Ziggy - A. ? (presumed Indonesian)

[DWhatley]

Up until this week Ziggy has only allowed us to sit and watch her if we give her a piece of food too large to fit in her den. She would sit out on her "porch" and eat but then retreat inside and want nothing to do with us. As I mentioned above this past weekend she started showing up on the glass early in the morning and allowing us to see her out but curled up on the glass.



Next we started finding her away from her den at supper time, then spread on the glass



And tonight she was a dancing fool

I got the crabs I ordered from Coldwater Marine Aquatics and fed her one that did not survive my initial attempts at putting them in a tank. She was hesitant to take it and I have yet to see the empty carcass but she either really liked the crab, got high from eating it or just turned 5 months old

Note: The ending is not spliced, the dog came into the room

 

[DWhatley]

Ziggy's Brooding

I am about 6 days overdue to report. Six days ago Ziggy stopped eating and four days ago she shut herself up in her den (well inside a rock with no possible viewing). It was odd that she stopped eating that long before her brood as my others have eaten like little pigs just before brooding. I am convinced the wall dancing we so often see from the Abdopus group is a mating signal. I don't know if she has mated but there is a possibility of fertile eggs but her mantle was not overly fat so I would not expect many. I am quite sure she is a small egg species. They won't survive long but I have never had small egg hatchlings so this will be a new experience (all small egg species I have kept did not produce hatchlings even when they brooded eggs).

I tried to photograph and did catch at least a small shot of the way Ziggy uses the sand to fill in den crevices (video on post #13, something I have not seen in other species). When she locked herself in her den, it was clear that she had hauled sand into the den as there was a trail on the front rocks. This group seems to only brood for about 10 days so I expect to see hatchlings in a week if the eggs are fertile.

 

[CaptFish]

I am about 6 days overdue to report. Six days ago Ziggy stopped eating and four days ago she shut herself up in her den (well inside a rock with no possible viewing).

wow fascinating i have not had a chance to report either but Spock has also stopped eating and stopped coming out which started about a week ago.

 

[DWhatley]

No sign of hatchlings or Ziggy appearances but she is strong enough to hold one of the shells tightly and I can just see a few suckers with a flashlight. She has used the bottom sand to fill almost all crevices between the shell doors and in the rock so peeking is pretty much useless. None of my other females have used tiny substrate to keep out predators and I don't recall anyone else mentioning the use of mortar.

I put two peppermint shrimp in a breeder in hopes that they would provide potential food. Unfortunately, one ate the other

 

[DWhatley]

I am checking on Ziggy several times a day now. She has moved the shell I disturbed yesterday into a slot that allows me to move it slightly and cause her to wave an arm out looking for the disturbance. If the eggs are fertile, they should be hatching very soon unless the cooler temps we are having (there is a heater in the system but it is set to the mid 70's) has slowed the normal very short brood cycle of this group.

 

[DWhatley]

After 24 days of brooding, Ziggy is still alive. I was sure she had passed on when she did not defend he doorway earlier in the week but when I removed the shells the next morning one had been replaced. With a flashlight, I can now see her and tonight she huffed at my peeking. I suspect the eggs are gone because of her new positioning (no hatchlings) and she only reacts if I shine a light on her but she is still allive. Her arms are very white (last view they were brown but I am be looking only at the sucker side). The skin around her eyes is still mottled brown and not the death gray I have come to identify with the end of life. The extended brood makes me think she may not have mated in the wild as the other octos I have had that did not lay fertile eggs, lived longer than the females that produced offspring.

 

[DWhatley]

My Tank has Fleas

Or so it would seem. I was wrong about Ziggy not having viable eggs and on with full moon several have hatched. I only found 6 the first night and around 30 last night but many more could have hatched and expired. I expected to find a tank full of snow but either a ton expired, there are not thousands or there are more to come. I found 5 in the sump but there are two pumps there so more likely took the overflow route. I placed a fine filter bag over the bulk head openings but could not block it safely without shutting down the pump.

The first set of pictures show that at hatching even the small egg species have enough chromataphores to change color.

 

[DWhatley]

Small Egg Perspective

I tried to capture how small these hatchlings are but the photos don't convey the perspective well.

Quarter ........................................ .........................Dime


shot glass

 

[laynrockers]

wow, i am going through the same thing mine just hatched last night and look to be the same size. anything to do the help try and raise them?

 

[DWhatley]

I saw your hatchling post before reading this one and left you a note. Yes, unfortunately yours are also a small egg species so my post hatchling species guess would be O. joubini.

 

[DWhatley]

Ziggy remained alive but without coming out of her den Until May 14th, 8 days after the eggs started hatching. I was hoping there would be more hachlings but they only appeared for 3 days and none lived more than 2.

She was difficult to remove from the rock and lost several arms in the process. I am not sure if the arms were intertwined inside the rock at death or if the brissle worms (my main clue that she had died) had dragged the tips deep into crevices. I did not preserve her as she did not make a good specimen after removal.

 

[corw314]

Rip Ziggy.