which octo?

[sulley]

i have been keeping saltwater for 15 yrs..just got into octos...my first octo was a carribean reef..later to find out a hummelicki...great octo always out took frozen etc...she passed away after 3 months after laying eggs..now my lfs has 2 brieus in..i know these are nocturneal but i see everyone gets them..what is the advantage of these? i really want one to interact like my old one..so should oi go for this one or wait to see if another hummelicki comes in?

 

[CaptFish]

My Briareus, Legs, is NOT nocturnal. She is very playful with me and is out at all times. AM had one, Kalypso, that was also very playful, playful as well. D had one that had vision problem so it was not as playful but still seemed to be out and about a fair amount. One thing to keep in mind is that Braireus can get big. mine has a 5" mantle and a spread of over three feet, needless to say they need a bigger tank than a hummelicki. I would not suggest anything less than 75 gals for a briareus.

 

[DWhatley]

IMO the two most consistently playful octos are hummelincki/filosis (Caribbean) and aculeatus (Indonesian) with briareus coming in third. As CaptFish mentions, we have great journals on two briareus that have fully interacted and become daytime active but these two seem to be atypical of the species. One important observation though is that both of these have been tank raised from very small young where most that make it to our tanks are considerably older. SueNami never quite agreed to coming to my hand but he did become accustomed to it and would come out around 6:00 in the evening for long periods. The two I have now (KaySoh and Creepy) are still very nocturnal. KaySoh may yet become interactive, usually shows herself sometime during our dinner hour and will play with my hand outside the tank after lights out. Creepy is not likely to ever become friendly but she/he lost all but one arm fully to the webbing a month or so before coming to the tank (I still find it amazing she/he survived the months worth of arm growth in the wild).

I try to keep a tank open for a hummelincki but they have been very hard to come by. A few showed up from haiti recently listed as O.maya so I have been hoping we will see more of them soon.

 

[sulley]

thanx for the input guys... my tank is a 58 gallon oceanic so i guess that makes my mind up for me... great pic capt

 

[sulley]

okay one more question...called a different lfs and they said they get cyaneus....he sadi it is a small breed...everyhting i researched said they get huge..he also said it is collected from africa and spain and has two blue circles...can anyone help what this may be..i know lfs and suppliers are horrible aat identifying species...everything i have come up with is not matching..is there a smaller species from this area with the two blue circles? he was certain where it was collected

 

[DWhatley]

Curious, I know O.cyanea is found in Hawaii and this link says Africa but not sure about the Spain. They do have ocelli (eyespots) but I don't believe they would be described as blue and you are right about it being large (I would love to raise one but the 65's I have are not large enough for the likes of an octopus the size that Marinebio guy caught .

O.hummelincki/filosus has a brilliant blue ring with yellow inside the circle but are most commonly found in the Atlantic and Gulf. Both bimac species are Pacific US West Coast. Whether the hummelincki and bimacs are found elsewhere, I could not establish in a brief search (all pointed to the common US areas) but I thought I remembered hummelincki/filosus being studied elsewhere.

Can you coax a photo from the supplier?

 

[sulley]

i will call the lfs and ask him today...dont know how much effort they both are going to put into however....he seemed a little perturbed by all my questions on the phone yesterday lol...he said he sells them for 40 bucks but i would have to order and pay for it before hand and pick it up when the shipment comes in since he doesnt have a tank for it..with no guarentee..this lfs is 1.5 hrs from me...my local one gets them in but as caribbean reef only..the 1st time were 2 hummelickis then the next were 2 brieus..wheni asked if they could get in another hummelicki they said we have two in and pointed to the brieus..they insisted they were the same i di not feel like fighting with them

 

[DWhatley]

I try to explain to my two collectors in the Keys that they never sell "fish" and that no one would buy them if that is how they listed the finned critters they catch but I just get an eyeroll with my patient explanation of what to look for ...

Of course neither of them like octos and one is truely afraid of them (but not of the sharks. Go figure). Lynn had me on the floor laughing when he told me about his adventurous transfer of Creepy (who has only one long arm and 7 very short stubs) to a shipping container. He swears he was ready to head for the door if the octo "escaped" in the process.

 

[sulley]

called today to find out they are closed on mondays.. will try tomorrow

 

[sulley]

no go on the picture...i do however have a story..i went back to the original store to try to talk to them about getting a hummelicki, they were the ones with the 2 briaeus. the owner told me to take the bigger one cause it had been there 2 months and he was sick of giving it emeralds...i know this guy is probaly too big for my tank but i felt bad about him being in that medium critter keeper for so long and probaly dieing in it. he was asking 49 for the octos but charged me 20 figure his wholesale cost..the other one was tiny but he was keeping that one..my tank is the oceanic reef 58 gallon.so i figured better than the critter keeper for his time left