Penelope - O.Vulgaris

[CaptFish]

Pen is doing great. He is a very active octopus he is out over 80% of the time the lights are on. He is very curious about evrything that goes on around him. If any one stands in front of tank he comes right out to investigate. He hates it when I play with my cats I think it makes him jealous. When i do play with he races back and forth on the glass closest to me and the cat then he will go to the surface and spray the lid with his jet. then he will continue to move back and fourth and always bobbing his head. He is also fascinated with me going to bed. I sleep right next to the tank, and every night when I go to sleep he sits there pressed against the glass and just watches me for as much as an hour but usually it's just for about 10 minutes. Now all this socializing seems to be great until I stick my hand in the tank, or remove the lid or any reason, as soon as I do He goes crazy. He attacks me tries to grab me, and always sprays water EVERYWHERE. He can hit what was Ichi's tank with his cannon which is over 8' away! needless to say I just don't open the lid or stick my hand in the tank anymore unless I HAVE too. I clean with a mag-float but I have to do it very fast or Pen will grab it and stuff it in his den. I have gotten pretty good and cleaning the tank really fast he is scared of the mag-float when it moves fast. I scrub quickly so he keeps his distance but the second you slow down he pounces.

We were feeling very photogenic this morning.

 

[DWhatley]

I have to say the Penn is one of my very favorites and I wish you would post more Her/His antics are marvelous and I still think you need to introduce a female of our species to see if there is a behavior difference in den defense.

Do the cats ever sit and watch the octo and if they do, does Penn respond?

 

[SabrinaR]

I think its funny that when you are talking about the normal day to day Pen is a he and then when you start talking about the crazy behavior hes a she lol... just made me giggle. He seems so very cool most of the time.

 

[DWhatley]

I started to make that same point but then CaptFish switched genders in the middle of a PMS description

 

[corw314]

Awesome pics! Pen is absolutely beautiful and I love reading about her antics also!!!!

 

[CaptFish]

I think its funny that when you are talking about the normal day to day Pen is a he and then when you start talking about the crazy behavior hes a she lol... just made me giggle. He seems so very cool most of the time.

Oops. I got so used to Him being a her in the beginning. I actually wrote the whole thing Calling him her, I guess I missed a few when I was editing. LOL

 

[sulley]

nice try capt..that was no mistake at all, but i agree with you lol... my wife however wouldnt

 

[CaptFish]

 

[CaptFish]

So I was flipping through the bible, Norman's world guide, and I came across a desription that discribes Pen perfectly.

p. 274 "Cephalopods: A World Guide" Octopus Mimus:
"It is recognized by irregular round patches of varrying sizes visible in the skin. It lacks a well defined false-eye spot (ocellus) but shows a faint black patch in the same postion as an occellus in some color patterns"

The description and photo are perfect! Now I don't think this what I have as the Mimus is from Chile and not Florida but it sure seems very interesting. Perhaps there is a species of Vulgaris that displays this same trait, or perhaps this species does live in FL after all the Vulgaris lives in both places.

O.mimus from Cephalopods: A World Guide

I have seen Pen this same Red color late at night, also very similar too Diablo's red coloring

 

[SabrinaR]

Wow its beautiful! I remember you saying you saw what looked like eye spots. Still no idea as to what Pen is?

 

[cuttlegirl]

I don't know if this link will help you... wish Monty were around to translate this into English for us...

ugh, bad link... http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/umrsmas/bullmar/2002/00000071/00000002/art00007?crawler=true Then click the pdf.

654 BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 71, NO. 2, 2002
Figure 1. Map of America showing the known geographical distribution of Octopus mimus (Omi)
and O. maya (Oma) (continuous line). ? indicates areas where the distribution of each Octopus
species is unknown. Species codes are as Table 1.

O. mimus was not analysed in this study because it was out of
the geographical range considered; however, this species shares several morphological
similarities with O. maya which would indicate they are geminate species. They have
similar size, sexual dimorphism, paired ocelli between the eyes and the base of arms II
and III, enlarged sucker distributions, minute ligula, small calamus and skin with patch
and groove trellis arrangement (Guerra, pers. observ.). According to Voight (1988), these
shared characters would be evidence of a recent common ancestor.

 

[CaptFish]

oh cool. Thanks!

 

[Lmecher]

I was going to say"I know that octopus!"
How are things between the two of you, getting along any better?

 

[CaptFish]

O.mimus.....anyone....anyone....no response, was it that profound?

The paper cuttlegirl posted was useful but it mainly focuses on the differences using Gel electrophoresis, basically DNA testing. Any one wanna lend me the equipment to do some gel electrophoresis?!

 

[DWhatley]

I read the paper, does that count? With so much apparent migration northward, either this one or the Brazilian one we first looked at seem plausible. What still bothers me is the color you saw the one time you saw the eye spot. Neal keeps thinking that they are cross breeding in the wild (vulgaris and hummelincki are both small egg species). Do Penn's arm still appear to quickly taper or have they become more rope like, similar to the briareus?

Any one wanna lend me the equipment to do some gel electrophoresis?!

When do you start classes?