Flavor of Tako (+ pics!)

[Roctopus]

Hey yall. Longtime lurker here. This is the best site ever! Anyways, I got this pus a week ago. They couldn't tell me where it was from. I'm guessing its an O defilippi. Mantle is about 1 1/4". Longest arms are about 6" and they're real long and spindley. Seems really tame; handfeeding already, sits on the glass during the day, and always comes to check me out if I'm messing around in there. So far ate a crayfish and a couple krill. He lives by himself in an 18 gallon with a skimmer. Maybe you can help me figure this guy out. How big will he get?

 

[Roctopus]

More pics!

 

[Mizu]

18gal?

 

[OB]

Cycling a 50 gallon takes roughly three months right?

 

[cthulhu77]

Great pics, and glad he's feeding so well for you...but, you are going to need a much, much larger tank for that 8 armed genius ! Do you have access to a 45-55 gallon tank? It's the easiest size to work with...
Be sure to list what kind of filtration you are using too, the water looks good from the photos, but we always like to yap about what everyone is doing.



greg

 

[Nancy]

Hi and welcome to TONMO.com!

That's a fine looking octopus you have! Good pics, too! I always like the "portrait" photos, where he's looking right at you!

It looks like "defilippi" from the photos you've posted, but then it's hard to be sure. Have you noticed whether the third pair of arms is the longest, which is characteristic of defilppi?

Looking at Cephalopods: A World Guide, I read that the bod of defilippi is at least 6mm (2 1/2 inches) as an adult, and arms are at least 30 cm (about 12 inches). This species can sever its arms near the base, useful as a decoy to preditors. It's a small-egged species and carries its eggs round with it rather than attaching them somewhere.

Does your octo have a name? I'd like to put it on the List of Our Octopuses at the top of Journals and Photos.

Nancy

 

[Roctopus]

Nancy, his name is Tako. That's Japanese for octopus sushi! No I won't eat him! OB, my tank has been set up for over two years. Mizu, he sounds alot bigger than he is. He spends alot of time in about one square inch of space. I'm aware that octopus produce 2 to 3 times the bioload of a similar sized fish, but this guy could triple his size and be allright. That said, I am in the market for a larger tank.

 

[Illithid]

Gratz on the Octo and the photos-they both look great!

 

[corw314]

I love that long-arm look and he seems to have a great personality. They all are soooo different! Best of luck with him!

Carol

 

[mucktopus]

Nice pics- those big white spots on the mantle help identify it as something other than O. defilippi though. Cephbase has some nice pics for comparison. Where is it from?

http://cephbase.utmb.edu/imgdb/imgsrch2.cfm

 

[Roctopus]

Thank you everyone for the warm and the complimets on the pics. Tako is still blushing and finding it hard to deal with his newfound fame!

The more I look at him, the more I think hes not a defilippi. I, too, have Mark Norman's guide, as well as a divers reference for carribean species. Defilippi seemed the most likely because of it's overall pattern, long arms, close proximity, and ability to sever arms. I forgot to mention when I got him he had seven arms and a stump! If you look closely at pic six where hes on the glass you can see his third right arm is severed near the base. It almost definitely was lost during collection because its already regrowing! Its about 3/4" long.

But if he's not a defilippi, then what could he be? He usually wears the coarse sand pattern you see in the photos. At night he turns greener and erects all his 3D camo, which can be pretty extreme; more so than most species it seems. Nancy, after looking at his arms more I think the second ang fourth pairs are the longest, but its hard to tell cuz hes only has one third arm! I've occasionaly seen him do the boldly striped display that your O. aculeatus seems to favor, Mucktopus. Possibly hes another member of the horridus species complex? What does everyone think?

 

[mucktopus]

If she might be from the Pacific then I would go with aculeatus or some close relative. Those dorsal mantle white spots (although absent from defilippi) are common among other octos, but the arm autotomy helps place it (probably) within Abdopus. If so then you have a female near maturity. If she hasn't already, she'll soon develop a huge appetite and her ovary will grow like crazy. She'll lay small eggs in long strings like a feather boa, which she'll attach to something in the tank.

 

[Roctopus]

Yes, several people at the LFS said she could be from anywhere. Not familiar with abdopus. Is it used in Mark's guide?

 

[Jean]

Nancy, his name is Tako. That's Japanese for octopus sushi! No I won't eat him! OB, my tank has been set up for over two years. Mizu, he sounds alot bigger than he is. He spends alot of time in about one square inch of space. I'm aware that octopus produce 2 to 3 times the bioload of a similar sized fish, but this guy could triple his size and be allright. That said, I am in the market for a larger tank.

That's good....sooner the better. It's not space that's the problem, it's water chemistry stability. Although your tank has been running for 2 years it is very unlikely to be able to take the bioload of an octopus for very long. These guys are MEGA waste producers and anything less than 50G struggles to deal with it. I work in a public aquarium and we have an octi in a flow through 3000L tank and from time to time it struggles! Usually after the greedy one has eaten an entire weeks supply of crabs overnight!!!!!!

Having said that Tako is lovely!

Cheers

J

 

[Roctopus]

I now understand abdopus to be a subgenus recently created to deal with what Mr. Norman refers to as the horridus species complex, which I assume includes all species from pages 238-240. I thought these guys looked similar but figured he was more likely to be defilippi because abdopus seem rather rare and they're on the other side of the world! As soon as my videocamera returns Ill get more pics and some video posted.

Mucktopus, my girl aked how I know it's a female and I realized I couldn't tell her! What gives it away? Any source for an updated taxonomy of abdopus?

Jean, I will definitely go bigger than fifty gallons (not including the sump). I have a couple to pick from that are running right now, matured, and never been subjected to copper.

Thank you all for your input!

Clark