Bacon (O. Hummelincki)

Shkuey

Blue Ring
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Feb 2, 2009
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I got my second Octopus in the mail today, a "Caribbean Reef Octopus" from SaltWaterFish.com

Named him Bacon, for no real reason.

These have been identified from this supplier previously as O. Hummelincki but I'm not sure I can identify it definitively. I thought the species had obvious eye spots, which this one has not shown me, though everything else about it indicates this is still the case.

The second arm on the right is fairly recently severed just below the webbing. There is maybe a couple millimeters of whitish stringy regrowth but not much at all. Third arm on the right is coiled at all times with a noticeable ridge running the length of it, which means he is male.

Night and day personality difference between this guy and my first octopus (Grendel, Aculeatus). He is absolutely unafraid of me and seems oblivious to my presence. He was not in the tank for more than a minute before he began exploring and he is still doing so now (about 7 hours later). He doesn't move like the aculeatus either. Grendel moved slowly and deliberately and then pounced like lightning. This guy appears more clumbsy? He floats around without definitive direction, often changing paths. I've watched him climb the tank wall halfway and fall down about ten times in a row. He refused shrimp on a stick and waltzed right over a number of snails and hermits without interest.

One photo during acclimation:
 

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Thats funny i ordered a octo from them on saturday just to make sure no one would take it and i got an email from them on monday saying that they dont have one to complete my order. You must of swooped it from me. lol:roflmao:

:welcome: new octo with no name. About how big is his mantle? Also got any more pics?
 
There seem to be a quantity of CRO's :cool2: showing up, all having some properties of a hummelincki/filosus and possibly coming in from Hati (per Neogonodactylus). I have been trying to do some research on a clear description of the eyespot and sizing but am only finding a vague information (for free anyway). Neogonodactylus posted a mating pair of octos fitting some of the descriptions that the lab recently acquired but the eyespots have rarely been seen. With all of mine, the eyespots have been very clear and often displayed. In other words, I have more questions than answers from what I could find in the internet.

I have noticed that hummelincki seem to have difficulty navigating on acrylic (and look very clumsy at first) but Maya has not had this problem with the glass tank.
 
They are SUPPOSED to be but you will see the name misused and abused just like brown octopus, bali octopus or often vulgaris. Labeled on an octo for sale the term can be assumed to mean an octopus that came from the Caribbean and generally means the seller has no idea what kind it is except perhaps the body of water of its original home (maybe).
 
I'm jealous. Your octopus sounds like it is quite interesting to watch. My octopus has only been on the glass twice in the week I've owned it, and one of those times was directly after acclimation. I guess every octopus has its own personality.....
 
It may dissappear for maybe 2 weeks (or more) while it is learning to trust its new environment. After tank life acclimation, the interesting learning (the human side :wink:) begins.
 
Definitely a green color like an O. briareus but I see what looks like a very faint blue eyespot with a very faint orange circle around it, right under its eye. Zoom in.
 
The mantle is 1.5-2inches and the arms are perhaps 6 inches extended. I certainly have no trouble at all getting a look at him, he makes no effort to hide. He has not, as far as I can tell, taken a den. He slept stuck to the glass last night. The tank is glass, not acrylic, so that shouldn't the cause of his clumbsyness (which he demonstrates climbing on rocks as well...) He swims backwards, at least in relation to the way the aculeatus did. Eyes in the back with the head in front of him, no idea if thats normal and Grendel swam backwards?

I see the faint spots you're referring to in the picture but I have not seen any indication of them in the tank and he has shown me a dozen different color variations. The only consistent color he has is purple suckers on his arms, his body has been black, brown, green, white, and numerous combinations of them in spots and stripes. For a few minutes last night he looked like a disco ball, changing color so quickly it looked like somebody was playing with a light switch. The most interesting thing he did, and I took a picture that is way too fuzzy (I still cannot take good pictures through my tank glass), was turn black and white with a bumpy/spiney texture, stuck his arms on the glass and pulled his body as long and narrow as he could perpendicular to the glass. He stayed that way for a couple minutes, then went back to his "normal" erratic behavior. He is black and white stripped (like a zebra) with a rigid skin texture while sleeping, I don't know if that means it is his general appearance or something he does just while sleeping.
 
Zooming all the way in the way AM suggested really does make him look very hummelincki, including the crescent pupil shape and I see the ring AM mentions. How very strange that you do not see the eyespot (Neogonodactylus has said the same about the ones mating in his latest TOMNMO photo (If you have not looked at the photos Neogonodactylus posts, take some time to review them in the photo gallery - great stuff - both in tank and in the wild). If you look at the pictures of any of mine (Serendipity being the only exception) the eyespot is always very clear and we rarely don't see it on the live animal.
 
He's calmed down quite a bit in both behavior and color scheme. He has settled, for the most part, on being light green. The spot is visible, though it is very very faint. I was under the impression it would be much more obvious on this species. He also found his aquarium legs, so to speak, and now moves around without appearing clumsy. He is still refusing frozen shrimp on a stick (live fiddlers arrive Friday), though he could be eating hermits/snails/emerald crabs if he wanted to. He is totally ambivalent to my presence; he let me touch him and sort of pushed my fingers away in very blasé fashion.
 
Shkuey;144135 said:
I see the faint spots you're referring to in the picture but I have not seen any indication of them in the tank and he has shown me a dozen different color variations. The only consistent color he has is purple suckers on his arms, his body has been black, brown, green, white, and numerous combinations of them in spots and stripes.

That alone is enough to completely disregard O. briareus "The Caribbean Reef Octopus" as a possibility. They are very limited as to color and texture changes. Red and white or blue/green is pretty much all they have to offer in color, and even more limited in texture changes. I'm sure you've figured this out, but for the record... yeah. If your O. briareus turns black and white or anything other than shiney blue/green with orange/red mottling... it ain't no Caribbean Reef Octopus.:old:
 

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