I did not mean to feed only Cyclop-eze but indeed that his all Trapper ate after her brood and lived an additional 12 weeks (not normal and the only one I have had to do that but I remember on other O. mercatoris living close to that long after brooding). The Cyclop-eze may help get it to start eating and appears to be a high quality food. When you offer pieces of food, make it about the size of the eye. We have seen the smaller and older animals reject food that is too large but accept it if broken into smaller offerings.
Since she is eating and leaving shells, I don't think she is brooding. This could be a prebrood behavior though. We have noticed that most prebrood females will accept almost anything just before denning up but I don't know that that is universal.
iAlex, Nancy also had stocked the tank with tons of pods but it also died at about 4 months. Mine are not extremely long lived but if they make it to 2 weeks they survive until senescence feeding them daily with a 1 day a week fast. Something I have never quite determined with Roy's and Joe_Ceph's postings about feeding every 2 or three days is quantity of food on the days they feed. I believe Roy feeds a couple of crabs where I feed only one so the quantity may be close to the same. My animals are HUNGRY daily (LittleBit would have eaten more than what was offered I think). I find it hard to believe that they over eat. Ours (with the exception of LittleBit) push food away once they are satisfied and start eating less when they stop the exponential growth phase. I would attribute my refusal to "starve" my octos to being female but Neal is always overfeeding the tanks (much to my maintenance chagrin).
Since she is eating and leaving shells, I don't think she is brooding. This could be a prebrood behavior though. We have noticed that most prebrood females will accept almost anything just before denning up but I don't know that that is universal.
iAlex, Nancy also had stocked the tank with tons of pods but it also died at about 4 months. Mine are not extremely long lived but if they make it to 2 weeks they survive until senescence feeding them daily with a 1 day a week fast. Something I have never quite determined with Roy's and Joe_Ceph's postings about feeding every 2 or three days is quantity of food on the days they feed. I believe Roy feeds a couple of crabs where I feed only one so the quantity may be close to the same. My animals are HUNGRY daily (LittleBit would have eaten more than what was offered I think). I find it hard to believe that they over eat. Ours (with the exception of LittleBit) push food away once they are satisfied and start eating less when they stop the exponential growth phase. I would attribute my refusal to "starve" my octos to being female but Neal is always overfeeding the tanks (much to my maintenance chagrin).