A. aculeatus What species do I have?

**Blitz99** · Mar 01, '12, 10:51pm

NEW PICTURES 3 posts down.

picked him up yesterday, I havent kept one in 15 years or so but have had 5 so far.

This one is different than the others i have had. He sends pulses of color change, like he's flashing where as others i've had changed colors and textures quickly but not in waves. Anyway, can you help get an ID for me?

**CaptFish** · Mar 02, '12, 12:27am

to your new friend and welcome back to you!

the pulsing color change is called "passing cloud" IMO its one of the coolest things octos and cuttles do. He looks a lot like an Adopus Aculeatus for the Indonesia. Do you know where it was caught? a few more pics would help with a more positive ID.

**DWhatley** · Mar 02, '12, 4:06am

back!

I am guessing the same as Capt Fish based on coloration and the star around the eye. Origination and Arm to mantle ratio would help a lot to confirm or deny that guess. Horns above the eyes when they are peeking up over the LR is also a common trademark for aculeatus.

If you are going to journal him/her

, I would like to move the post to our journals. Let me know if that is OK.

**Blitz99** · Mar 02, '12, 8:00pm

what does journaling him entail?

I was told he was carribean, but nobody knows really... LFS was guessing.

**Blitz99** · Mar 02, '12, 10:51pm

new pictures...

He/She did this odd routine this afternoon.... As he was hanging out he seemed to run his tentacles in waves all over his body, it lasted about 5 seconds and was unbelievably cool.

**Cuddlycuttlefsh** · Mar 03, '12, 11:52am

Amazing animal, grateful for the usage of a much better quality camera (the first picture even made it onto my desktop background). I'm almost positive now that you have an aculeatus though she (have I tackled this correctly?) seems to be adult the first two pictures of the octopus you posted. A estimation on the size of the octopus would help me out on how far she's gotten in her lifespan. Just for fun, maybe you should put some pebbles in the aquaria (like about 5 mL in diameter) and see if your octo will manipulate his den with them.

**Blitz99** · Mar 03, '12, 12:29pm

i will make some rubble today from some dried rock i have.

I would say the arms are 4" in length and her mantle is 1"... she seems smaller than others I have kept, but since it's been so long, who knows what they were.

I do hope she's not too far into her lifespan, but also knew the risk going into it. Short lived creatures of course.

**Cuddlycuttlefsh** · Mar 03, '12, 8:39pm

She's not too far in her life span, aculeatus tend to mature around twice the measurements you described.
I'm very glad that she has a whole life ahead.

**Blitz99** · Mar 03, '12, 10:44pm

GREAT TO HEAR!!! only problem is I havent gotten her to eat (what i want)... i did see her cleaning out a snail shell and I have a few more in there... but silversides and krill arent on the menu it seems... nor is a dottyback that was uncatchable... i threw in 2 damsels just in case.... should i grab some other crustacians for her?

**Blitz99** · Mar 03, '12, 11:01pm

Also, what are you basing your gender guess on? and, where do i get quality info about this species? I'm only finding mating and walking information on them.

**cuttlegirl** · Mar 03, '12, 11:07pm

Welcome,

I would get those damsels out of there... they may intimidate the octopus. Have you tried shrimp? Have you tried live food? What about hermit crabs?

**Blitz99** · Mar 04, '12, 5:47pm

she is eating hermits and snails... so i guess it's better than not eating. just hoping she catches the damsels before I have to.

I switched out my make shift screen top with duct tape to a nice screened in and velcrod down enclosure. Seems secure and still gives me an open top for oxygen exchange.... and, the screen cuts down on the splash to the lights so hopefully that makes the coral happy.

**DWhatley** · Mar 05, '12, 11:15pm

I would like to emphasize CG's post. Damsels are a bad idea (as are most fish). They tend to be territorial and aggressive and may pick on the octo, keeping her from eating and/or causing damage.

Fiddler crabs are always a good option for live. In addition to the table shrimp CG mentioned, we have found that the larger animals at least, really like blue crab claws (we scrounge the claws from the live bins at our international markets). I've never had much luck with krill but it may be the kind I can find here as others have better success. Silver sides or other fish are not an appropriate regular diet and they seem only to eat the soft parts (stomach area) even in the wild. This may be because even small bones may not pass successfully through their esophogus. Freshly killed shore or ghost shrimp provide a good offering but the shore shrimp are often too fast to catch and the ghost shrimp can't be left in the aquarium (they are freshwater). We feed our tanks Cyclop-eeze daily (frozen - NOT dried) and the octos all show heavy evidence of eating it throughout their lives (as evidenced by the color of their waste and a video I have of a mercatoris eating it from a pipette).

**Blitz99** · Mar 08, '12, 11:04pm

Damsels are gone.... How do they get by on eating Cyclopeeze?

Also, She's been hiding out in the same spot for a few days now. She's eating hermit crabs and leaving the shells in her little den area, but she hasn't come out in days. Is this normal?

**iAlex** · Mar 09, '12, 12:08am

Nancy had a baby octo live in a tank without feeding it (she didn't know it was there) for months until he decided to let her know he was in there...

It lived of the pods in the tank for those few months. I was

her book the other night so this was fresh in my mind.

Point being they don't necessarily need a lot of food.

**DWhatley** · Mar 09, '12, 3:46am

I did not mean to feed only Cyclop-eze but indeed that his all Trapper ate after her brood and lived an additional 12 weeks (not normal and the only one I have had to do that but I remember on other O. mercatoris living close to that long after brooding). The Cyclop-eze may help get it to start eating and appears to be a high quality food. When you offer pieces of food, make it about the size of the eye. We have seen the smaller and older animals reject food that is too large but accept it if broken into smaller offerings.

Since she is eating and leaving shells, I don't think she is brooding. This could be a prebrood behavior though. We have noticed that most prebrood females will accept almost anything just before denning up but I don't know that that is universal.

iAlex, Nancy also had stocked the tank with tons of pods but it also died at about 4 months. Mine are not extremely long lived but if they make it to 2 weeks they survive until senescence feeding them daily with a 1 day a week fast. Something I have never quite determined with Roy's and Joe_Ceph's postings about feeding every 2 or three days is quantity of food on the days they feed. I believe Roy feeds a couple of crabs where I feed only one so the quantity may be close to the same. My animals are HUNGRY daily (LittleBit would have eaten more than what was offered I think). I find it hard to believe that they over eat. Ours (with the exception of LittleBit) push food away once they are satisfied and start eating less when they stop the exponential growth phase. I would attribute my refusal to "starve" my octos to being female but Neal is always overfeeding the tanks

(much to my maintenance chagrin).

**iAlex** · Mar 09, '12, 11:10pm

Originally Posted by DWhatley

iAlex, ...

You're so formal... Feel free to drop the 'i' every once in awhile.

**DWhatley** · Mar 09, '12, 11:27pm

Alex, in most cases I use the TONMO chosen name rather than the familiar since not everyone wants their official name used(of course I have to look up the spelling for Neogonodactylus EVERY time I use it so I often resort to Roy but he is staff and publicly exposes his name

)

**iAlex** · Mar 10, '12, 12:45am

Oh, I forgot I don't want my name to get out on this forum...

**Blitz99** · Mar 10, '12, 10:33pm

I'm happy to say it was out and about today watching us make dinner.... On the rocks for most of the day and then on the glass for a good 2 hours. Most activity since the first 2 days. Could be the damsels gone so its more comfortable?