Dr. Zoidberg

simple

Vampyroteuthis
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Oct 10, 2007
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My octopus from Marinedepotlive.com arrived today. The box it came in was wet but luckily the bag seemed okay. It is currently acclimating and will go into my 100 gallon tank. I plan on keeping it in a critter keeper for the first few weeks. I am still unsure of the id, since it has been balled up for most of the time. It has not shown any rings of any sort so i dont think it is a bimac. My guess is A. Aculeatus or if not, possibly hummellincki.
 
Here are some pics of dr. zoidberg acclimating
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sorry for the crappy pics, i will get better pics once its in the tank. anyone have any idea what it is?
Im thinking A. Aculeatus
 
Very cool, keep us up to date. He doesnt look like a hummelincki to me initially, but I could be wrong. I think Aculeatus is a good guess. Did you see any eyespots yet? Also where did they claim he came from? Enjoy your new guy!
 
they claimed he originated from the US, but i saw the typical aculeatus horns on dr.z so im almost 100% sure its an aculeatus. For only 27 buck im pretty satisfied, he is in very good condition, all eight arms. haha
 
Thats great nice and small:thumbsup: Usually when I see any octos they're about fist sized and near the end.
 
Of the species we typically see, I would venture aculeatus as well. Judging from photos, you would have a difficult time telling Bimac from Hummelincki based upon coloration. I think the eyespots are different but I am going by pictures (in high color the Hummelincki's eyespots are a ring of orange around a deep blue disk with an orange bullseye and a few orange dots within the blue disk, in dull color, when visible the pattern is the same but the colors are dull and indistince ). Not having seen a young Hummelicki, I can't be 100% positive but I think the arms are way too long and uniform in thickness. 'Tanes arms are very thick at the head, taper quickly and are a maximum of twice (closer to 1.5 x) the mantle length when swimming VS the long almost even thickness arms of the Briareus and Aculeatus. Additionally, it appears that both Bimac and Hummelicki typically show an orangish underside and Hummelicki has a blue ring on the outside of the suckers.
 
I fed it a piece of thawed out shrimp today and it took it right away. I am pretty sure it is aculeatus since it has long arms, the signature "horns" and it seems to do the "conehead" shape a lot with its mantle. I will post more pics tomorrow hopefully. Just wondering, how long do you think i should keep dr.z in the critter keeper before letting him out to the rest of the tank?
 
ok i let dr.z out of the critter keeper and he crawled around the glass for a bit and is now in the process of building a small den, or so it seems, since he keeps blowing sand out from under a rock, so my guess is he will try to squeeze in there soon.
Ill post some more pics soon
 

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