[Octopus]: Intro Casper - O. vulgaris

I wish my job would slow down so I could spend more time with Casper. Its been 18 hours per day 6 days a week. I had a cam that I thought would steam online but it only does an hour at a time then I have to restart it so I ordered a different one and should be here tomorrow. Its should be plug and play so I will post a link asap.
 
LOL, if your job slowed down, you couldn't afford this hobby :sagrin:. Feeling your pain with new computer hardware but persistence pays off (at least until tomorrow when my video card arrives - nursing an old computer trying to teach it new tricks :wink:)
 
LOL. I wish you luck trying to get an old computer to do much of anything. Your right my job allows me to have the hobby. I always hear how this hobby costs so much and yes its not cheap but spending time in the hobby and not buying every new goody that comes out and promises to fix all your issues really is the key. As I said before I buy nothing new "accept for salt" When I hear that someone spent 500+$ for a tank or some piece of equipment it makes me shake my head. Let someone else take that hit!! Buy the hole system a year later when they have killed everything, are frustrated and just want everything gone. Craigslist and other things like offerup or reef clubs are great ways to get the things you want or need.
 
... until pumps die, tanks leak (both this year for me). New board won't fit. Off to see if I can find an old PCI style USB 3.0 card so I can still add this video card. Frustrated but glad to have the system back as the power supply (relatively new) decided to get finicky after I put it back together. Atleast now I can access my DVD without it getting tangled in my USB cables (dumb initial setup - not my doing).
 
This is all true but it can happen with new equipment just as with used. But I do understand what you mean. Here are some new pics. In this one he has a 5" stone crab under there
brant 094.jpg
 
The "carnage" is why I only feed blue (because that is the only large crab I can find at our Asian market) crab claws - much less to find and little to foul the water. My son was a bit disturbed at the vacation instructions that included a note that if Fred (ageing blue crab that became a pet) died while we were gone to remove and freeze the claws.

This is all true but it can happen with new equipment just as with used.
I meant the expense, not buying new or used to start. Stuff wears out and unless you keep used backups (and I do with some things), it means purchasing new. I can't complain about the Mag pump. We bought it used with the tank and ran it 24/7 for over 10 years. I don't imagine the new one will last as long but, because of the setup, we HAD to buy the same pump and they are a bit pricey.
 
I agree. I have a mag 12 on my 90. Bought it used and has been running hmmmmm 8+ years. I do have lots of equipment that I have picked up over the years. I feel like a horder because I have a 10x10 storage unit full of aquarium stuff lol. We do get blue crabs here but they seem to be a summer crab. I dont mind picking the carnage out. If you know about stone crabs there shells are very thick and this really lets me know about Caspers beak. When we eat stone crabs we use a hammer to break the shell and have to hit pretty hard. the vid does not really show the size of that crab. I will have to go to an asian market and see what they have.
 
So I found a market that sells live blue crabs. I bought 4 and put three in my spare biocube and gave one to Casper. it was a 5"+ crab. I do remove the pinch side of the claw but leave the rest of the claw intact. She is such a pig she eat the hole thing and her head was the size of a softball. It funny what she does when she is done. She waits for me to come to the tank and comes right to me and spits all the shells at me. As much waist shell there was it was not bad to clean up because she put them all in one spot and went and sat on top of her cave and had no issue with me getting the shells out. Like clean up my mess please. This market says they have live blues everyday so looks like I found my new food supply. all crabs are 5+" and they sell them for 20$ for a dozen which I think is a good price and keeps me from having to go flipping rocks to find my own stone crabs which I will still do here and there. I like to change up her food often so now we have blue, stone and live shrimp which I think would cover most of her natural food source. Pics to come
 
Try to video the garbage pickup request :wink:. I think I have a good idea what it will look like as I have seen O. briareus move sand in what I think is a similar manner.
 
I will. Its like she comes right to me and goes "HERE, Take this" . At other times she doesn't really like me in her tank but when it comes to her waist shells she sits and watches and doesn't even swing an arm but the fish net or tongs I use. I don't think I have to work tonight so maybe I can set up the live stream. First time in 3 weeks!
 
So the last 2 blue crabs I feed I missed with the cam to catch the throwing of the shells. On the other hand I did get the vid cam stream running yesterday. I am working on getting it right and clean and then I will post a link so any one who wants to see casper can.
So sat I got 4 more blue crabs and feed one right away. I put the other 3 in my little 8g cube. sunday morning I checked the crabs and one had died but had not started to break down so I feed it to Casper. She eat most of it and her head was very big LOL. On the other side a few hours later the tank became foggy as there was to much waist for the tank to handle so I did a large water change and it was better but still not clear. I am sure it will clear today and after I make some changes on the cam I will post link.
I learned not to feed crabs back to back and maybe not dead ones. I know others who feed frozen blue crabs so I didn't think that was the issue.
The place I get the crabs from don't use water just ice. She tells me that they only live one day. I explained that is she would keep them in salt water they would live much longer as I have proven. Offered to help her with info on how to do it but her English is not the best. Most days she does not have any left so I guess it works for her.
 
It is not a good idea to freeze whole crabs as the innards foul the meat. Blue crab claws, however, freeze very well and don't foul the water. You could probably remove (PITA) and freeze the body meat too but it still would not be good for human consumption. I've raised 3 blue crabs from nickel or smaller size through their normal adult life. I have lost two to predation by a tank mate one was a full adult - hence the name Hannibal for the current one so yes, they do quite well in a tank environment.
 

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