Ziggy - Macropus ?

Wow, interesting star info D. I knew species like "crown of thorns" and Sunstars were aggressive, but I had no idea other species were that aggresive. Particularily choco chips, they're so cute! I will have to remember that when I eventually get a marine tank.
 
Thanks for info about choc chip star!! I noticed something new about Ziggy. When she goes into her den she pushes sand up to close the entrance. Last octo I had used shells or rocks. Do all octopuses use both, or is this because she is a different species?

Of course I picked a choc chip star! I will check on returning it. Otherwise, I have a smaller tank running with just live rock, etc... that I can stick it in. It's set up so the kids can use the magnifying glass to see tiny things. It can't do much damage there! lol!
 
The following is a paragraph from the Shedd on the diet of a chocolate chip[/URL]. It is not the information I was looking for but was so descriptive :yuck: that I had to quote it:
Chocolate chip sea stars aren't picky eaters. They feed on sponges, bacteria and detritus or waste products and the remains of dead plants and animals. Since they don't have eyes, chocolate chip sea stars hunt using their sense of smell. Once they smell something they want to eat, the sea star carries itself over to its food. The mouth of sea stars is on the oral surface or underside of their body. The star covers its food, then pushes out its stomach from inside its body and covers it. Stomach juices smother the food, and cilia or tiny hairs move its now gooey meal inside the sea star's body.

I was trying to find my reference on aggression (not yet found) but I did confirm that you need to add meaty foods to its diet so giving it a small bit of the octos food once a week would be a good idea. This will have to do for my aggression reference. It is not aggression perse but is a Quote from a WetWebMedia forum member talking about her chocolate chip star and asking Bob Fenner for advice:

His meal 3 days prior was a tiny purple octopus. I cant remember if I did on this occasion but sometimes I add garlic juice from soft gels to the puffers food. His [star's] normal diet is shrimp, mussel, squid, clam, octopus, krill and silversides. He has been in tank....130gal. for over a year and has always been healthy and active

One last quote from the linked WWM site, this one from Steve Allen (also a forum moderator) and closer to aggression concerns
They are not reef safe--they will eat all sessile invertebrates and any mobile ones they can sneak up on and capture.

If you get a brittle star you will notice quite a different eating habit and understand why our orange/red brittles are all named Pesky. Rather than crawling over the food and placing their stomach over it, they use their arms much like an octopus (and we have mistaken Pesky arms for octo arms in poor lighting while feeding). They are quite remarkable for sightless creatures and their receptors are far more sensitive than those of an octopus.
 
I have to laugh! Right after I read info on the choc chip star, the starfish (not choc chip) in my 125 reef tank decided to attack and eat one of the 2 live clams I put in there to save for future octo food! I have never seen it behave like that before and I've had it for a few years! lol!

The choc chip in the octo tank has also gone after one of the clams in it's tank, but I guess it gave up because the clam is still alive! I have been feeding it a bit of octo food like you suggested, so that probably helped. Just had to share! :smile:
 
Clams and most stars don't mix if you want to keep the clam. I don't think the serpent stars are a problem (the greens may be an exception, they can be very aggressive with interesting attack strategy) with them but any starfish that feeds by placing its stomach on the desired fare will eventually eat any clam in the tank. Some stars have no problem forcing a clam open where others may wait until it is weak or just dies naturally.
 
Quick Ziggy update.

I just wanted to give another quick Ziggy update. She's still doing great! I'm finally through the feeling that she's going to be dead every morning when I get up!

She has become a bit more social. About every 3 days or so I see her still up in the early morning. I get up around 6:30 and she's just cruzing around the tank and hanging out in the rubble. She recently stayed out until after 8 a.m. which allowed several children to be able to watch her. She seemed to have no fear of the noise or their pointing and touching the glass. I got a great video, but am still working on fixing it. (I recorded it upside down! Thanks to those who gave me advice on fixing it!)

I noticed one other interesting thing the other day. The floating block that has been in the tank since day one, was lodged down at the bottom of the tank between two rocks one morning! I left it there and the next day it was floating again. I thought that was pretty cool. She obviously was fooling around with it a little.

Two clams I put in are still alive and well.... amazing to me since they came out of a refrigerated area of the fish market! One moning she was sitting on one and I thought she was going to eat it, but it was fine later. She mostly eats snails, hermit crabs, shore shrimp and occassionally a bit of prawn. I haven't gotten ahold of any crabs for her yet, but hopefully will soon.

That's it for now. I will post video when I get it fixed! Hope all is well with everyone, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN to all!!!
 
Ziggy made another discovery!! (We're on a roll !!) I put a piece of hard, black tube in her tank yesterday. The opening is 3/4 inch and it has a couple of turns in it. Total length is probably 6-7 inches so I knew she could reach all the way through. Also, when I put it in the tank, it sank to bottom, but is very light and can be moved around.

