another local - Situ Two(O.gibbsi)

Did you keep the original protection rocks? I wonder if she will still have her new items next trip and if she will trade again for her original cache or something new and if you can get her to offer by showing her something but not letting her have it until she gives you a trade voluntarily. I wish you were videoing this, where are you interested work mates? :tongue:
 
yes, I wish I could video it too, but between hanging onto the rock to keep myself under, holding the toy and the camera for the odd quick shot i'm struggling..haha maybe i should grow another arm that would help me heaps.


The others aren't ready yet.... it's still to cold for them

I never thought of keeping her rocks and re-trading, I left them not far form her den.
 
Obviously, I did not think of keeping the rocks either until seeing that the trading idea was accepted on the first try. It takes me much longer to get my aquarium animals acclimated to my hand and they don't carry around stuff to trade. I am making good progress with Maya but not Kaysoh (who still does not come out from behind his rocks in our presence and I am not sure if he ever comes beyond them to do anything but occassionally change sides). Did you happen to notice if her original rocks were smooth or rough? I keep thinking about dragon legends and hording things in dens, maybe there is treasure right under your mask. :snorkel:

I DO have empathy for trying to work a camera and play with the octo and I am on land.

Is the weather going to be good tomorrow, I am really curious what she will do next (and what you will come up with to continue the experiment).

It those things are egg sized, she must be bigger than I though (guessing originally from your hand). About how long are her arms and mantle (from behind the eyes to the tip)?

From my Norman's World Guide, there are appareantly two sizes (Steve mentioned a second name but the book is older than the new species is so both are tetricus, the smaller one is supposed to live on the Wast coast and your east coast girl is a night hunter so it is surprising she is even awake when you call. The book also mentions that there have been sightings of the female killing and eating the male after spermataphore transfer. Unfortunately, both are small egg species.
 
mmmm, I don't know what I did wrong before but I thought I had uploaded a few more images..... my bad. Anway here's the last of todays pictures.

D I did say "small egg size" :smile: The silver ball would be close to 2cm across, but it is still very deceptive in guessing her size.

At the moment it's pouring with rain and blowing a gale, well almost a gale. If it does clear enough I will try to get over to the Island after work tomorrow.
 

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The wind and rain disappeared during the night and this afternoon was still and calm, so off to the island I went.

I hopped into the pool and headed across towards Situ Two’s den, I stood about half a metre away and as I turned on the camera I saw her watching me. I turned the camera onto video and started to record, she was just leaving her den and swam across to greet me. I wear a size 10 boot and my feet were about 12cm apart to give you an idea of her size.
After she headed back to her den I looked around and saw the piece of polished quartz sitting on the sand immediately below her, the wooden toy had washed about a metre and half away and there was no sign of the sliver ball as it would have floated away.

I dropped the wooden toy just outside the den and within seconds she had it firmly in her hold. A few minutes later I held the piece of quartz about a metre away from her, I could see she was watch it/me and it only took a couple of twists with my left hand and she was off to get that too.

She played with my hand for a short time but seem to lose interest. As I had promised Pam (my better half) I wouldn’t be long, I gave her a bit of fish that I had taken down with me and left her to eat in piece.
 

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This so much fun! Pam is liable to start calling Situ Two, "the other woman" by the end of the summer :biggrin2:

I wonder if middens are more than just trash piles. Do you see other things around the den she might have collected? You might think about putting a few identifiable tumbled stones where she can find them but far enough away to see if they end up near the den.

I have noticed territorial behavior with my hummelincki's and they don't like it if I take something out of their tank or move things around. Both my males have put a warning arm on my hand while cleaning. The touch was not a curious investigation, a request to play or a pulling contest and there was no direct aggression. My interpretation was of protecting their posessions.

I could not tell from the first video but did she have something else under her webbing when she came to see you?
 
"the other woman" title has already come up...

As for the middens, they do appear to be just dump sites for discarded shells and crab skeletons, but then they don't have much of a choice in what they can collect so I might see if there is anything specific that she keeps retrieving.

I'm not sure about what she had under her mantle before but I did see her pick up another little shell prior to leaving the den.
 
I managed to get back again yesterday afternoon for an hour she wasn’t really interested in much.

I found the wooden toy 1.5 mtrs away, Situ Two must have taken it there because it was between some rocks and it would not have floated or drifted there, and the quartz was nowhere to be seen.

I made up another floating toy but she didn’t want to play with either this afternoon. Going on the amount of “long stringy poo” she was squirting out I think she had just finished digesting a big meal.

Anyway you can see in the video what her reaction was to the toys.
 
I forgot to mention that she allowed me to take her two rocks and 1 shell awy from her. There may well have been more in the bottom of her den but I was unable to see them.

As you can see in the pic that she had no more "protection" shells. This is the first time that she has reared her body back showing her underneath.
 

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Can you blame her for not wanting a fishing lure/bobber?

If she follows my arbitrary "stages" of interaction from the hummelinckis, she will be stand offish for a week or two (I don't know how important it is to have daily contact or if my observations hold any water - NEXT time I will make a more detailed journal now that I have a sort of pattern). This seems (I really should have recorded this clearly) to come at about the time they stop pulling and start touching gently (I noticed she was still pulling last intereaction).

Since she is not carrying protection shells, I am guessing this is a step in building trust but it may just be that she was digesting. It is interesting that she is day active and was eating (without being give a treat) during the day as I just read that they are supposed to be nocturnal.
 
Light bulb! Do you have something make of clear shiny plastic that floats and could be weighted? If you will look at Maya's last video or some of SueNami's pictures with the "ice cube" there is a good example of what I am thinking about. Both octos have been attracted to this toy and I think it has to do with the way it reflects light. If you read my last notes on Maya, it almost appears that she can see the cube better than the orange/blue/yellow ball that contains the food. SueNami would "float" on the cube and keep it under her webbing after eating the attached food.
 
wow guys
this is just facinating your interaction with the occy ,

a few weeks back i was stoked to have a occy come out of his hole jump on my hand and take me away a bit , but this pales compared to your friendship with this amazing creature.

so i was wondering how do i begin to build trust with a occy , do i have to visit every day ?

when the occy mooves onto my hand sucks and feels me what does that mean ??? your food ,,,, your sex ,,,, what are you ,,,,,,play?

regards
Matty
 
Yet another loss, I went down to the pool last week and there was no sign of Situ Two, during the following week we had another flood the 5th for this year( 3 of which were 1 in 100 years...work that out) anyway I was hoping that she had just gone out because of prior knowledge of the impending flood. A week late and there is till no sign, so I'm assuming that she may have been older that I thought and that she has gone out to lay.

On a brighter side I did find another ....back in the large pool with all the zooanthoids, this story will come at a later date as I have to go away for a few days training.

Matty, I just took my time in getting to know them, always move slowly and try not to react(jerky movements) when they wrap the arms around your hand, and make sure that there is no sign of food on your hands before you go near them.
 

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