2015 edit: Roy posted a photo of Calioctopus aspilosomatis that looks very much like the unknown Macropuses (aspilosomatis was originally placed in the Macropus complex macropus is now listed in the Callistoctopus genus) we have seen, including Puddles.
I used my credit with LiveAquaria to try for an aculeatus. I wanted a diurnal animal again but I knew that was not going to be the case when I opened the bag and found a little puddle. My big hope now is that this is a very young female and not one of the smaller, dwarf species. She is as cute as a button and came out to curl up on the front of the rocks when the lights went out but has not acknowledged me yet. I fed her a small live fiddler at the end of her acclimation (that she shooed away twice and then chose to eat it when it kept trying to commit harakiri by running into her) but she wanted nothing to do with the small piece of shrimp offered on a stick tonight. She did not leave her perch when I touched her arm with it though but just pushed it away each time I would touch a sucker. I will have to concoct some form of red light for the tank as she did not seemed bothered much by my red flash light (KaySoh does not like the flash light and definitely sees it).
Unfortunately, I was unforgivably disorganized this time around and failed to get many decent pictures or record initial data. I didn't even have viable test strips so I took a full 3 hours to add water every 5 minutes (Chinese firedrill using 2 timers set for 10 minutes, offset by 5 minutes
). Roy's Octopus aspilosomatis (Norman 144) looks promising as I have seen stripes on the arms but only a couple of white spot on the mantle. I have not seen any of the green sheen that was common to Beldar and briareus so I am inclined to think Puddle and Beldar are not the same species. She does show that odd little pointy mushroom hat like the luteus (Norman 249) as well as the long skinny mantle look and definitely has the thicker, longer front arms common to many of the macropus complex.
She was not very active during acclimation but came to life when she was place in the tank. You will notice arms sticking out of the lid in one photo as she tried to figure out how to get to the rock. She never did realize the top was open but exited immediately once I removed the green lid.
I used my credit with LiveAquaria to try for an aculeatus. I wanted a diurnal animal again but I knew that was not going to be the case when I opened the bag and found a little puddle. My big hope now is that this is a very young female and not one of the smaller, dwarf species. She is as cute as a button and came out to curl up on the front of the rocks when the lights went out but has not acknowledged me yet. I fed her a small live fiddler at the end of her acclimation (that she shooed away twice and then chose to eat it when it kept trying to commit harakiri by running into her) but she wanted nothing to do with the small piece of shrimp offered on a stick tonight. She did not leave her perch when I touched her arm with it though but just pushed it away each time I would touch a sucker. I will have to concoct some form of red light for the tank as she did not seemed bothered much by my red flash light (KaySoh does not like the flash light and definitely sees it).
Unfortunately, I was unforgivably disorganized this time around and failed to get many decent pictures or record initial data. I didn't even have viable test strips so I took a full 3 hours to add water every 5 minutes (Chinese firedrill using 2 timers set for 10 minutes, offset by 5 minutes

She was not very active during acclimation but came to life when she was place in the tank. You will notice arms sticking out of the lid in one photo as she tried to figure out how to get to the rock. She never did realize the top was open but exited immediately once I removed the green lid.
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