Merkury - O.briareus

[skywindsurfer]

They could but this does not seem to be a natural instinct. They have very little strength if not attached to something and perhaps that is why. In our reported contact cases, pulling the hand, stick or food to the mouth rather than mouth to the food is the only action I recall (and have experienced). The only times I have been "bitten" (no wounds) have been where the octopus was fully attached to my hand (not grasping fingers) and I tried to remove it. Both animals were senescent and did not want to be put back on the substrate.

My O. Hummelincki will sometimes swim over to my hand, grab it, and pull her self towards it without having a grasp on anything else. Sometimes she'll even grab me while holding onto something, then let go of what she is holding completely and pull herself towards me. She did that this morning when I was feeding her.

 

[Cerulean]

Merkury attacking Mr. Foodie (her giant red crab).

 

[skywindsurfer]

Ah...her arch nemisis.

 

[Cerulean]

Merkury won the battle! It took her all night, but when I came down this morning, she had finally gotten the crab out of his shell, and had engulfed his entire body. His arms and legs were enshrouded in her webbing.

 

[skywindsurfer]

To the victor go the spoils. I still have one hermit left over from my hummelincki's reign of terror. I'm just waiting for my briareus to finish it off as well.

 

[Cerulean]

Merkury has eaten almost 40 hermits since I've had her. and I think about 7 mithrax. Now she is on the Krill.

I have surmised that the reason she tugs on the skewer so much is that my resistance mimics the thrill of the kill for her. The time I let it go and no longer resisted, she didn't eat the shrimp.

 

[Cerulean]

Day 29

Been cleaning up the giant red hermit pieces for days. Seems like every time I look there is another hairy leg that has blown out from underneath a rock! Sheesh and they smell too.

Today, I fed Merk two pieces of Krill (one piece I stuffed inside an empty hermit shell--which she immediately snatched up, and the other I just handed to her on a skewer). Then I added 21 new hermits to her tank and she immediately snatched up two of those at one time! She is very hungry. LFS had a sale on hermits. red tips for .83 cents, and blue legs for .79 cents! Awesome deal, and Merkury loves them.

She is also getting more and more comfortable with her surroundings. She comes out with the tank light on now daily, and tonight she stayed perched in front of her den while I did a water change and didn't retreat at all.

Now that the nights are getting cooler, should I put a heater in her tank? It seems to stay pretty constant without one, but last night it got down to 72 inside the house and stayed that way until morning. I just checked it before posting and its still at 75 right now.

I'm thinking of putting Merk into my 90 gallon reef tank. I had a population explosion of flat worms and the massive die off from the treatment killed everything in that tank except the coral, one banded shrimp, a flame scallop, and the invertibrates. Only problem is the light required for the corals to live. That tank is an open top and gets up to 80 degres without a heater when the lights are on. If I put a lid on it to keep her in, I would have to only run the lights for a few hours per night and then it would still probably get too hot anyway. How do those of you with corals in your tanks do it? She seemed so much happier with the corals temporarily in her tank, I think she would be ultimately happier.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[DWhatley]

If you use a mesh top (fiberglass screening) the heat may not increase much. Can you use the halides during the AM and then add a lower light for regular day/evening viewing? I am not sure how much you will see of her with bright lights.

I would worry about the chemical you used for the flatworms. I can't help much with chemical content but you might post what is in the treatment for an evaluation.

 

[skywindsurfer]

A few solutions for your heat/light issue could be to raise the fixture, use a 20K bulb, use cooling fans for evaporative cooling, get a chiller, shorten your light cycle, or get a different fixture that doesn't run as hot. I got a small 17" MH fixture on eBay that I used on my 30 gallon BioCube and the temp stayed between 76F & 78F. Also doing your best to keep the ambient temp of your house steady will help stabilize your water temp when the lights are off.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Also I think you should figure out exactly what was in the chemicals you used for the flat worms before you put your octopus in there. Just because some inverts survived, the fact that you had a large die off is not good and doesn't mean it's safe for Your octopus.

 

[Cerulean]

Also I think you should figure out exactly what was in the chemicals you used for the flat worms before you put your octopus in there. Just because some inverts survived, the fact that you had a large die off is not good and doesn't mean it's safe for Your octopus.

Thanks for all your concerns. I used flatworms exit. It is only harmful to flatworms. The reason for the die off is the toxins the flat worms release when they die. I have performed several large water changes and ran 3 pounds of carbon through the sump twice. I plan on testing with a small fish before moving Merkury.

I have never seen a mesh top. Would it be like a screen.

 

[DWhatley]

Check the tank talk forum, I believe there is a discussion there about making a screened cover like you see for reptiles. I found the materials at Home Depot for a NON-aquarium project but could see that it have nice potential for a lipped aquarium (if there is no lip on your tank, you would have to make something to support a top regardless of the material used). You will need to come up with a way to secure it to keep Merkury from forcing it open.

 

[skywindsurfer]

There are all kinds of "mesh" materials that you can use. I'm assuming that you are an eperienced marine aquarist and know not to use the metal mess tops you find at the pet stores. You can go to several hobby or home improvement stores. Any type of non-metalic "mesh" material will generally work, and you can fashion them into a top to fit your tank. I once used plastic window screen ducttaped to egg crate as a top for one of my tanks. It worked out quit well, and shaded the lights decently.

 

[skywindsurfer]

You will need to come up with a way to secure it to keep Merkury from forcing it open.

I think duct tape is a very common solution for that issue. lol

 

[Cerulean]

She ate 3 krill tonight. Wow!!