I've read a lot about people identifying there different octopuses. Besides from the obvious differences; size, color, day/night active, tank size, temperature, are there any differences in caring for a Filosus or a Bimaculoides or a Mucktopus or any other type out there?

Another big difference is what part of the world they are from. Care is generally the same. Things you need to be careful of are temperature, toxicity, specialized food for certain species, and adult size. Mucktopus is a tonmo user; I am not aware of an octopus with that name. Wonderpus need to be watched closer because they are fragile and rare. I think they may need a deeper sand bed as well.

My applogies to Mucktopus. I came up with this question because I thought my octopus was a Bimaculoides but come to find out he is a Filosus. When I originally got the octopus, I was searching and searching for info on Bimaculoideses. In the last couple of days I have been searching for info on Filosuses. There is very little care info available on the different species. Then I came up with the brillant conculsion (I know, I'm slow) that for the most part, you care for all octopuses the same way. So I thought I would put the question out there and see if there were much difference in the way we care for each animal.

The biggest difference might be temperature, because a bimac needs a lower temperature but O. filosus (assuming that is really what you have) comes from more tropical areas and you should keep it at about 78 degrees.

Basic care is the same for the species we keep.

Nancy

The care for most octopuses is very similar, from [I]Enteroctopus dofleini[I] to [I]Octopus bimaculoides[I].

To second Nancy, temperature is the biggest and most important difference in husbandry requirements.

Greg

From my single octo (pygmy - Mercatoris) experience and reading the forum (Anecdotal evidence only), another difference I have observed is food choice. My Mercatoris female and now her 5 babies totally ignore snails (except to use their shells as door ways), baby fish (possibly too fast) and hermit crabs (I will try the babies again with these soon). Both adult and babies will gladly eat Cyclop-eeze (and possibly other filter type food) and live shore shrimp. The mother, at full adult, would eat fiddler crabs IF they were presented to her (I don't believe she ever ate any loose in the tank) and she MAY have eaten one mithrax crab (not presented but just living in the tank). The larger octos seem more willing to hunt or accept larger shrimp, some fish as well as snails and hermits.

It might be good to start a dedicated thread, "what my octopus eats" and qualifying the entries by the size and type of octopus.

I'm happy to say that such a thread already exists. It's a sticky at the top of this forum:
http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3728

Nancy

opps!