TONMO.com Staff member Colin Dunlop has authored an article which is now appearing in the February/March 2004, Issue - 16 of Marine World Magazine. He has graciously agreed to have it printed here on TONMO.com as well. Thanks Colin!

Also credited are Nancy King, Carol Sauer and Roy Caldwell, for contributing their remarkable photos to this article.

Keeping cephalopods in captivity (http://www.tonmo.com/cephcare/keepingcephs/keepingcephs.php)

Hey Colin, great article! :notworth: Good for you for getting it published in Marine World Magazine -- very cool!!

I have a question -- are the Mimic Octopus and Wunderpus considered two separate species? I thought they were interchangable names for the same beast? They're so sparsely documented, perhaps I just missed it.

OK, now Colin gets his :notworth: from me. Good stuff, sir.

Those pictures are fantastic. :cyclops:

yes, mimic and wunderpus are different species, but neither are formally described to science yet, Dr Roy will keep us posted on that!

to clarify pic credits in order as seen...

pic one... Nancy King- Ollie

pic two... me- sepia officinalis and dinner

pic three.. Carol's Ink

pic four... Dr Roy Caldwell- exclusive pic of brand new blue ring species called 'Lizard Island'


pic five me again- sepia o in camo

Nancy,

I had never seen that pic 1 before, I absolutely love it.

in the magazien teh pic is titled 'octopus in action!' :)

I agree with Tonmo, that Ollie pic is great! :D

Excellent Colin!!! That's an awesome action shot of Ollie!!!

:notworth: :notworth:

Carol

:notworth: Nice article Colin! The Ollie pic is marvelous but I like the blue ring best. :)

Great article, Colin! :notworth:

Yes, a fine article by Colin and quite a nice group of photos.

Am I just imagining it, or is that a purple-ringed octopus?

Nancy

You're not imagining things, I never knew blue/purplerings could do those patterns, they're absolutely beautiful.

Great article, I hope all newbies take some time to read it.

Thanks! :D

Yea, it would be abit odd for a new guy to ask something thats already in the article. It does give us more reasons to post though :mrgreen:

Years ago (around 1995) while snorkelling in an coastal island near the Great Barrier Reef, I collected an octopus and kept it in my reef tank for just over two months before it was apparently 'murdered' (I kinda witnessed the event) by another octopus (different and more common species of comparable size). It was not until the documentary of National Geographic that I have actually seen it again, only on TV though. I believe it was what was decribed as the wonderpus (99% confidence in the identification-that 1% uncertainty was not because of my doubt in my observation but in the difficulty of identifying octopii to species level). The most remarkable thing was that the wonderpus, with the body size (excluding the arms) of a pin-pon ball, can extend its arms from 20cm long to well over 120cm long! I wonder why me and all my friends who witnessed this had not managed to come up with a nice name like 'wonderpus'. I didn't realize that it was not even being scientifically decribed before. I have watched and recorded on tapes both the documentaries (shot in indonesian waters?) on wonderpus and mimic octopus. I am not sure I can agree that they are different species though. :grad: The specimen that I kept was dark brown when I collected it from the reef in shallow waters. It began to display the banded pattern on its arms (as seen on TV) about fifteen minutes after introduction into my tank. Unlike other octopii that I have kept so far (over a hundred), it refused to take food that I offered (sometimes even after inspecting the food). The introduction of another octopus into the tank (which I regretted ) was an attempt to observe the interaction between octopii (of comparable size of course). The result turned out to be a tragic one. :cry: This species was, unlike the more common species, very shy and timid but equally inquisitive. It even stick up one of its eye above the tank hood to peep on me while I was sleeping :P . While it could have easily escaped by crawling out of the tank, it never did.

Wow, you certainly got lucky there, too bad about the fight though :( , They're beautiful and inquisitive but sadly they don't do well in an aquarium, simple as that. I came across a flamboyant cuttlefish once, sadly I didn't have too much sense in my head to buy it at the time :( Where do you live Btw?

Hiya Joel, Colin and Tonmo :talker:

I have watched the documentaries on octopii (with footage of wonderpus) and the 'Search for the Mimic octopus' again, carefully, and compared them to the one that I have collected in North Queensland, Australia :grad:.

I think they are quite likely to have been the same species. Dr. Roger Hanan? from the Woodholes Marine Biological Lab.(not sure whether he is still with them) was in the mimic octopus documentary. I wonder whether we can contact him to clarify this issue. Maybe Tonmo or Colin would know him or know how to contact him, hehe.

Hi Cyrus, certainly interesting stuff there... do you have any pics of your wunderpus? Would be nice to see, I think the best person to contact would be Roy Caldwell as he does a lot of work on octopuses in these areas, as do his students...

Hi again Colin,

Actually, I have magically find the time to watch the Mimic Octopus documentary tape again. Roger actually pointed out there were three similar octopus spp living in the Lam?bert?? Strait of So?luwesi??? They were the wonderpus, the 'Landopus??' and the Mimic octopus (I have no idea about the spellings of these names :oops: . hehe.

According to the documentary, they reckoned the wonderpus and the Mimic octopus looks similar with the wonderpus apparently being more colorful. Now I am not sure at all whether the one that I collected was the wonderpus or the Mimic or actually some other species. It was dark brown when I caught it on the reef (North Queensland, Australia). The banded pattern was not apparent until it kinda settled down in my tank and started foraging. It was certainly one of the most timid and untrusting octopus that I have ever kept. It rejected the small glass bottle that I offered to it as selter and rejected all the food that I have offered it (including live food!) :( . From the two documentaries that I have taped, my specimen looked like both of them?! :oops: .

Unfortunately, I didn't know that they were not scientifically decribed before. I was not too keen in getting into the taxonomy of octopus at that time and didn't have the time either. I didn't take any photo which was a big mistake. The problem was I was more interested in collecting, keeping and observing all these wonderful marine animals than to find the time to document and share the findings with others, regretably. If we have 48 or 72 hrs a day, I am sure I would be able to do a better job, :wink:

You'd better just head right back out there and collect a new specimen. ;)

Before I can collect another specimen, all of the followings have to happen:

1. I could magically find the time
2. I have to get on a plane
3. I have to make a boat trip
4. I have to get wet
5. I have the time to stay wet: any length of time from about a week up to a year, maybe
6. I have the luck of bumping into one again before it discover me and take cover...................and.........

Umm...I reckon thats possible.