Wonderpus - Fontanelle

[Thales]

Hey Jay!

Sorry to hear about the mimic.

I have found the wunderpus to not be the most intelligent seeming of the octos. Fontenelle hasn't seemed very interested in any 'enrichment' - balls, legos, squiddy fishing lures are all ignored.

Can you tell me about your ethogram? What feeding behavior have you seen? Yours looks good, is it a female?

I would be very interested in comparing behavior notes over time either here on TONMO or via email.

Some of the feeding behaviors I have seen:

'Blundering' - When there is food in the tank and he is active, sometimes a wandering arm will bump into the shrimp and then he will pull it up and start to eat it. Sometimes he bites it till its dead (venom?) and then drop it a few minutes later, seeming to have eaten little or none of it. I am unsure if he goes back for it later, or if the scavengers in the tank get it. This type of feeding happens often.

'Fishing' - He will sit behind the HOB overflow with arms dangling down. When food comes buy and touches an arm, he will pull it up. See first pic below.

'Active Fishing' - When he is a little hungry and a shrimp is dropped in the tank, he will snake out a questing arm that seems to feel around for the shrimp. When he touches it he touches it lightly and only pulls it up when he has a good grip. It seems like he doesn't really try to catch the shrimp until he has a good grip, but he is sneaking that good grip so the shrimp doesn't even know he is caught until too late. He doesn't seem to be using eyesight for this, often his eyes are up behind the HOB overflow - any thoughts about that?

'Pouncing' - this only happens when the octo seems really hungry. Once and I while I withhold food for a couple days just to see if I can prod him into doing something that seems active. Its pretty neat when he is actually hungry, but waiting that long worries me. There have only been a handful of times where he has seemed to be actively looking for food. See the second pic for one of the times he was actively looking for food (evidenced by the pounce directly after dropping in a shrimp), and the third pic is a composite of the pounce sequence that I posted earlier.

Rich

 

[jhemdal]

Rich,

Thanks, for the note of sympathy, but I think our mimic lived a full life, and added a lot of information to the current data set, so I'm taking it as a success. I found it dead on the bottom of its tank, in a perfectly natural pose, at around 5 am...died peacefully in its sleep I guess!

I think our Wunderpus is a female. The ethogram that I used for our mimic tried to categorize all possible behavoirs into 16 categories:

bold on point
bold, webbed arms
bold, flat, at rest
Bold, perched at rest
Bold, crawling
Bold, digging, exploring
Pale, flat at rest
Pale, crawling
Pale, perched at rest
Swimming
Sleeping
Feeding
Upsidedown, inverted
Other / not classifiable
================

I have not seen our Wunderpus show that umbella web action that your photo sequence does. Part of this is probably due to my being way to busy with a new exhibit opening, and not really having much time for observations - I've probably spent less than 15 minutes watching it myself - and that time was spent getting pictures.

My staff began trying to feed our Wunderpus seafood on a feeding stick, and since it took that the first day, they haven't tried anything else - so we are not seeing any other types of foraging behaviors. I do think that now they have the critter just feeding on broadcasted seafoods - large krill, shrimp pieces, smelt, etc. - just added to the tank. Doesn't get much simpler than that!

Jay

 

[Thales]

I have only seen the pouncing three time - and that after not feeding him for a few days.

I agree about the simplicity. When I first got him, I just pushed shrimp into his arms and he took it right quick. I think it would be easy to feed these guys dead food, and only switched to live because it was easy and more interesting.

Good luck with the new exhibit!

 

[Thales]

I think our Wunderpus is a female. The ethogram that I used for our mimic tried to categorize all possible behavoirs into 16 categories:

bold on point
bold, webbed arms
bold, flat, at rest
Bold, perched at rest
Bold, crawling
Bold, digging, exploring
Pale, flat at rest
Pale, crawling
Pale, perched at rest
Swimming
Sleeping
Feeding
Upsidedown, inverted
Other / not classifiable
================

I think you will see all these behaviors, and if I am reading your list right, I think I have seen all of them. It did take some time to see them, and it had to be at the right time of the crepuscular cycle - I spent a lot of nights up late late late.

 

[Thales]

Quickie update:

Fontanelle is still going strong. Eating, swimming, and quasi denning. I've had him just over 4 months is my math is right.

 

[DWhatley]

Thanks for the post Richard. I haven't fretted too much since I assumed you were saving interesting info for TONMOCON. I am glad you posted even a short status in your fevered state.

Hope you are finally recovering.

 

[Thales]

Fontanelle is still going strong. He made it through the tank upgrade with out a problem. I used a tupperware container to catch him out to the holding bucket and back to the refurbed system. A few times, he turned his mouth towards the container instead of simply running away, kind of like the defensive postures in some dwarf species.

I put a shrimp in his arms this morning while he was swimming around and he ate it up.

 

[Nancy]

Glad to hear that Fontanelle is still doing well!

Do you use a feeding stick or hand feed?

Nancy

 

[Thales]

I used 10 inch tweezers because I feed live shrimp - though I did see him kill a shrimp, drop it, and get back to it about 8 hours later. Now that I have filmed most of the predatory behaviors, I might try to train him to eat from me.

 

[mosthated]

Have you ever used a mirror to show him, himself?

 

[Thales]

Never tried a mirror, but will soon!

I have gotten two emails from people who 'just got' wunderpus. The first had an established tank and paid 199 for the pus. It seemed to be doing fine for about a week, then it hid in a rock and was dead a day or two later. The second email was from a person who has had one for 8 days but it hasn't been eating. I gave some advice on food choices and feeding strategies, but I haven't hear back on how its doing or about the general questions about how the animal was obtained - where, how much, etc.

 

[Thales]

Still no time for a mirror, but he has become very food trained.

If I knock on the tank, he now throws arms out from behind the hang on overflow where he dens, looking for food, and I, being the nice guy I am, use my long tweezers to put a shrimp in his arms. We play a little tug of war too. Kinda fun.

 

[mosthated]

what kind of camera do you have? you always take some of the most bad ass shots!

 

[Thales]

Thanks! Its not really the camera, its the extra flash. For the wunderpus I use I a nikon D70, a extra flash, a nikkor 18 - 200 VR lens, and a nikkor 28-105 lens with macro. Not sure which lens I used for the above shot.

 

[Nancy]

You are getting good photos, Rich.

Please tell us a little more about the second flash - is it a remote flash? Is it wireless? Where is it placed?

Nancy