Bimaculoides and Bimaculatus

[philc21]

Ive seen these names thrown around all the time is there a difference between the two. I would like to get the "two spot octopus" but i knew it as bimaculoides and when i asked my lfs the owner said he could get a tank bred bimaculoides he said he could only get tank bred bimaculatus. is this the same species? Or do i have to go elsewhere?

thanx in advance

 

[DHyslop]

Bimaculatus is indeed a different species, however your lfs guy may be mistaken about what he can get.

Since Octopets are going to be out for a while I've been looking around online for other mail-order sources without much success. There's a number of places that will send me a live-caught vulgaris (they want me to wait two weeks and pay $80 plus shipping for an animal that's probably already nearly mature!). I found one place that says they are selling aquacultured O. bimaculatus. The description they have sounds more like bimaculoides, and if someone where aquaculturing bimaculatus I think I'd have found out about it here. I don't want to buy from a supplier that doesn't know exactly what species they have, so I suspect I'll be waiting 6 weeks for Octopets.

Dan

 

[Nancy]

O. bimaculoides and O. bimaculatus are not the same species but are similar. Both are found off the California coast.

Bimaculoides is smaller, has a different false eyespot (ocellus) and lays large eggs. It's also more day-active than the bimaculatus. So the bimaculoides is a better species for the home aquarium and that's what Octopets breeds.

I think a lot of people do get the two mixed up.

Nancy

 

[philc21]

thanx for the info have any of you ever heard of the bimaculatus being bred in captivity because that was one thing my supplier was sure of that it was tank bred and i do know they tank breed bimaculoides. ive personally never heard of tank bred bimaculatus except from my supplier and he might have been mistaken. so if n e one has heard of tank bred bimaculatus would u let me know because if they do exist then i might have to get my bimaculoides somewhere else where i will be sure its a bimaculoides and not a bimaculatus thanx in advance

 

[DHyslop]

The preferred source of tank bred bimaculoides is Octopets, but they are out of stock for 4-6 weeks. Given this, it would be tempting to order from your source to see what you get. I expect it would be one of three things:

a) backorder (if the lfs source is octopets)

b) a bimaculoides (if the lfs has a non-octopets aquaculturer of bimacs???) or

c) a bimaculatus (if there is indeed someone culturing them!)

Dan

 

[DHyslop]

Here's a photo from marinedepotlive.com of a supposed aquacultured bimaculatus for sale. What do you guys think?

Dan

 

[cthulhu77]

it seems somewhat "fishy" to me that they are selling a species that has been relatively unexplored in a commercial breeding sense...more likely, they are selling bimaculoides, and just mixing the two up....I have had more than one seller insist that they are the same octopus...

greg

p.s. I would just wait for another month, and get one from octopets...that is what we are doing here !

 

[philc21]

thats one thought but the thing is i work in the lfs so id get my discount on this octo and it would come out to only 35$ if i got it from octopets it would be 35$ plus shipping however much that is.

 

[dawnchihuahua]

Did you guys put your order in with Octopets yet? I guess we are all going to get siblings!

 

[DHyslop]

I haven't put an order in yet because with my luck the little guy will arrive while I'm on Spring Break. On the other hand, as long as I got a shipping confirmation one of my aquarium savvy housemates could acclimate the little guy. There's obviously considerable demand for bimacs right now: maybe I should put an order in today just to make sure Octopets doesn't run out.

Dan

 

[Mark]

on average what is the shipping price for a bimac from octopets? just curious

 

[DHyslop]

I haven't experienced Octopets shipping yet, but mail-order fish houses typically charge about $50 total for overnight handling and shipping in the US.

Dan