I was currently involved with searching for a cuttle but i came across a cute little octo at an lfs tonight, not only was he cute it was about to become a victim of ignorance, the store was selling a 6g eclipse tank 3 rocks and sand with this octo ( which appears to be a bimac) as an octopus kit, i asked if i could purchase just the octo and i brought it home and placed it in my 55g tank
its almost 6 inches from arm tip to arm tip, havent got a name yet
ill post a pic as soon as i get a good one

Congrats!!!!! 8)

Since your new octo can't say it, thanks for saving him!!!! :rainbow:

Can't wait to follow this story!

That's a cool story! :D

I bet your octo is happy! :D

Congratulations and thanks for saving the little octopus.

I wonder whether he's from octopets, too.

We'll have a place in our octo family for everyone.

Nancy

Lets hope the octo is a greatfull one, Bimac? wow nice find, did you manage to see the blue spots? A 6g might have been ok for a short while but the octo would outgrow it in a week (or two).

here is a picture of the little guy, he seems healthy just shy, im sure hell need a little while to get comfortable with his new enviorment

they love those corners don't they. :D

pics a little blurry but it does resemble a bimac. does the lfs know where they got it from.

Congrats on your octo, RC!!

not only was he cute it was about to become a victim of ignorance,
Most octos are, mine was in a 15 gallon with 5-6 seahorses before I gave him a slightly better home. Thanks for saving the little guy. :wink:

Nice pic. Did you use macro? :wink:

i did not use a macro, probably why its blurry, also i had to use the camera's feature to lighten the picture b/c the corner hes in is actually kind of a shadow, and not to mention my camera is one of the earlier models of digitals to come out (time for a new one).

NickA5582,
i would consider a 15g tank reasonable for as a temp home for an octo this small, but 6? and they werent selling it as a temp home they led people to believe this was an adequate home long term :bugout:

once upon a time i would have thought this was true and i think i might have had an octo in a 6g tank but i never claimed to be an expert either, its mostely because of this site that i have been able to acumulate a wealth of info on one of my all time favorite creatures, now not only can i keep one alive, i can actually try to make it happy and comfortable as well

Wow!! What a lucky find and lucky octo!!!

Congrats!!!

Carol

How's it going with your rescue?

so far so good, hes more active now, before he would stay pretty much in the same corner now he likes to wander all over the place, i am going to try to hand feed him some shrimp later today to see how he reacts :D

he hides all night and is out pretty much all day which further leads me to believe he is a bimac

Good luck with the feeding.

BOE and I were talking about your pic, what agreat shot BTW :) , but have you considered o. cyanea? just a though on ID :D

Hi rc,

That's a nice looking little octo you have there,and it's a fine thing you did rescuing it.

Does it have false eyespots? If so, try to get a pic showing them. If it's a bimac, it should have an unbroken chain, like Ollie did (pic attached).

Looks different to me to be a bimac! What about the eyespots??? Wonder what it is!! I love the all spikey look!!!

Carol

he does have an eyespot although it does not look quit the same as the pic you posted, the first pic i circled the spot, he has one on each side, its difficult to see, hes always moving around and when he does stay still his spot is usually smooshed so it is still not entirley visible


i dont know much about O. cyanea but i guess anything is possible
as for his pattern hard to tell, kinda looks like a chain but then again sometimes it just looks like a mottled pattern

All the bimacs I've had I don't think any of them has ever done that all over spikey look!! That is so cool!!! I see the eyespot, but still not sure.

Carol

Can you describe the false eyespot? I can see it fairly well in one pic. There is no chain at all, is there? What colors do you see? Is there any black?

Interesting little octo, but I don't think he's a bimac, so we need to try to identify him.

Nancy

the spot looks more like a blue spot than a ring with kinda of a brown ring around it his colors are usually a light tan with a black pattern and his skin has a lot of texture, when he starts moving about his skin turns somewhat smooth and he tends to be a golden color

i will try to get a better pic of his spot, kinda tough though with him being small

Although Ochi has displayed funky body patterns, and he is a bimac, those are much more defined! I would have to say cyanea. \\

The reason I say this is the larger webbing, and shorter arm length shown in the pics.


What size tank is he in?

So...where are they from? Do they grow as big as a bimac? I like the short stubby legs and the spikes. Is their personality like a bimac?

Just curious!

Carol

Cyanea are like bigger bimacs and come from Hawaii. :)

bigger octo, much bigger tank!

Well, the Cyanea is given as body to 16 cm (6 in), arms to at least 80 cm (30 in)--
BUT, the article in Cephalopods: a World Guide also says

"This species is recognized by the black false-eye spot (which lacks an iridescent ring) and red-brown arm tips with regular rows of white spots. The dark eye spot is only expressed in some color patterns, however the ring of skin ridge surrounding the spot is still visible in most displays"

This isn't what I'm seeing in the pics posted - or at least, so it seems. I've seen that ring that your octo has somewhere, but I can't find any pic right now.

