H.P. Lovecraft - A. aculeatus... I think...

[SabrinaR]

Trust me I know, I went looking for it. I moved some of the rock and couldnt find it or her. I have no idea where she is keeping her den. She was out this morning before the sun came up. I was up at 5 and there she was on the glass... So I think shes asleep right now. We normally keep the lights in the living room dim at night, but tonight we will be turning off all the lights so that hopefully we can get her on track.

 

[DWhatley]

I never did learn where Puddles kept his den. He did not take either of Maya's dens. He is the only one for whom I never found at least one denning area and I looked constantly for clues.

 

[SabrinaR]

I should have enough water to do multipule water changes until monday (thats normally when I get my water)... I went and got more just for a situation like this. I added a poly reactor today with one liter of carbon in it so that should also help.

 

[SabrinaR]

Quick question about finding the sex of an octopus... I know its the third arm clock wise... but is it the 3rd arm clock wise of them looking at you or away from you?

 

[DWhatley]

Looking at the octopus and orienting your eyes with its eyes (as if you were laying down and your body was behind you and the octo's mantle is oriented with your body) the hectocotylized arm will be the third arm to the right. A picture is worth a thousand words so they say (but in my case, I seem to present both )

 

[SabrinaR]

Thank you for that... It looks like HP is missing that arm so the jury will be out for a while. She came out and I got her to take a raw shore shrimp so I'm happy.

 

[DWhatley]

LOL, SueNami became known as a boy named Sue when that arm grew back.

I am begining to wonder about missing third arms. You would think that these would be the most protected. There is atleast one species (and I have lost the reference and want to find it again) that is thought to have a normal arm until it is sexually mature. It then intentionally casts off the arm and grows a hectocotylized arm. I am wondering if this is more common than we know (we DO know that the Abdopus genus can choose to throw an arm). The only octos I have raised from eggs have been the mercatoris and I know this is NOT the case with them. Oddly, I don't think we have seen truncated arms with the mercs ... hmmmm, not odd in a tank environment but seems strange for all the WC's.

We have had several members find thrown arms for no aparent reason and I may spend some time trying to dig through posts to see if any of them laid eggs.

 

[SabrinaR]

I have actually read threads where I have seen you referance this very thing... I hope you find it, I would like to read it myself.

 

[DWhatley]

LOL, those were likely MY references ;>)

 

[skywindsurfer]

I've read a little about the ameloctopus who can "throw" an arm when it is being atacked. I first saw them on an online video. They are absolutely amazing.

 

[sedna]

Congrats to you! I read your whole thread today (been SOOOO busy lately) sounds like you've been having a lot of fun! Once my aculeatus' got acclimated, I noticed that a lot of times they'd stay out as long as someone was paying attention to them. They'd stay up later than normal if we did!

 

[SabrinaR]

YAY! I am sooo very pleased. HP came out and was hunting for a bit... I let her hunt a round, hoping she would feel more at home and get to know her new home a bit. She came out for a while and just sat there for a while. I gave her a shimp on a stick and she took it straight away! Then, instead of running away to her den like she has been, she hid between 2 rocks were I am still able to see her.

I am so happy that shes coming around.

I did a 15 gallon water change and will continue to do so every other day until I can either find the crawfish shell or I am sure that its been eatten or other wise taken care of to not cause water problems.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Can you post pictures of your tank setup and some more of HP?

 

[SabrinaR]

I havent got any more pics of HP she has been so reclusive that I have kind of kept my distance a bit and let her be. I might be taking more pictures tonight, I will post them when I can but for the most part I have to wait for my husband to upload the pictures.

 

[SabrinaR]

So I think I know where HP is keeping her den. I had an empty clam shell in the tank that has been moved to block the top of a new rock pile I didnt make lol. She was out for about an hour on top of a rock (hunting) and remained visible from 3 to about 12 last night. She wasn’t always out but I could see her and she could see me. This makes me happy. I do hope she continues to warm up.

My daughter (7) and I are going to Galveston today with my local reef club to catch crabs, macro algae and what not. We are really looking forward to it. I hope I catch at least a crab or two for HP. So far she has been eating well but I want to make sure she gets as diverse a diet as possible. The only things she has eaten this week are multiple shrimp and a crawfish and my order for crabs wont be here till next week.

I still haven’t found the crawfish shell but I have located all of the shrimp shells, they move around with the water so they are easier to find… I guess I will either have to put crawfish in a certain place where I will be able to get to it or not use them for feeding.