Wunderpus 3 journal

[Thales]

Anyhow,

The pus continues to umbrella feed. Insterestingly, he seems to see things more than previous animals. I put a shrimp in and he goes after it - still slow, but deliberate. I was able to herd a shrimp into his trap tonight.

 

[Nancy]

Thanks for going into more detail about how you approach this issue, Rich. We've come a long way in the last few years.

For those of you who came in later, a few years ago a number of Tonmo people talked with LFSs that were selling wunderpus (often under the name "mimic octopus"), to try to provide them with information and discourage sales. Sometimes it had no effect at the time, but many of the stores stopped selling wunderpus after bad experiences and no profit.

I hope you share your Tongo experiences with us some day.

Nancy

 

[Thales]

Thanks Nancy.

The Tonga stuff is pretty complex to go over online and I haven't really written it up in article form yet. I'll be happy to tell you all about it at the CON.

The occy is still going in and out of its den in the fiji mud corner of the aquarium. Like the others, it annoyingly hangs out on the front glass so pics are not so easy to get. I have a lot of red macro in the tank against the back and I think I will move it and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Thales]

Pretty much same old same old here. Feeding has become a little interesting...I drop in a live shrimp and herd it over to the occy who sees it, and envelops it. This one seems much more interesting that the last two.

 

[st4rL1ghtZz]

Xander seems like a really decent name!=]
i remember when i first joined this site, i was fascinated by your constant posting's about Fonatelle. I am glad you ended up with another wunderpus, hopefully you can find out more about this species by comparing past entries about fonatelle. This could be a step in the right direction!

 

[shipposhack]

This one has beautiful coloration. I love the pictures of it in it's first home.

 

[Brock Fluharty]

Given the right type of informative program, I would favor the public display of these exotic animals. You can reach far more people, provide information that is perceived as "authoritative", and there is a perception that displayed animals are too exotic to be entertained by the hobbiest (most, anyway).

I've helped various museums and aquaria (including Cal Acad) over the years display blue-rings and did so with less concern that I was promoting keeping them in the home aquarium. It was easier to get across the message that they are dangerous and have no place in the home.

Roy

I agree 100%. Wouldn't be too difficult a task to get the aquarium to go along with it, or getting the animal to the aquarium.

 

[Thales]

Tonight he umbrella pounced a shrimp on a feeding stick. Neat.


There are several issues displaying secretive cephs in public aquaria. They hide, so most of the time the tank looks empty. This particular species is crepuscular, so it will almost never be active during public hours. At this time, we aren't changing any of the exhibits at work, but there may be big cephy ya yas in the future.

 

[Brock Fluharty]

That's why you make the tank label read "Indonesian Invisible Octopus - Extremely Rare".