Time-out

Ooooooh, applications. Poo. Anyway, this morning, I fed the sea stars, and they are really funny to feed. They are actually quite stiff animals, contrary to what you might think. So I would have to somewhat forcefully lift one arm up to try and stick a piece of squid to their little suckers on their undersides. Then, I would push the arm back down to ensure they didn't drop it. If it registered that there was food, there would be the slightest retraction of the tip of the arm. It seems an excruciatingly slow process as they guide the food down the arm towards the opening to the stomach at the center of the body. Sometimes it looked as if the sea star had folded in on itself in pain (but of course I am anthropomorphizing) and it pulled the food to a place where it would be able to regurgitate its stomach to begin digesting the food.
This afternoon when siphoning, a terrible thing happened. I went to siphon my favorite tanks first (I know it's terrible to pick favorites!) when they all began inking, without provocation! Inking, inking, inking, until the tank was black and it was all I could do to find their little plants to take out and clean them. I found out that they had actually been inking on and off all day, which is evidence of some dominance issues happening in the tanks--one cuttlefish is getting to big for his britches and trying to fight with the others, causing them to ink in retaliation. This meant that I would now have to separate them. This is actually quite a difficult process, especially in inky black water. I had to somehow add walls to the tanks to separate them, without injuring any of them, and ensuring there was only one cuttlefish per separation, all the while unable to see much of anything at all. Thankfully, I did manage to get it done (only one scare when the wall fell down on a cuttlefish temporarily--I saved him quickly) and now they all look pretty lonely. I'm sure if the cuttlefish could apologize, he would. Now they are all in a time-out.