banded octopus vs Caribbean two spot

[DWhatley]

LOL, I hope you did not mean you can pickup up your octopus FOR dinner Looking forward to seeing your acclimation pictures and reading your experience.

 

[natalie1404]

lol no bless cant eat him

 

[natalie1404]

yay i now have my baby been in his new home about 18hrs hes beautiful cant believe how small he is left lights off completely guy said for at least 24 hours while he settles abit going to offer him some food later on tonigh have a video of him going into tank but not very good as all lights were off cut the whole top of the bag off to put him in aclimation bucket but he seemed quite content to stay in there was moving around fine and didnt appear stressed

it wont let me put video on will get partner to look at it later

 

[natalie1404]

my new baby

 

[natalie1404]

sat spying on me lol then he stretched a tenticle out and slowly pulled a hermit crab in

 

[haggs]

wow... it is so tiny.

 

[DWhatley]

Haggs, that just because Hector is a monster

Natalie, I believe your new ward is in the Abdopus family, likely aculeatus (often called a Bali octopus). This would make it an Indonesian animal but definitely not hummelincki (Caribbean Two Spot) or bimaculoides (Pacific Two Spot). I suspected it would be Indonesian (probably from the Philippines) given your location, the frequency of import from this area and the mention of a striped animal as an option.

One thing I thought about and meant to caution. Be careful with adding starfish. There has been superficial evidence that some varieties (like the Bahama Star) can trap small octopuses and kill them either by suffocations or from the digestive juice they send from their stomachs. Green serpents can also be aggressive and do trap fish (unknown if this is any danger to an octopus). Most stars are octo safe (and all are safe from the octopus) but be sure you know its feeding techniques and habits. Sand sifters and algae eaters should not be a problem but the meat eaters need caution.

 

[natalie1404]

thank you for the id the two spot are well known octopus for having a good temriment and being interactive and playful i know it depends on the idividual octo but as a general description this is what it says do you know if this species has the same sort of tempriment i know it wont interact and play for a while but i love watching you play with monty love that video and hope one day mine may play like that two, i fed him abit of lance fish last night he wraped his tenticles around the feeding stick ow my hes a strong little fella

 

[DWhatley]

This species would not be commonly called a two spot so I am not sure where your supplier came up with it. The most common, common name is likely a Bali octopus (not a bad name for the little guy but then Onn - pronounced own - got stuck with an acronym for Octopus with No Name ). There are several species in the Abdopus complex, including a small, apparently nocturnal like Espy. Hopefully this one is the most typical diurnal animal and is relatively young.

 

[natalie1404]

i have been reading up on all the info on aculeatus and weather it may be young or older and looked at the espy convo he seems to be coming out abit in the light over last 2 days cought him out on side of tank 3 times and right at front once has seen me coming in room a couple of times and scuttled into rocks but has stayed out twice but just stayed very still have seen him the colour he is in pics he tends to be that colour when i am looking/watching him but when i first see him he is a much lighter colour nearly white he took a small hermit crab yesturday and today took a prawn but cant be sure he ate it but he defo took it behind rock with him hes a strong little fellow this is all with the light on havnt witnessed anything at night in dark as my red light hasnt turned up yet havnt really tried to observe at night have just left him to enjoy the darkness have also come up in the day with light on and seen him sprawled out on LR all camoflauged in like he was part of the rock and algae, are aculeatus friendly and interactive ???

 

[DWhatley]

From the journals, aculeatus do tend to be particularly active and diurnal but I have not kept one for any length of time (I have made several attempts to purchase one but have ended up with other species). Most octopuses will interact with humans to some degree. The amount of voluntary interaction beyond feeding time depends a lot on the individual animal and the amount of patient time spent an individual human spends in front of the tank. At 8 months in the tank, Onn (crepuscular briareus) wants to play after he has his supper comfortably tucked under his web and will swim across the tank to touch Neal when he feeds the other side (split tank) and sometimes comes out during the day to check out what the humans are doing. Margay (likely burryi, and diurnal), at a similar age is out most of the day and some at night and will frequently swim up to the front of the tank when she sees humans but wants little to do with hands inside the tank (she suffers from some kind of eye problem which may make her more skiddish but this the first time I have kept the species). Keep in mind that animals that do want to be "petted" may act this way more for a skin comfort (like scratching an itch) than anything to do with desired interaction. Whatever the reason, however, it does show that they have no fear of the human.

One thing I have observed and try to stress with new animals (not necessarily new keepers) is that the first couple of weeks will show a different personality (often more inquisitive and interactive) than the time that follows. Once they are fully acclimated (about 1 month) the actual human-animal association begins.

 

[natalie1404]

am i to be worried i saw my little man the wed, thur and friday a couple of times a day and saturday i only saw a tenticle as it came out to get food and yesturday he didnt make a appearance at all

 

[DWhatley]

Eating is always a good sign. No matter how many I have kept them, the first 2 weeks are always the time I hold my breath and cross my fingers. It seems that if they make it a full 14 days, the acclimation (going from ocean to tank) is successful. After a month, you will begin to have a feel for the "personality" but not much before. This one very much resembles Espy but I am hoping for aculeatus. Where Espy was a small nocturnal, likely Abdopus complex but not aculeatus, it is very hard to tell the individual animals apart when they are small.

 

[natalie1404]

yay iv just been upstairs to put some pjs on and my baby was out and stayed out for quite a while phew i was starting to worry havnt seen him for 2 days couldnt spot him lol he had burried himself under the sand so i now know his little hiding place heres some pics of him his mantle is rested in the pipe so i came down to get him some prawn and he stole my feeding tweezers lol little monkey and my new red light

 

[natalie1404]

pics