Yeah I have to agree, after looking at the pictures from Mote. Their Vulgaris definitely had longer arms than Penny. Sooo, what is she? What other Octos live down here?
There are a number of similar octopuses around the world being treated under this species name and the exact relationships between these animals is yet to be determined. They exist in the tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea, the subtropical to temperate waters of Japan and the temperate waters of Sough Africa. The isolation of some of theses populations suggest that they are llikely to be separate species
From IngentaConnect Full PDF available, published 1966.She further stated that O. hummelincki is the only ocellated species of octopod from the Atlantic Ocean but that if the ocelli were absent or obscured it could be confused with certain forms of the "Octopus rugosus" complex.
dwhatley;155887 said:CaptFish, did you ever tell Tom that Penney is not O. briareus? When you next get something from him, be sure to let him know that if he sees a difference in one of the animals that come in the forum would be a great place to post it or at least let one of us know. The best he might look for is the ability to show "seaweed" all over its skin (the basic description I got from Lynn when describing Octane). Tell him he could post it in the availability thread (he has joined TONMO) and could get a few extra dollars and a fast sale if he will. ... just sayin'
dwhatley;155898 said:I have been doing a little reading and came across this:
From IngentaConnect Full PDF available, published 1966.
If I remember correctly, Octopus rugosus was later determined to be a form of vulgaris (unfortunately so was filosus - a description debocle, not a true invalidation of the species and resulted in the hummelincki name over the filosus name - also a point of naming contention).
Morphological and genetic description of Octopus insularis, a new cryptic species in the Octopus vulgaris complex (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae) from the tropical southwestern Atlantic
could also prove very interesting but it costs $25 for a one day look at the article. Doing a little more research no insularis (and you begin to wonder if the older rugsus is the same animal), it might be worth some time checking it out. I did find an old article in The Cephalopod Page with a couple of photos of insularis but they are only sighted further south than where Penny was acquired (not that octos pay a lot of attention to human defined boundries)
dwhatley;155907 said:CaptFish,
Do you happen to have a brave female friend that comes by (or would be willing to to do a set of experiments) often? I don't think age matters for the task I present. I have noticed that some of my more interactive species seem to be able to tell male from female and have a preference (the preference may be something totally unrelated to sex). If Penny continues to be pissy toward you, the object would be to see if she would have a different attitude with a female. Neal used to claim that Octane did not "like" him but he would come to me quickly to be petted and came immediately to my mother (we look a lot alike) when she put her hand in the tank (I was about to tell her she would need to get comfortable as it might take a few minutes but did not get that out of my mouth before he was rubbing on her hand) and it only took a little coaxing from my granddaughter. It would take a lot of experimenting to see if there are chemical clues to our sexes but it might be fun to try a simple, inconculsive experiement.
Looks like we are both having trouble identifying our octopuses I have Diablo in a 50 gallon tank so I am in a pickle so to speak. I am upgrading to a 120, my brother purchased this tank but never set it up. I plan to begin this weekend. I have to quickly decide where I will put it. I cannot find any information on tank size for an O. vulgaris. Not even sure that is what Diablo is. One thing I know for certain, I will not give her up. From what I read, vulgaris can get to 70 cm. Now the $100,000.00 question, will a 120 be large enough? It will certainly be better than a 50.
The intense search for food during short hunting trips, and the intense use of cryptic body patterns during foraging trips, suggest that this species is a `time-minimizing` forager instead of a 'rate-maximizing’ one (Leite et al, 2009).