on the question of color IMO yes and no. LOL sorry I will be more specific. With the O.Briareus that I had it was more about his surroundings or at least it seemed to be. Since I never really saw him get mad i am not sure. What I can tell you is this was a very different thing with the vulgaris I had 15+ years ago. If he did not like something he would get very red. There are people with much more knowledge about this then me. i have kept 6 octos and 4 species and everyone was different. Mind you also some are very smart and let you know what they want. Others not so much. DWhatley calls the O.Briareus the blonde of the octo world. I would agree. I was just reading an article that Octobot posted about the Vulgaris from the gulf of mexico possible being smarter then other octos. This I would agree with also. There are several species that are commonly kept that I have not had yet. I would like to keep a bimac but in FL I would need a very good chiller"which I have" and plenty of money for the power bill that goes with it.