Very hard to tell from the pic, If it came from the gulf there are 2 options. A merc or a vulgaris "As far as I know" Once he/she gets in the tank take more pics and post them. Looking forward to seeing this octo more.
as far as feeding goes, you live in Texas, do you have bait shops local. I would get some small bait shrimp and try 1. If thats to big try uncooked pieces of shrimp. If you can get fiddler crabs they are good also. pretty much anything they would eat in the wild. As far as how much. As much as he/she will eat but dont leave uneaten food in the tank.
How big is your tank? I ask because if this is a vulgaris your going to need a lot of space. If you check out my thread named "Intro Casper" you can get an idea of what your in for. If its a merc then he/she is going to be very nocturnal. I could be wrong on the species but here in FL there are just 3 species in the gulf.
How big is your tank? I ask because if this is a vulgaris your going to need a lot of space. If you check out my thread named "Intro Casper" you can get an idea of what your in for. If its a merc then he/she is going to be very nocturnal. I could be wrong on the species but here in FL there are just 3 species in the gulf.
LOL, @sirreal, we do have a couple more in the Gulf, O. hummelincki, O. joubini (or so it is said, have not actually seen one but Texas is a known location), and O. briareus (your third option I suspect). However, the unnamed are not an obvious option for this one. More pictures are needed. It would also be helpful to know the mantle length to arm length ratio, where it was purchased (or better, origination), a description of the different skin bumps when they appear and what colors it displays.
Learn something new everyday!! LOL. And yes O,briareus was my 3rd and that pic i am pretty sure is not one. Had no idea the others were in the gulf. WOW. I have given some locals some bad info. Opps
Octopus ID is a particularly difficult subject outside of the fact that one animal can look like another at any given time because the experts (and scientific advancements) change the nomenclature. At one point, it was declared that there was only one dwarf species in the Gulf, Octopus joubini. For year O. mercatoris was labeled O. joubini until it was shown that there are at least two species, one that lays small eggs and the other that has large eggs. For now, we call the small egg animal O. joubini and the large egg animal O. mercatoris. The later may change
. I have also seen an official reference to O. hummelincki as a dwarf (but can no longer find the source 
). This animal has flip-flopped names from O. filosus to O. vulgaris to O. hummelincki, the later being the current official (but contested) name (many octopuses have been classified and reclassified to and from O. vulgaris). You can add to the confusion by noting that scientists have reclassified Octopus into several other genus. We now have Abdopus, Thaumoctopus, Enteroctopus, Wunderpus, Amphioctopus .... I don't EVEN look at the names and name changes for squid 
!
Still can't comfortably suggest but I would rule out Abdopus aculeatus. Vulgaris is a definite possibility.
All those poses and colors sure look like Casper 4 months ago. Is Frank out during the day and not afraid? Is Frank eating everything you give him and looking for more?
He's out till about 8am then sleeps all day. He's usually out playing taking thing apart in the tank sometime early mornings , when I get up around 6am he is waiting on me to feed him. I gave him fiddle crab and some Krill this morning then went sleep in his shell. He seems to be a piglet. He also seems to get mad at me when clean his tank. Turns red and charges me sometimes, when I take he's left overs out. He keeps taking the thermometer and sticking up in the conch shell he sleeps in. I think he doesn't like me taking his toys. I had to place it in the sump because I was afraid he was going to bust it. He is funny.
Personality definitely fits vulgaris
Exactly what I was thinking. How big is your tank?
Well if he is a Vulgaris then I would guess 4-5 months. Hard to tell with out a size reference. Someone else took a pic with a quarter up against a tank which helped a lot. 32g is not going to be big enough. Just so you get an idea of what you might have check out "Into Casper" You will see that when I got this octo I thought it was a full grown dwarf like a Merc. But the activity and how much she eat made me think other. When I got Casper she was quit small but grew extremely fast. I got her Oct 10 of this past year. She is in a 93g cube and just bought a 6' 150 system because she has outgrown the 93g cube.
Now D will "I think" agree that Caspers growth has been crazy fast and she is larger now then others Vulgaris ever got. "some stay smaller then others" Check out "Little Bit" and you will see one that didn't grow to be so big. Again all of this is just a guess because we are not sure its a Vulgaris. Mind you if it is you have one of the most sought after octos in the hobby because they are very outgoing and are out during the day.
Now D will "I think" agree that Caspers growth has been crazy fast and she is larger now then others Vulgaris ever got. "some stay smaller then others" Check out "Little Bit" and you will see one that didn't grow to be so big. Again all of this is just a guess because we are not sure its a Vulgaris. Mind you if it is you have one of the most sought after octos in the hobby because they are very outgoing and are out during the day.
This is the day I found her
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