chierchiae

I've always loved marine creatures and art, so here's my combination of the two :) Octopus bimaculoides Octopus chierchiae Metasepia pfefferi Sepioloidea lineolata

Occurring on the Pacific coast of Central America, Octopus chierchiae inhabits cavities and snail shells. This mature female is only the size of a grape. O. chierchiae has the distinction of being one of very few octopuses that don't die after hatching a single clutch of eggs. A female O...

Working on a way to raise these that is less intensive, so the images aren't as awesome as I would like them to be...they are secondary, but still cool. These guys seems to collect amphipods when I feed, but it may an artifact of flood feeding rather then anything else.

Octopus chierchiae mating, The male is mounted on the female. The male's 1st. 2cd and 4th pair of arms can be identified by the presence of papillae on the arm tips. The 3rd pair of arms do not have papillae. The hectocotylus (3rd right arm) is visible at 11 o'clock. If you look about half...

A small male O. chierchiae attempts to mate with a female who is blocking the entrance to her cavity using a piece of coral rubble as a door. The male successfully inserted his hectocotylus (third right arm visible at 4 o'clock) through a crack in the door and appeared to pass a spermatophore.

I was perusing ebay this evening and came across this super tiny "zebra octopus" for sale. I am not an octopus keeper but I sure hope this guy goes to a good home. He is so tiny and cool! (and expensive)...