“Giant Florida Octopus?”

dleo4590

O. vulgaris
Registered
Joined
Nov 18, 2019
Messages
89
Location
San Bernardino
Has anyone ever heard of a “Giant Florida Octopus?” My LFS ship just unboxed one that was suppose to go to a zoo but I’ve only ever heard or know of one and that would be the Giant Pacific. This one is pretty big for a warm water octopus. I’ve never seen one like it and to scale it’s bigger than our male Caribbean Reef that passed, Turq. We are gonna try to get it since we don’t want anyone that hasn’t had one to buy it but they have a $500 price on it. It’s a rarity in and of itself being offered for sale in a shop but the size and possibly identity makes it more of a gem. Sorry for pics and video they have him in a Chinchilla ball in a coral display tank. We are waiting in the vehicle they are still unboxing but totally caught us off guard they don’t sell cephalopods here. This is the first we’ve seen in a shop and the first we’ve seen this big in person.
 

Attachments

  • D02F2BE5-5E82-4570-80D9-1B93D5892CC8.jpeg
    D02F2BE5-5E82-4570-80D9-1B93D5892CC8.jpeg
    352 KB · Views: 232
  • IMG_0752.MOV
    8.3 MB
that was my first thought, since that is usually the florida answer, I just didn't think it looked like a vulgaris, but I'm no expert :wink: - thanks for providing closure here.
 
Upvote 0
Would you mind saying where the the LFS is? Princeton University's biology department is currently researching claims of a new warm water species of octopus in the Caribbean Sea/Gulf of Mexico area. Maybe it's possible your LFS stumbled upon it? Maybe you could help in unraveling a mystery!!
 
Upvote 0
Sorry to be so late to the party. I would be very comfortable with suggesting that it O. vulgaris (ie the "common" Octopus). They are in every ocean but our US animals tend to be smaller than their Mediterranean cousins. If it has a brown eye spot, then O. Maya a similarly sized animal being aquaculture of the Yucatan coast and possibly now in Argentina.
 
Upvote 0
Sorry to be so late to the party. I would be very comfortable with suggesting that it O. vulgaris (ie the "common" Octopus). They are in every ocean but our US animals tend to be smaller than their Mediterranean cousins. If it has a brown eye spot, then O. Maya a similarly sized animal being aquaculture of the Yucatan coast and possibly now in Argentina.
Thanks for the response, and I’m not too sure based on the post above about the possibility of it being a new species since the shop said this isn’t the first they’ve received, but the second one. I didn’t screen shot all of the email thread but in searching online I also asked if it could be this too. I didn’t see an eye spot but Jim from MBA in the ceph department had asked if it did and if so why was it in Florida, although the Gulf includes that area. We’ll continue to check it out and are still wanting to get it if we can but if it’s a common it’s way too overpriced.
 
Upvote 0
Would you mind saying where the the LFS is? Princeton University's biology department is currently researching claims of a new warm water species of octopus in the Caribbean Sea/Gulf of Mexico area. Maybe it's possible your LFS stumbled upon it? Maybe you could help in unraveling a mystery!!
Shop is here in San Bernardino, CA but the octopus was caught off of Florida. That’s as much as the shop knows other than the supplier calling it a “Giant”. They did also say it was the second one they’ve received in the time the shops been open and that this one in particularly was suppose to go to a zoo.
 
Upvote 0
Definitely looks vulgaris with nothing unusual. I only mentioned O. maya because I could not be sure I did not see an eye spot and they look very, very similar. On the other hand most octopuses can look alike for short periods of time. My guess is that it is an adult vulgaris, nothing special and likely not to live much longer (life span of US variety seems to be roughly 18 months -- the first couple are spent as plankton).
 
Upvote 0
I did not chime in sooner because I don’t know as much about the different species as D. But, vulgaris seems like the only choice if it was caught in Florida…. I don’t have a lot of experience identifying them though, so I was hoping more about our southern folks would know.
 
Upvote 0
I did not chime in sooner because I don’t know as much about the different species as D. But, vulgaris seems like the only choice if it was caught in Florida…. I don’t have a lot of experience identifying them though, so I was hoping more about our southern folks would know.
Well I think it’s safe to say unless you see it in person it’s hard to ID one. I’m still not sure if it’s a common. It’s resting color is a red not brown it has some brown on it but it doesn’t look like any common octopus I’ve seen. I know they all have the capability to change color and sometimes texture but this one seems to have a marbling pattern as well.
 
Upvote 0
Well I think it’s safe to say unless you see it in person it’s hard to ID one. I’m still not sure if it’s a common. It’s resting color is a red not brown it has some brown on it but it doesn’t look like any common octopus I’ve seen. I know they all have the capability to change color and sometimes texture but this one seems to have a marbling pattern as well.
Either way, $500 is a LOT for an octopus, with or without an ID!
 
Upvote 0

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top