Advice for species selection

[DWhatley]

Unfortunately, even Diver's Den misidentifies their octos. I bought a Maya octopus from them (see Maya - O.hummelincki) several months ago. If it had been an O.Maya it would have been a baby but she was O.hummelincki and started brooding behavior within a week. I notified them of the problem and they honored their warranty because of the mislabled species (even though she was still alive, she was doomed to die shortly) but they later advertised the same misidentified octo.

There are two primary groups that have been received from live aquaria under the "indo" lable (both will need 75 -78 temp). One is a diurnal and in the abdopus complex (often aculeatus but sometimes what appears to be a smaller species) and the other a small nocturnal likely in the macropus complex. Puddles is one of the nocturnal and Ohno one of the diurnal.

 

[~Flighty~]

What would I check to id the DOA one or can you tell from my crappy pics I linked above? Is there an Octopus id crash course on here anywhere? My copy of Cephalopods is on the way.

My second try is on the truck for delivery and should be here shortly so I'll keep everyone posted. If this one isn't in good shape I will ask them to wait until they receive a new shipment before sending another.

It should be pretty easy for me to get the tank to hang at 75 by slowing the return up from the basement It is a little colder than that now.

 

[~Flighty~]

Ok, He's here and looks really great! pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/FlightyMail/20100402?authkey=Gv1sRgCMmD5MSUz-2YEg&feat=directlink

 

[Ryan Smith]

Im not a great IDer but it looks like you have a a.aculeatus which is the diurnal species. Lucky, I love aculeatus because A. they are friendly B. they are diurnal and C. fairly easy to feed. All of that is subject to the octo itself except for the diurnal part. But anyway good luck with this one. Does he/she have a name yet?

edit* possibley a she as well, I didnt see any enlarged umm drawing a blank here. Things on the tentacles... Anyway, I believe its female. And I'm pretty sure aculeatus males dont curl their tentacle if they are male because they have a very long arm to mantle ratio. So by your pic I would take an educated guess on Female A.Aculeatus

 

[~Flighty~]

Thanks! I hate having something in the tank before I get a solid id. I just posted an id thread with a few more pics and videos before I saw your reply.

Any and all advice is welcome - feeding care etc. I'll be searching for threads and info to get me up to speed asap.

 

[DWhatley]

I believe Ryan has made the correct selection of the two most common sent by Live Aquaria from Indonesia. In picture 2, note the horns over the eyes (very clear in your video), in picture 3 note the purple ring around the sucker edges, in picture 6 note the star around the eye. Each is a helpful characteristic, not common ONLY to the abdopus complex but combined help point in that direction (they are NOT, however common to the macropus complex that is also commonly sent). The video also shows that little pigtail that seems to be common of octopuses that can show a lot of crypsis with skin texture (my theory is that is where the extra skin goes when they are not using it to make interesting bumps but I made that up just to account for it and has no scientific basis that I know of ). Unfortunately these observations are all but impossible to observe in a dead animal. Arm to mantle ratio can eliminate some species but both the macropus and the abdopus complexes have about the same ratio.

Male or Female is not clear. There are some larger suckers seen but it is not obvious that they are overly large for the arm thickness. Aculeatus males do curl the third arm to the right (clockwise) so watch for it to keep that arm rolled up and minimally use it for moving about.

Unfortunately the thickness of the front arms makes me believe this is an adult but the end of the mantle does not seem swollen like when they are about to brood.

Mucktopus is the expert on these so, hopefully she will take a peak and add fuel to the fire and acknowledge or revoke some of my assumptions (I have had more direct experience with the Caribbean species than with the Indonesian so some of my species analysis is based upon prior thread rather than direct observation).

Please consider starting a separate journal with embedded photos of your new guy!