Bali Octopus?

devi

Blue Ring
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Jun 24, 2009
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I've been offered another octopus, and I wanted your ideas what it might be. Since the photos are a bit dodgy I'll show first then describe.


It's pretty dark in both pictures, but after I stopped pointing a camera at the poor thing it went a very pale peach type colour. The big distinguishing factor was that it had two brown target shapes on either side of it's mantel which I think you can spot in the second photo at least.
Now I thought these feature would suggest O.Briareus, but it was caught in Bali, specifically Abang, which would rule that out wouldn't it?
Any ideas would be great.
 

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Seems we're inconclusive on this... Can we qualify our confidence that this is indeed O. cyanea or Adopus aculeatus for that matter??

Devi, any additional pics to share?
 
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It would be helpful to know the size. I have seen the brown with white circle pattern that is so common to Cyanea be displayed on at least two other animals and would guess Roy's simple answer is more that it could be any number of octo critters from your information, Cyanea being a likely candidate because of the eyespots. That being said and if it is quite small look at the little guy I kept recently to see if it is close in size and looks (there are some small shells that will give a bit of a reference in his acclimation pictures. I never got any really clear photos but there are several looks scattered through the fairly short thread). I never did get an ID (hence the name Espy = SP) but we have seen a number that are likely this animal. Once fully tank acclimated (generally about 2 weeks), Espy was mostly nocturnal or crepuscular at best (Cyanea is diurnal but if this is a very young animal, it may hide for a month or two if it follows the behavior of other young ones of other species I have kept). If you keep it two weeks and it seems to almost double in size, then you are quite likely back to Cyanea (I know it gets quite large and needs roaming room but am unsure of best tank size. There is a thread that discusses this and we can look for it if you can confirm the eyespots) but I'll through in my guess as one like Espy (perhaps more hope than guess if you don't have a really large tank). Looking as best I can at the photo, I don't see ocelli but I do see two white circles that appear to be midway down the mantle. Are these the markings you are calling eyespots or were there markings below athe eyses on the webbing? If it is the markings on the mantle, I do wish someone would tell me what they are :biggrin2: I have asked several times and all octos show them so they relate to something common, likely biological and are not identifying markings.

You ARE correct that it is not O. briareus. They do turn peach but have no ocelli, are only known to be from the Caribbean and none I have kept ever approached that deep dark chocolate color.
 
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The big distinguishing factor was that it had two brown target shapes on either side of it's mantel which I think you can spot in the second photo at least.

These target shape appear to be above the octopuses eye, on top of the mantle in the picture, exactly as i have seen Aculeatus. they dont seem to bet below the eye like you would see on a bimac, hummelimcki, or cyanea. Or I'm looking at it wrong.

I still says it aculeatus. it just looks exactly exactly exactly like all the aculeatus I've kept. I've been looking at cyanea pics all morning and I dont see anything that looks even close to this color or pattern.
 
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I'm not 100% sure where the eye spots were now, but they did look like the ones on the cyanea. I really don't think it was the same as Espy, since my last octo Pop looked very much like him and this one looked quite different, this one was also fairly large, it was in a large sweet jar and stretched from top to bottom fairly easily. However, tbh I'm not good at ID really so it could be. I do know the spots were there most of the time as the shop were selling him as a brown ringed octopus. They seem to make up these names based on what they can see.
Unfortunately I can't get any photos since a guy from London came and got him before I went back. Hopefully this guy knows what he's doing, and with any luck he may show up here at some point!
I'll keep saving for a bigger tank so I can take anything.
 
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If the animal was longer than about 8" mantle to arm tip, it would not be one like Espy so we strike my guess. I do hope the keeper shows up to be able to follow it.

If I had a large enough tank, Cyanea would be an animal I would love to keep (after seeing a fully grown GPO last weekend, I have decided they are far too large for even dreaming :biggrin2:).
 
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which octo and which keeper are you talkin about D? I'm confused

CaptFish, I stay that way so welcome to the club :sagrin:

I was striking my guess from Devi's original post and half hoping it is cyanea (and half worrying that it won't have a large enough tank if it is). It would be nice to have a journal on one, especially a young one IF the new keeper is able to care for it. I have thought for a long time that cyanea would be a much better animal for public aquariums (vs a GPO) but we have never journaled cyanea's tank behavior so I could easily be way off (well not way off, the GPO's are not given enough space and I came away from the last two very sad). I have read cyanea travel around a good bit though and may need more room than I assume.
 
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