Nancy

how much bigger (will the octo get)?

are they very aggressive?

i hand fed him a little peice of shrimp today, he grabbed my finger as well, but being that i dont yet have a positive id on the little guy i was kinda weary of letting him climb on me hand and possibly beak me

rc, we posted at the same time - see my post above for the size of Cyanea and some comments.

Another name for cyanea is the day octopus.

Nancy

...
Another name for cyanea is the day octopus...

Which is one of the reasons that led Neptune and I to conclude it was O. cyanea.

Also. Here's (http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/imgdb/imgsrch3.cfm?ID=616) a good shot from Cephbase showing the false eye.

All about O. cyanea. (http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/spdb/speciesc.cfm?CephID=519)

I think that it could be a cyanea if there are eyespots are black. The bimacs will have the iridescent blue sheen to their spots while cyanea will have it them dark. Not recommended but try giving the octo a small shock to see if the colour of the spots displayed :roll: .

his spot is, well hard to see, and difficult to describe so i made a little drawing, not very scientific but i hope it will provide a general idea,

the spot is definitaly not black its more of a blue, maybe kinda purply

i guess it didnt atach, well try again

i guess it doesnt like .bmp files

well, here it is :bonk:

Colin, ya out there? Care to help?

:)

If the sizes of the rings are modifyed it looks just like Ollie. But, I would still like a picture cause you never know. Did you ask the store where it came from? That would help too. :)

Where do you live, rc? That might be a help, too.

It would be unusual to have a cyanea for sale, but it could happen.

You have a nice little octo - don't scare him!! We'll figure this out.

Nancy

Where do you live, rc?

i am in the U.S. east side of florida to be specific.

:) [/quote]

i cant say until i see a better pic of the eyespot... but i do know that if there is blue then it wont be cyanea..

does the octo have regular rows of white dots or red brown tips to the arms???

the lfs knows nothing about the octo (they actually dont seem to know much about marine life in general)

the arms tend to follow the same color and texture pattern as the body
the arms actually have a translucent purple edge most of the time

im very pleased with the fact that he seems to enjoy being out in the open, i have lots of opportunity to observe him 8)

I think he could be a bimac seeing the picture of the eyespot that you gave us :)

i just got done doing a little aquascaping and he was a little agitated so took the opportunity to take some pics i got one where you can see his spot a little better but still not a great shot of it (the first pic)

Hi rc,
I took one of your photos into Photoshop and cropped it. I made two changes: reduced the brightness and increased the contrast. Color was not touched. Maybe we can see it better now.

Nancy

And here's the other one. Still doesn't enable us to see the color well.

RC, you do see blue in this ring, right? but no chain?

Nancy

if there is no chain it could be filosus? It is naturally found around florida and caribbean...

http://www.tonmo.com/images/content/basicocto1.jpg that is a juv i had but online pics are not easy to tell...

But i do remember when i was trying to ID this one that the eyes looked too small for a bimac and that the eyespot was 'wrong' :)

here's a better pic


also check these http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/imgdb/imgsrch2.cfm

The filosus pics are certainly a better match than anything else we've found. The filosus adult size is body around 3 inches, arms around 12 inches - a smaller octopus.

There is a good pic of the ring in the Ceph Base collection, upper left pic in the group of 9.

Nancy

yes, and they have quite stubby arms which was also mentioned

it does look clearer, but the spot is actually blue/purple in the center and i have not been able to get a good picture that shows this

the only time it is easy to see is when he is not doing the spiney thing, he is a light color and he is streched out
nearly impossible to get this combination while he is still, if i try to get a pic while he is moving all i get is blurr :bugout:

Been working on this one :)

How about octopus maya???

try an image search on ceph base for that specie, there is 106 images available and the skin texture and eyes certainly look right.. gets bloody big though!!!!

body to 10" and arms toover 3 feet each!

i cant quit put my finger on why but this just doesnt look like my little guy, his skin is never smotth ,as if his little spiney things never really go away they simply shrivel into what looks like little hairs, all though the pic i attached from the ceph base is a behavior i have seen him do, only once, when i was messing with the rocks

well, since we have had quit a bit od deliberation about his eyespot, i think im going to name him spot, yup Spot it is id like to raise my glass to Spot :cheers:

:cheers: To Spot, which is a mighty fine name for this lad!!!!