This morning she had moved the tube about a foot and it was now only a couple of inches from her den. It was 8 a.m. when I turned on the low light. Right after I did, she came all the way out of her den and climbed completely onto the tube, wrapping all her tenticles around it. Then she just sat there for around 15 seconds staring at us! It was so cool! When she had been entertained enough, lol, she crawled back in her den and pulled the tube over close to act kind of like a door, or maybe just a window shade for the light!

Anyway, it was pretty awsome and it was so obvious that she was watching us! It all happened too fast to get a pic, but am including one of the tube just for the heck of it.

 

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Kim,
I merged all of Ziggy's posts into a single journal so that you will have a history of the experience and other can look back when you reference other posts.
 
Oh great! Thanks! It took me awhile to "find" the journal area, and then to get brave enough to decide to actually start officially keeping one! I'm not sure if anyone on this site actually reads the information for actual research reasons, but what a great resourse!! All these people all learning and recording information on such a smart and interesting animal, and one that is hard to watch in the wild! I will keep posting interesting things I observe with her. Thanks again D ! :smile:
 
I finally found something new Ziggy will eat! Last night I tried a thawed half shell clam. Boy, she went right after it! Sat half out of her den on top of it, so I'm sure she was eating it. Later I found a small piece that was being eaten by a couple of shore shrimp. Yay Ziggy!
 
I'm amazed at how fast things are moving along with Ziggy! This morning I came out at 6:30am and looked all over the tank for her, but I couldn't find her anywhere. I went about my business and then, after a couple of lights were turned on in the kitchen, I noticed that she was out pacing the front of the tank. I went right over and she sat down on a rock and just looked at me! (Sorry, I read that I'm not supposed to do this, but it's in my nature, can't help it!) So I opened the lid and stuck my hand down near her. I wiggled my finger a bit and she came right over and "sat" on my hand, using her tenticles to explore my arm. I could feel her beak gently testing the skin on my finger, but not at all being agressive. She left and went down to her den area so I closed the top and went back to business.

A few minutes later she came back out and paced the front of the tank again! I was so excited! I went right back over and stuck my hand inside again. I kept it in one place and gently wiggled my finger. She came over and touched my hand and then left. She did this several times, at least 5 for sure, as if she was testing me to make sure she was in control. Finally she cruzed down to the bottom of the tank and went in her den. She came out one more time real quick and then went back inside. Maybe it was getting too light out for her.

This type of interaction is probably old news to everyone, but I have to say that it is the coolest thing the first time it happens and you realize just how smart these animals really are!! Just amazing!!
 
This type of interaction is probably old news to everyone,
Nope! One, not all of them will interact and only one in maybe 6 are "special"
The first contact thrill never goes away :biggrin2:
Here is a link to my post to Beldar's "interaction" night. I was laughing so hard I cried. Oddly you may now see no interaction at all for maybe 3 days and never a really long spell like this one. Be sure to mention if this syndrome applies. I've been octofooled before :biggrin2:
 
Interesting Ziggy news! First, thanks "D" for your last post! I never thought of the idea that every octopus has it's own personality, but it totally makes sense!!

OK, so Ziggy hasn't "played" with me since my last post. She comes out in the morning when house lights are on about every 2-3 days and I feed her a piece of prawn or a half shell clam. (There are also live shore shrimp, snails and a couple of hermit crabs in tank.) That's pretty much become our regular pattern, until today! This morning she was out, so I placed my hand in tank like every other morning she's out, and she came over to me. She used 2 arms to feel around on my hand and then slowly glided back over to her den. I was excited that I got a little interaction with her!

Now, I haven't had a chance to post that yesterday she ate her first live fiddler crab! I really wasn't expecting to even see her today, let alone have any interaction with her because she was just fed yesterday. I started to wonder if maybe she wanted another crab to eat?? As I headed outside to get one, she headed back into her den for a second time. I figured that was the last time I'd see her today, but brought a crab back inside anyway. Sure enough, she was back out at the front of the tank again. Very interesting! She's never done this before. When I let the crab go near her, she snatched it right up! After about 15 seconds she took it into her den.

Now I'm wondering if she might decide that she wants fiddler crabs every day?? And also if she might decide to reject the other foods that I have been feeding her? Am I in the process of spoiling her?? lol !! Help! It will get awful expensive if she decides this! She is worth it though!! Any thoughts are appreciated!! :smile:
 
For unknown reasons fiddlers are typically a universal food. You can mail order them relatively inexpensively from Paul
Sachs at Sachs Aquaculture: Cannot connect to MySQL server. If she continues to show excessive hunger, she may be getting close to brooding. We see hunger and more activity during this phase and it believe this is why we see so many O. hummelincki brood very shortly after capture. The unanswered question is, if we don't increase their food, will they delay brooding?

Feeding crab claws has been a boon for us as both ours love them and we have been able to find enough to make them a primary part of their diet.
 

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