[Octopus]: Clyde - O. bocki (?)

[Missnano]

I got him from the LFS and they called it a pacific brown octopus.
Thoughts?

I think maybe an O. Bocki because of the eyes, but I'm not 100%.
I put him in the tank and he went straight dark black, to blending in with my rock REALLY well in a split second. Then he inked and turned bright red and slithered into a hole. Little attitude with this one. LOL

 

[Missnano]

The more I looke at these pictures and the journals I'm starting to wonder if it's a O. Mercatoris..

 

[sirreal]

we will wait for D but from the pics Merc is my guess. Then again when I first got Casper I thought she was a merc LOL

 

[DWhatley]

Because our little guys are shape shifters and color changers, pictures of single/few instances in time definitely make it difficult to guess many of the species that have no uniquely defining characteristics. A big clue would be to ask your LFS where the animal originated. If it buys from wholesalers that import mostly from Indonesia, then a merc is not viable and O. bocki more likely. If, however, this octopus is from the Caribbean/Gulf then O. mercatoris would almost be assured.

 

[Missnano]

Because our little guys are shape shifters and color changers, pictures of single/few instances in time definitely make it difficult to guess many of the species that have no uniquely defining characteristics. A big clue would be to ask your LFS where the animal originated. If it buys from wholesalers that import mostly from Indonesia, then a merc is not viable and O. bocki more likely. If, however, this octopus is from the Caribbean/Gulf then O. mercatoris would almost be assured.

They have no idea. Sigh.

I'll try and get more pictures if he comes out. (I think it's a he.) last night it didn't really come out and explore so I couldn't grab a picture. He is eating though. If something crosses his hole it's swiped in. Lol

 

[Missnano]

What I've noticed is he's brownish red most of the time, and has whitish spots that look like a texture if that makes sense. In the picture above he's upset and the texture on his mantal is matching color mostly. His mantal seems longer than my last dwarf, which I think was a bocki, and the arms are even longer than the mantal.

He's out tonight but up in the corner so I still can't get a good picture lol

 

[Missnano]

Clyde unscrewed a lid to a contact jar last night. I was completely shocked and have a camera set up tonight to hopefully catch him doing it! I even put a shrimp inside of it.


His name is Clyde because day two of bringing him home he did a drive by on his entire cleaning crew in the tank. He either ate them... or killed it. Lol

 

[Missnano]

Well, My camera died last night and he didn't even bother with the jar last night as far as I can tell. However, I did manage to get a good picture of him. This rock is his den, he has cleaned out several areas around it to where he just slips right under it, or drags a crab under it and then throws his left overs out for me to clean up.

It was cool watching him make the den when he first was introduced to the tank. You could see him blowing the sand or wafting it out from under the rock.

 

[sirreal]

great pic. Sounds like your having fun. I know its hard not to know the exact species. Keep the pics coming. Could you tell me how tall that rock is. Looks like a merc but a little bigger then most of the mercs I have had. Unless the rock is smaller then it looks in the pic. I mean from the pic an arm looks 8" long.

 

[Missnano]

great pic. Sounds like your having fun. I know its hard not to know the exact species. Keep the pics coming. Could you tell me how tall that rock is. Looks like a merc but a little bigger then most of the mercs I have had. Unless the rock is smaller then it looks in the pic. I mean from the pic an arm looks 8" long.

It is killing me to not know exactly what he is. He's not out right now, but here is the rock he was on last night. I held a quarter up to help show. He has super long legs compared to my Bocki i had last I know that for sure. His mental stretches out pretty long to when he's jetting. I'll try to get more pictures tonight when he wakes up.

 

[sirreal]

Ok ya the octo looked bigger in the pic. Thanks for the pic with the quarter. I would still say Merc. But members like D are much better at id's then me.

 

[DWhatley]

Many of the dwarf species look a lot alike in that they are reddish brown (with little other color options other than white, nocturnal and do not show much/any dimensionality in skin display. The arms are really too long for O. mercatoris but there is another Atlantic/Gulf species (Octopus joubini) that has been confused with O. mercatoris for years (at least 50) and I have not been able to find definitive picture pictures to feel comfortable with how to tell the difference. One telling factor is the egg size and quantity. mercs are a large egg species where joubini lays small eggs but that does not help with visual ID. The fact that this was labeled "Pacific" would eliminate either IF the origination identifier is correct (often it is not).

 

[Missnano]

Little update on my boy Clyde. He waits until all the lights in the house are off and comes out almost instantly. Last night I saw him in the PVC pipe and he was blending in. He was all white! I took a picture and then he went to his normal color though.

I also attached a small video of him climbing along the glass. he's a big boy!

 

[Missnano]

So I got Clyde a bristle star fish. A tiger one to b exact. I notice this star to mostly hang out in a rock but tonight I saw Clyde kill a crab and take it under s rock. I got a little later and saw the star fish and had it whole and it blew me away. I thought maybe Clyde just killed it and didn't want it. But on my way back through I saw Clyde and the starfish fighting over the crab!
Literally arms were flying everywhere over this crab!

Should I remove this star fish?

Edit: crab is on sandbed now, and to me it looks like Clyde is trying to go after the star fish now. He's mad. Lol

 

[DWhatley]

They should be fine together and the star will help keep the waste minimized but you might try offering it a small piece of shrimp or other meat when you feed Clyde to be sure the star is getting enough to eat as it can't win a tug of war with an octopus. Some brittles will learn feeding time and can be hand fed, however, I am not sure how difficult this might be with a vulgaris in the tank.