:cheers: :cheers: to when you ID him :cheers: :cheers:

Yeah good job! :D

Though he is on the east coast of Florida and I am on the west coast of Florida, we have an abundance of cephs at our lfs here. They usually only get Caribbean Browns and Vulgaris. This one looks like neither. I wish I had more tanks (5 salt currently), they get 8"-10" octos every other week it seems. They put them in individual tupperware with holes in them an float them in a 220 gal where there are numerous sharks, rays, scorpionfish. I think thats why mine was so anxious to get home and settled in quick, it was better than the alternative at the lfs. They really should give them their own tank, partitioned or something. In Orlando, I went off on a lfs for keeping a baby 10" Banded Bamboo Shark in a 10 gal tall. Some of these places especially down here are fantastic with great selections and at cheap prices due to being so close to the ocean, but some of the Mom & Pop shops need to re-think the storage and display of these aquatic life. Good luck with your new Ceph.

i agree with most of that but i found that its the large chain stores that do a horrible job with their livestock, they hire mostly kids who know nothing about the animals nor care and when you ask something you get pretty stupid answers, they dont treat the livestock well cuz they figure it well either sell soon or die soon. there are 2 fish stores which are my favorite to go to, both for my reef and all other stuff, they are both small mom&pop shops but they treat each animal as a personal pet untill they are sold

Smagin, do you know what species the Caribbean Brown Octopus
is? Would it be briareus?

Thanks,

Nancy

Wow, that is a departure from here. Here in Tampa we have 2 absolutely great resources, the biggest fish store in the Southeast (MarineWarehouse) and TampaBay Saltwater (best rock ever). I have 5 dedicated fish-only stores in a five mile radius of my house. Most are good, and can find just about anything. There is even one that one stocks hard to find exotic stuff only. With the exception of 1-2 or two smaller ones, they are great, most very knowledgable, even the college age kids, but these are large stores, but not chains. One Mom & Pop does in fact does something you mentioned as far hoping they sell them before they die. This place (in Orlando) has probably 100 small 10 gal tanks, all with a whisper filter on each. No central filter system. The lights on each, including light dependant items sush as soft/hard corals and anemones are only 15W flourecents. Its shameful to see a 16" diameter blue electric carpet starving for light, stuffed in a 10 gal with poor filtration, and several other things like fish and inverts. I think because the stock is so readily available down here, proper care is sometimes an afterthought as a replacement can be had quickly. For the most part though, I see more respect for these animals than disrespect.

I am not sure exactly. I know mine was gathered in the Florida Keys. They typically get the same ones as mine, with an occasional different species showing up. I know mine was pegged by the group here as a Vulgaris or Caribbean Brown (common). Mine octo is pictured as my icon. When I inquired this last week about a species they had similar to mine they said it was a Caribbean Brown. On a side note, there is a beautiful Hawaiian Dragon Eel there for $648 that I have my eye on. They have the most incredible selection of eels I have seen anywhere. The Mexican Dragons are pretty cool too. I currently have a Zebra Moray and a Goldentail Moray from them. One of the few palces around here that always have great eels, octos, rays, sharks and other oddities. They even sell 1 1/2' huge parrotfish. Extremely knowledgable staff as well. Family owned and literally the entire family works there. I got my Octo there for $49.

The website for the place is http://www.coralreefaquariums.com/

They do not list their inventory on there though.

watch out for those dragon eels!!! i had a 180g predator tank and those dragon eels kill everything sometimes even the other eels, i just saw a few in a fish store, the guy was having the same prob. those things were killing everything in the tank

on another note, can that fantastic store you were talking about acquire cuttls? :heee:

I have a mex dragon and have for almost 2 years without any probles. He is kept with a niger, undulated, snapper, and lion. The only time he is ever aggressive is at feeding time. I have learned how to control that though but putting a small amount of ffod in a net, and letting him swim into ther net and eat his heart out. That way he does not compete with the others.

the dragon eel at the store ate 3 sharks, id be very upset :x

the only eel ive ever had that was worse was a black edge viper, it also has another name that i cant seem to remember or find anywhere, this thing would latch onto anything that moved, it ate a $180 lionfish
the only thing left was the head and the spines!!

well, back to the subject, has anybody had any luck in identifying what species of octo Spot is?

Looks like those are some mean eels, they'd probably shred an octo real quick. $180 for a lionfish?! Anyidea what species. Also what sharks did the eel eat?

im not sure what the species would be for that lion but its the one they normally sell as black volitan, it was over a foot long with bright vibrant colors, i was upset not only at the cost of that meal but more about the fact that it is not common to see a lionfish that big in captivity with bright colors like that, most that big are faded and look bleached

the eels were in a tank with leapard sharks

Hi rc,

Back to the question of which species of octopus you have....

Does your octo have two prominent white spots beneath its eyes?
If so, could you go to Ceph Base

http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/imgdb/imgdb.cfm

and choose Octopus bimaculatus and look at the photos.
If not, you might want to look at o. filosus and o.maya

If you click on the pics, they enlarge.

Nancy

if it wasnt for the eyespot i would put my money on O. Filosus, Spots eyespot is more of a blue spot and not a ring, but maybe this is how the spot appears on juveniles but other than that the pictures of O. filosus look exactely like my little guy even the incredible ability to blend with the rocks even when your looking right at him!

That's what I thought when I looked at all these pics, too. Maybe we'll just have to wait and see how big he grows!

Meanwhile, he's a fine member of our octo family.

Nancy