Yes, that is her door. I want to experiment and place shiny tank safe items in the tank and see if she collects them.
It is also where I find hermit carcasses, she seems to push out the remnants right above where she is taking her shrimp meal.
You might try to use different textures and shades (colors will not matter, they can't see color but can see shades - appearing as different grays) and note which ones she chooses.
Roc tried to use his finger tips to feed Taba instead of the stick yesterday - no dice.
Today she took the piece of shrimp.
We didn't see more than the smallest bit of 2 arms.
One arm stuck to him, but let go almost immediately after she took the shrimp.
Taba took shrimp quickly from Roc's fingers, without exposing much of herself again tonight.
Tomorrow night we are putting a fiddler in a lego cage. It has been around 5 days since her last hunting excursion. We are going to dim the lights and stay awake to see if the fiddler cage gets her curious and out of the rock den.
The lego cage failed. My shrimp are relentless scavengers. They pulled the piece of frozen shrimp out of the cage after 20 minutes. The fiddler escaped the lego cage and is now fiddlin' around the tank.
Where is the <shrug> emoticon? hahaha. We tried, back to the drawing board.
Taba took a frozen piece of shrimp delicately off the feeding stick.
Pics are of the "door" moved to the middle of the tank (where the pistol shrimp lives) and totally cleared away from her den as seen in previous photos. The Fiddler's escape to the top of the den rock, as if to flip us 'the claw'. And the lego cage we thought we fortified with plastic wrap on the bigger sides that the bait could escape from... which it did.
Our tank is getting a water change and cleaning tomorrow Yay.
Taba has been slower to take food from us the last couple of days. We have set feeding time at 10pm, and where it used to take us 15 minutes or less for her to grab, it now takes 20-30 minutes.
We dangle food for 15-20 minutes, then we back out. We watch, and when we see her flip out a leg (usually from a different hole in the rock), we'll go back in with food. After another 15-20, she will finally take it.
We have been giving the scarlet and peppermint shrimp teensy pieces of food so that they swim away and let us feed Taba in peace. Since the tank cleaning and 'door' disappearance, it has been quiet in the tank. Taba didn't take the shells back.
Fiddler crab is still alive, bothering the clown fish. It has been interesting to watch them flap their tails/water in the crab's direction.
Tomorrow we are going to try scallop or clam.
If that doesn't work, I guess we will try skipping a feeding.
This is the second night Taba refused to eat. Even threw out food from her den. She didn't want scallop or shrimp. In various sizes and methods of delivery.
Tried by hand, by between chop sticks, and original feeding stick. Teeny pieces to larger pieces. Even tried stuffing a piece in the den.
She pushed it out.
Here is video of what I think is her siphoning, breathing, heart rate... Idk what to call it... pattern. It seems stressed to me.
She started this when we did a cleaning and water change. I think the water might be too cold but I don't want to have cervicè or calamari happen.
What is the goldilocks temperature?
I need to rework some of our smilies (yet it's amazing how they've served us for 15 years). I want to offer you a concerned one.
I hope it's temporary... What is your process for water change? Maybe it was a bit sudden... Keeping in mind, I don't own a tank so I have no insights... just curious.
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