I live in California and I was just wondering If it would be legal for me to catch one.
I go fishing at the beach once in a while so would I need a special license if I just happened to come across one?
Where do they usually live in the wild? How often would they be in the tidepools?

If I'm not wrong its ok too catch them from the wild since it doesn't seem like the no. are really dropping thanks to fishsupply and octopets. Bimacs usually live around the 1-30m range, which is roughly 3-100ft. Do correct me if my conversions are wrong :)

youre conversions are right joel..... surfy, you might want to check with you local gov't and maybe search cazlifornia statutes (probably indexed on the web someplace - NC has done it so im sure CA has done it too) key topics you might want to look iunder would be exotic pets and capturing wildlife (or similar wording) anyone else see any glaring holes ive left?

First of all, bimacs don't extend along the entire California coast. Some maps show them from the Mexican coast to about half way up the California coast. However, Jack at FishSupply said there were no bimacs off Huntington Beach, just south of California, yet we know they are found south of that area.

Bimacs seem to be plentiful, but you need to check into a permit anyway. We discussed permits in California when someone wanted to gather his own crabs. As I remember, he got one and it was not expensive.

Here is what Dr. Idso says about catching wild bimacs:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1535

Nancy

so long as it isnt tagged theres not much that they can do if it is illeagle IM NOT SUGGESTING YOU DObut you wont know what speices it is it could be a baby pacific california is on the pacific coast of the US of A i do know its leagle to catch cuttles in the uk but thats not much help :unionjac: :sink:

Alright, Thanks guys. I will have to look into it further.
I am all over California coasts from San Diego all the way up to San Francisco so I thought I would keep my eye out for them.

I plan on doing a small coral propagation buisness while I'm going to scool within the next few years so I thought if I can breed bimacs too then I could be another supplier for them.

My luck I would catch a giant octo:)

Thanks for the link Nancy:)

Maybe you might find a stray one. I guess it won't be too hard to ID a bimac due to their two spots. :)

might get bimaculatus and bimaculoides mixed up tho

Well just to clarify on that, the dark ring round the spots of the typical bimac is one solid ring, however, in bimaculatus, the ring is broken up. Bimaculatus also so get bigger and are not as diurnal as their counterpart.

How big do bimaculatus get?
I didn't even know there were two kinds, thanks for the help.

They got a mantle length of 20 cm and arms 80 cm long.