A. aculeatus What species do I have?

Blitz99

Cuttlefish
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Aug 21, 2006
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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?
 

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

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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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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).
 
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?
 
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... :roll: It lived of the pods in the tank for those few months. I was :read: her book the other night so this was fresh in my mind. :sly: Point being they don't necessarily need a lot of food.
 

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