Wonderpus - Fontanelle

[DWhatley]

Thales,
It will be interesting to catch the digging sequence with the muck and compare the two. Enjoyed "the fish from hell" too

 

[elaflam]

Video (19 meg, streaming)

Wonderpus

Nice vid. What a great animal. I like the Daisy Hill Logo as well...

 

[Thales]

I added this text to the video page:

I don't think these animals should be imported. This one came directly from a shipment, and I recieved it before it go to the LFS. I would have been happy to not have had to chance to keep one. For more info on my progress, click here to read my journal on www.TONMO.com.

A caution: Wonderpus, and cephalopods in general, don't make great aquarium inhabitants. It is unclear how small wonderpus populations are in the wild, and it is unclear what effect their collection will have on those populations, so I urge anyone interested in these animals to not purchase them until we know more. I embarked on keeping a wonderpus because I have had years of experience keeping cephalopods successfully, and I was happened to be in a position to obtain the animal directly from the collector - if it had been at an aquarium store I would not have bought it.

If you are interested in keeping cephalopods, there are several easier to keep species that are easily available, better understood and much more inexpensive than wonderpus. Please do some reading on www.TONMO.com before purchasing any ceph.

Any ideas on better wording would be eagerly read!

 

[Thales]

Interesting eating strategy

Fontanelle likes to hang behind the overflow with some arm dangling like in the pic (though it is usually only an inch or so of 1 or two arms).

Today, I dropped in a shrimp and it started swimming around, as it got closer to where Fontanelle was hanging out below the overflow, a few more arms came out, and next time the shrimp came by, he reached out and grabbed it. This is the first time I have seen him hunt rather than stumble upon food.

 

[Thales]

Mineral Mud Added

The Carib-Sea Mineral Mud arrived today. I put some in a bowl and it felt a lot like the muck I dove in in PNG, so I added it to the tank. Here is a before and after shot. I made a rock wall and backfilled it with mud about 5 or 6 inches deep. We'll see what the occy does with it.

 

[Thales]

Display

Just a nice shot of him doing his display.

 

[tonmo]

That's a remarkable video! Your music choices are always entertaining.

I appreciate the disclaimer text, I think it's well-stated. To be particular, I might suggest a bold red NOTE: to precede the text because in its current state it's easily ignorable.

 

[Thales]

Thanks Tony!

Done!

 

[Thales]

He is out and about this morning, and it looks like he dug a little bit last night - not very deep.

I did catch him in this interesting eyes up under mantle pose this morning. He moved before I could get a better shot.

 

[Animal Mother]

great pictures.

 

[Thales]

Thanks!


I caught him digging again last night, but he didn't go too deep.
I also thought this arm pic was nice.

 

[91lxstang]

thats a beautiful octo! your very lucky!

 

[Thales]

Nothing new and exciting. He is eating, and sleeping and hiding and wandering. Starting to think about giving him a bigger tank.
I did get some footage of an interesting hunt though...when the shrimp came near the occy, he made a slightly showy display of arms, then promptly grabbed and started eating the shrimp. I'm trying to wait to get more footage before making another video.

I did talk to the guys at a LFS that has sold several 'zebras' about who they are selling these too and what kind of success they have had. Seems that it was mostly what TONMOers have called 'yuppies with tanks' bought the last few - they had service companies keep up their tanks. Both of the occys did not live very long at all. The current one the store has has not sold, but looks healthy, and was the other one that came into the country when Fontanelle arrived.

 

[OB]

I did talk to the guys at a LFS that has sold several 'zebras' about who they are selling these too and what kind of success they have had. Seems that it was mostly what TONMOers have called 'yuppies with tanks' bought the last few - they had service companies keep up their tanks. Both of the occys did not live very long at all.

Which is the exact reason why these shouldn't even get into the LFS in the first place. Why are they also stunningly beautiful? This doesn't help matters at all...

Glad you can share Fontanelle with us, Thales. Different story.

 

[Thales]

I agree they shouldn't be collected without more information and more controls.
I thought the more interesting part of the LFS report was that the other wonderpus has not been sold yet. The word may be getting around that they just aren't, in general, a good animal for just anyone to keep.