I want to buy a Common Atlantic Octopus (Octopus vulgaris)

**Billy the Kid** · Sep 13, '04, 6:04pm

Hi all,

I had one for 5 months or so. He was doing great until I bought him frozen shrimp from a bait shop (dumb mistake) and two days later he, and the other fish that ate it, died. I'm thinking the shrimp was bad. Lesson learned at a high price. I miss that little guy. I never knew they had such personalities.

Sorry to bore you with all that. I'm REALLY interested in buying another of the same species. I came across this one from a diver.

Can someone PLEASE help me. The only reason I even set up a salt water tank was for him and now it's empty.

Hope to hear from someone.

Thanks,
Billy

**tjohnson** · Sep 13, '04, 8:01pm

There are quite a few places on the internet that you can mail-order vulgarus from. Unless you reallllly have your mind set on a OV, I would suggest a bimac, just for the fact that you can get one captive bred, so it will be about 2 months old so you will be able to keep it for a much longer time. Up to you www.octopets.com has the bimacs.

**Cephkid** · Sep 13, '04, 8:54pm

Bimacs have more personality, IMO.

**Nancy** · Sep 13, '04, 9:11pm

Hi and welcome to TONMO.com! Nice octopus you had.

O.vulgaris has plenty of personality. If you have a large enough tank to accomodate it when it grows to adult size, then this would be a possiblility for you. There are places that sell them online. Check out the impact of buying one this time of year - you might get a younger one in late spring.

The advantage of the bimac is that it can live in a 50 gallon tank and is captive bread. It is also available as most of the year. And it's a fun octopus to keep, too.

It concerns me that this is the second report of bad shrimp recently.

I always went to the best fish market in town to buy my shrimp for octo food and knew exactly how the shrimp was caught,processed and shipped to the store. It looks like we'll all have to take this route more often

Nancy

**Billy the Kid** · Sep 14, '04, 4:05pm

That was a great site....thanks again all of you. I'll be reading info
on this site as long as I have my octo.....I never knew there were
so many people into them.

Later

**tjohnson** · Sep 14, '04, 5:28pm

So.... What Species are you getting? :P

**Billy the Kid** · Sep 14, '04, 6:04pm

I think I'm sticking with the vulgaris....I had a great experience with him...he really did amaze me.

Short story...

I had bought two fish and had them floating in bags....he came from under the rock , extended his arm and grabbed a bag and tried to bring it down....I walked over and poked him with a long tube yelling "no...bad boy"...like it was a dog or something...lol....he crawled back into his rock slowly......

as I sat on my bed watching TV I look over at my tank and he's got two arms reaching out for the bags and his eyes barely over the rock looking at me.....the moment he saw me looking he ducked.....well....this went on about five times before I realized how frikken smart these things are.....

He knew it was wrong and tried to defy me like a little kid....lol...cool sh*t..

**Colin** · Sep 15, '04, 2:37am

Billy

Where did the picture you attached on the first message come from.. is it yours ?

**Billy the Kid** · Sep 15, '04, 9:40am

No Colin...I got that from a website. But mine looked just like that.

**cthulhu77** · Sep 15, '04, 9:55am

Nance pegged it...you would have to wait until next spring for anything reasonable...
Bimacs are awfully neat animals...and every bit as quirky. besides, the whole captive-bred thing appeals to a lot of people.
greg

**Colin** · Sep 16, '04, 3:31am

Originally Posted by Billy the Kid

No Colin...I got that from a website. But mine looked just like that.

If your octo looked just like that then it wasn't vulgaris but Octopus briareus, that's why I aksed :)

**Billy the Kid** · Sep 16, '04, 12:12pm

Colin,

I'm pretty sure it was the vulgaris aka Common Atlantic Octopus

Check this link:
http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/sh...&recnum=SC0100

Though I can see from looking on the Internet that they are very similar …

**Colin** · Sep 17, '04, 2:22am

Hi Billy,

The website is wrong on a couple of matters.

The size for vulgaris is a bit on the big side.
The range for vulgaris is much larger than suggested and
The picture is deffinetly briareus and not vulgaris.... but they do actually mention Briar's octopus (briareus) later on in the text, must have got mixed up?

LOL, yes i am just bit picking!!!

**exotics** · Oct 17, '04, 8:01pm

So.... any online source for O vulgaris?

I've found 4 sites that offer octopus... ALL of them are the most commonly aquacultured O bimac....
which is a great choice... except for someone that wants their second, separate octopus that's not the same species as the other.

So.... any online source for O vulgaris?

**cthulhu77** · Oct 17, '04, 8:16pm

seems to me that this is the wrong time of year...one or two might pop up, but I think you are better off waiting until april, or may to really look for one. You might want to contact a local store and see if they can ask their supplier to keep an eye out for one...best of luck!
greg

**exotics** · Oct 17, '04, 9:21pm

Hi there Greg

What about O briar? Any source for that species? The more I search, only the more O bimac found

**cthulhu77** · Oct 17, '04, 10:42pm

You are actually hitting a subject that is largely unaddressed by the fishpet industry...most of the stores and suppliers are not interested in researching the species they are carrying, because it does not make up much of their cash base...if you are lucky enough to find another cephophile working in the wholesale industry, you might be able to eventually find one, but it is more likely to be a hit and miss thing...perhaps with time and support, places like Octopets will breed other species, and be able to fill that gap.

**joel_ang** · Oct 18, '04, 3:41am

When ordering a vulgaris, theres a large chance that you're going to get another species, maybe even a dwarf octo labeled as a baby vulgaris. They're not easy to identify and get mixed up with other species.

Briareus are also wild caught but they have more distinctive features so identifying one is easier. However, as Greg mentioned, people who catch them do't really bother to ID them and will label them as "common octopus"...etc. You might get lucky though and find them in a LFS.

**a rabid squid** · Oct 19, '04, 12:50pm

i can get you one off a monterey drag boat they get them all the time but im not completely sure about the species maybe ill take a pic and ask your opinion because we sometimes get giant pacific octos

**wacky** · Nov 12, '04, 6:28pm

a site were you can mail order them from is carribeancreatures.com they also have a large supplyof other inverts and different species of octos if you change your mind

(my army) buhahahaha lol