• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Octopus Coming!

octo..

O. bimaculoides
Registered
Joined
Feb 21, 2012
Messages
71
Hello, I have taken advantage of black Friday and have bought myself another Octopus. Live Aquaria says he is a Caribbean small, and that he is supposed to arrive tomorrow! I would like to know what chance there is that i could get a large species like a vulgaris or briareus, because the last octopus i got from them was a joubini and he only lived three months. I will post pictures tomorrow when he/she arrives.:smile:
 
Better to have it arrive alive than be delayed ... I am guessing it will be an O. mercatoris but it is always a gamble. Often the "Caribbean" octopuses from LA are Indonesian and are either a Macropus or some form of Abdopus (I can only remember one that was actually Caribbean and that was a WYSIWYG animal and a very expensive merc). These are usually purchased through a wholesaler so it is always box of chocolates time.
 
OK the octopus has arrived, sorry for taking so long to respond. I am completely stumped for the ID i haven't seen anything like him before.

I have a hunch that he is a blue ring, he likes to just bend his arms inwards and fly around the tank, he is covered in little white rings and his papillae is amazing! When i first saw him in the bag i thought that he was an algae octopus from indonesia, but i cannot explain the rings. Do octopus Mercatoris bear white rings? The only reasons i don't think he is a blue ring is because he has yet to show blue rings maybe its because i haven't intimidated him? I saw him out and around on Friday the day after he arrived and he was already exploring the rocks. He has absolutely no fear of the damsels around him even though they are about the same size. When a damsel comes by he camouflages into a hairy rock. Then as soon as the damsel leaves he just gets up and keeps crawling around. He moves so slowly it is comical, and he just drags himself forward. To go from one rock formation to another he jumps off the top and bends his arms inwards and *glides* down to the next formation. He is about the size of an inch!
 

Attachments

  • conv_300570.jpg
    conv_300570.jpg
    466.5 KB · Views: 141
  • conv_300571.jpg
    conv_300571.jpg
    454.6 KB · Views: 138
I am pretty sure that Jim (yes Jim is the name) is a female mercatoris. She has been coming out quite regularly for the past few days but she has stopped and has barricaded her shell. I took out the rocks and shells to see if it was indeed her in there and yes it was. She has not come out of the shell for three days now i can only see an arm on occasion. I took a few pictures while she was out and they look pretty merc like.



 

Attachments

  • conv_300578.jpg
    conv_300578.jpg
    5.9 MB · Views: 119
  • conv_300579.jpg
    conv_300579.jpg
    6.3 MB · Views: 112
  • conv_300580.jpg
    conv_300580.jpg
    6.1 MB · Views: 108
  • conv_300581.jpg
    conv_300581.jpg
    6 MB · Views: 109
Mercs are a reddish brown or white but I have never seen them show any other color (there is one shot of one that showed blue some years ago but only once and as a very young animal)
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top