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Buying an octopus. Which source is better?

Keep in mind that I am a hobbyist so my species IDing is OJT, not schooled and limited to what I have regular exposure to examine (and usually have kept).

The eye, mantle and arm proportions suggest a dwarf of some species (particularly eye to mantle). The charcoal gray color is altogether new to me for any species and I wonder if it is some kind of artifact of the camera or lighting (but everything else looks correctly colored). If you Google search Octopus mercatoris and look at the photos (then ignore anything that is not red because all manner of octopuses will show up) you will see the similarities in the eyes (including what appear to be diagnostic tabs under the eye), ratios and patterning and the extreme in color difference.

Can you ask them where these were collected?
 
That makes more sense. Let me do some looking in my book. It is not typical of the Abdopus complex (primarily aculeatus) or the Macropus complex (exact species unknown but the same animal often shows up) so it is something else. I still believe it is a dwarf but am curious as to what looks like a merc but is not :biggrin2:.

Kara and Philipp had a live rock hitch hiker last week but I believe someone on their waiting list grabbed it as they did not send me a photo to let me post it. Philipp did not identify the species but most of their hitch hikers have been O. briareus.
 
I can't find anything that I would feel is close but I did request the opinion of another who has spent a lot of time looking at the Indonesian animals. Hopefully she will have a chance to take a peek at the pictures and has an idea.
 
Yeah, the reason I'm interested on an O.B is that I would like someone that is close to javelins as young as is healthy, and then raise it and watch it grow, while I like e dwarf, I'm not keen to have a dwarf at the current time alone in a very very large tank, my octo tank has been up n running for a long time, n is basically running on a Skelton clean up crew and a few minnows, to keep the tank healthy and cyling, refugium, I built myself and is taking care of business, proper seals are in place, and flow is great, so very excited and its been almost a year since everything has been put in place...
 
I have had a lot of orders with them, there sponges arrive dead, pin cushions, they were unwilling to make any refund or guarantee....n they do not have the all important 15 day guarantee on octopus or even the 5 hr, refund...I think they try but the shipping n knowledge is not good...in my experiences
 
This is definitely a bit of a puzzler. If I had only seen the top pics, I would have guessed that it's a pygmy near senescence, at the end of its life, but the most recent pic shows it to be in fairly good shape. I am stumped by the ID- not exactly sure what this is! Since the ID is not certain, it's not a good idea to handle it with bare hands. Who knows what's in the venom.
 
Yeah tell that to the good people at saltwater.com, but thanks for all the help I canceled the order I'm in talks with Tom, and others trying to find just a simple O.B baby or juvenile, in the meantime I will keep beautifying my tank, and keeping the skeletal crew fed, and tank cycling...all set for a me arrival can't wait....to get n octopus...
 
I can't blame the suppliers much for not knowing species. We have a hard time identifying some of them and we look at a lot more than they do. Note I called in the big guns on this one :wink: and was self pleased that Muctopus has the same impressions I did. I think the pictures are not all of the same animal but a series taken of what arrived from their supplier.

In truth, keepers are fortunate that a few vendors will accept and ship octopuses at all. Housing them is difficult, they are short lived, they are a delicate shipping item and often full shipping cost is not charged (I KNOW this to be the case with KPAquatics). If the animal dies, they lose money even though shipping costs are not covered in most of the warranties (Live Aquaria is the exception). Any vendor that will (and in many cases CAN) tell you the area of origination is a step up. Willingness to send photos is a major effort and should be viewed as exceptional service. You are entering a very esoteric and limited knowledge arena as an octopus keeper and you need to keep this in mind when you search for your animals.
 
Any help out there just spoke to live aquaria they have n Indonesian octopus listed medium, person I spoke to said 2-3 inches....I'm not sure of species they will call the warehouse, I'm interested, but I have to be sure this is not a dwarf or Pygmy...
 

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