Blue-ring Octopus subdues stomatopod (new pic)

[kalim]

A new pic from Dr Roy Caldwell, showing a deadly blue-ring subduing a mantis shrimp.

http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/pics/caldwell_bluering.htm

other updates:

http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/update.htm

 

[Living Art Aquatics]

Wow that is an awesome picture! I thought the paragraph below about the mantis killing the blue ring was a bit of mantis revenge

 

[tiger roach]

I gotta get me one of those!

(just kidding)

 

[kalim]

pics

pics

living art aquatics:

Dr Caldwell takes really good pics. He has a lot of other stomatopod pics scattered around the pics galleries of the site.

I do not have that much info on those stomatopods that hunt blue-rings. I do not even know if it is a smattering of species, or just one species. Is this species specialized for hunting blue-rings, for example, or do several species take blue-rings when they find them (ie. when they get the chance)?

Dr Caldwell seems to be keeping this info close to the vest, so perhaps there might be a paper out about them sometime.

 

[kalim]

blue ring

blue ring

tiger roach:

i hope so

for others, just in case you haven't seen it, there is a FAQ about keeping blue rings:

http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/TCP/faq/TCPfaq2b.cfm?ID=57

basically, these guys live extremely short lives, they do not exhibit as wide a range of behavior as some other more common octopus, and they are (like most octopus) sorta fragile (esp when compared to stomatopods). more to the point, they are so toxic, they can kill you --- unless, obviously, you happen to be one of those mysterious bluering-hunting smashers