leave ONE species of something in her tank - the exception being ghost shrimp. We have some blue legged hermits in her tank but she prefers the red legged type. However, when we got her six of those, she promptly ate all of them but one. She did the same thing with the cerith snails and the Astrea snails. Left one of each.
The other reason we've come up with is, I was moving some of the rocks around to get at the empty crab shell, when the surviving red crab fell off the rock I was moving. Well, the survivor apparently didn't survive the fall (of 6 inches!) because it didn't flip itself over and when I did notice it moving a few minutes later, it was because a bristle worm was trying to move it!
Could Ossie have known that it was a dying crab and chosen not to eat it?
Anyway, after she ate the red crab, the next night she went after the conch snail FINALLY, after 6 weeks.
Here's my problem: the water stinks of snail carcass (unmistakable odor) and I cannot find the carcass. We are doing daily water changes until the carcass disintegrates or the smell goes away (whichever comes first), but what else can be done? I don't think I want to disturb her den to go searching there.
Any suggestions would be welcome!
Oh and Carol, yeah, after capturing Ossie that one time with a really good photo, we have stopped using the flash altogether and only use movie mode where we are able to get somewhat clearer pictures.
Life has been crazy here. It looks like I'm going to have to sue my upstairs neighbor for damages because it's been close to four weeks and she's done nothing. Therefore, the larger tank is sitting on my floor looking forlorn and lonely without critters in it.
As for Ossie, she's still stuck in the small 5.5 gallon tank. She hasn't been venturing out lately (but it could be the glow of the TV) so neither of us has seen much of her except tentacles darting out of her den.
We were afraid that she was getting bored, so we got her favorite food (tiny red crabs that look like crabs and aren't hermits) which are expensive as all out (compared to ghost shrimp) and then as a last minute gift, we got a green chromis for her to play with.
Since I had been worried about her eating habits, we were watching for remains very carefully. Sure enough, one of the two crabs we got was eaten on the first night.
And that night, we saw tentacles come flickering out of her den to experience Flit (the green chromis). Flit chose (we thought stupidly but it may end up being a good choice) the back of her den as her hiding spot. Flit was a VERY nervous nellie her first night, but since then has settled into a seemingly calm existence. She is still sleeping behind Ossie's den but we haven't really observed how they are together yet.
Here's the neat thing: the second crab was left alone.
Why is it neat? Well, we've come to two conclusions about why the crab was left alone. First off, Ossie has a tendency to leave ONE species of something in her tank - the exception being ghost shrimp. We have some blue legged hermits in her tank but she prefers the red legged type. However, when we got her six of those, she promptly ate all of them but one. She did the same thing with the cerith snails and the Astrea snails. Left one of each.
The other reason we've come up with is, I was moving some of the rocks around to get at the empty crab shell, when the surviving red crab fell off the rock I was moving. Well, the survivor apparently didn't survive the fall (of 6 inches!) because it didn't flip itself over and when I did notice it moving a few minutes later, it was because a bristle worm was trying to move it!
Could Ossie have known that it was a dying crab and chosen not to eat it?
Anyway, after she ate the red crab, the next night she went after the conch snail FINALLY, after 6 weeks.
Here's my problem: the water stinks of snail carcass (unmistakable odor) and I cannot find the carcass. We are doing daily water changes until the carcass disintegrates or the smell goes away (whichever comes first), but what else can be done? I don't think I want to disturb her den to go searching there.
Any suggestions would be welcome!
Oh and Carol, yeah, after capturing Ossie that one time with a really good photo, we have stopped using the flash altogether and only use movie mode where we are able to get somewhat clearer pictures.
