[Octopus]: DaVinci - O. hummelincki

I released it and boy did it take off!! Couldn't find it for awhile, but I actually think it's sitting in the back corner watching us. Boy does it look like a little rock, but I swear there wasn't a rock there earlier!! Am posting one more pic that seems to be in better focus. We will see!
 
Here's the pic hopefullly.
 

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Geez, Im gonna win an award for most posts on my own site in one day! LOL! We are all cracking up here right now tho, because the "rock" in the corner just moved and caught us all off guard!! I will say that I have all lights off and a blanket partially covering tank right now to ease it's adjustment. This is the first time I have had one that we could actually see not hiding in the liverock. Oh gosh, I hope it's not sick!!! It looked great in the bad though!!
 
OK!,
FIRST, you have an Octopus hummelincki (look back a post #10 where I gave you a link to another that came from AquaCon and I mentioned that you would be lucky if this is what shows up). There are several telling features that your photos (we MUST work on your upload approach in October :wink:) provide. The BIGGEST telling photo is the last one. Look closely just under the eye and you will see a little "target". This eyespot (ocellus, ocelli for the pair). Both the Caribbean hummelincki and the Pacific bimacs (bimaculoides and bimaculatus) have a similiarly colored set of rings. Given that we know it is from the Caribbean (very possibly Haiti) O. hummelincki (priorly known as O. filosus, common bumblebee octopus) will be the match. For more verification, look at the rings around the sucker edges in post #14, You can see that they are a blue/purple (the bimac's sucker rings, when they show color will be orange). This is a diurnal species and usually does not disappoint (we have seen a few bimacs as well a hummelincki that were not day active but not many).

One odd thing about this species is their size range. They have even been classified (but then changed) as a dwarf species and many we see are only slightly larger than an O. mercatoris. However, some reach a mantle size equal to or larger than O. briareus (arms will be much shorter). Age is nearly impossible to gauge. There is an indent near the back of the mantle that I have noted while raising O. briareus. I call it the adult dent but have no idea what it is or why it forms. With O. briareus, it seems to signify coming of age (sexual maturity). DaVinci shows this dent so I am guessing teenager to full adult on that privately held observation :wink:.

Octavia was my last octo of this species. You can see other journals by looking for the species and clicking on the names shown in the lists of our octopuses (stickied at the top of this subforum). If DaVinci is male, you will have a great time keeping it. Unfortuantely, if it is female, she is likely to lay eggs soon and they are not viable to raise. For reasons unknown (but my guess is being out more hunting food as they prepare for brooding) females of this species often lay eggs shortly after being introduced to a tank. Octavia never laid eggs and makes me wonder if she was a he and that I missed the hectocotylus (less obvious in this species than in most others but still identifiable). An alternate thought is that she tried to lay infertile eggs at the time of her major inking event but the eggs did not properly form (I saw nothing in the tank to suggest this so I am trying to second guess what happened). A third alternative would be that this species does not lay infertile eggs. A long shot, at best.
 
This is exciting! Even if it's a she and only lives a short time, that's fine with me! I am excited to have another species to learn about! I did read the info in the links from earlier posts. Thanks! Will keep reading!

So, some interesting info on acquacon. First, DaVinci did come well packed and in excellent health, as far as I could tell. He was shipped overnight and I had to sign for him. I called the # on the tag though to let them know that I had seen the UPS guy flip the box and mishandle it! He didn't know we were watching him and box was clearly labeled! Agh!

Since I was on phone with someone, I mentioned that I had received good service, but had heard otherwise about the past from them. His comment was that he was gone for quite awhile due to an accident back around 08 and that there were some problems then. I didn't really go any further with it, but that's what I found out.

I did ask more about the octopuses they get in. He said he orders the warm water atlantic ones and asks to get them small. He also said that once in awhile he will order the pigmy ones. He said he doesn't like the ones from farther away because they're not as pretty. I have NO idea as to the accuracy of any of this but that's what the guy said!! I asked and he did say he has "more" of "these" in the store right now. So maybe more hummelincki, or maybe not. At this point, I would order from them again, but I reserve the right to change my mind at any time!! LOL
 
WOW you are so lucky. I want a hummelincki Just because they are not so nocternal. I will be fallowing this close and please lots of pics and vids. I hope its a male and lives a long time. Now I know how to identify these guys. I love learning about new octos. I guess I wont be getting one of these unless I order it. I dont think its local in the gulf. Congrates
 
I don't think its local in the gulf.
Nix on that. They ARE native to South (way south, in the Keys) FL but more common in still warmer water (Haiti being the prime source we see). Octavia was caught in the Keys. However, until this year, we have not seen many/any since the very bad cold snap several years ago. I am hoping this is a sign of change. We had not seen the dwarfs for about the same period and they are showing up fairly regularly (or as "regularly" as octopuses show up) as different pet stores around the country. Keep in mind that the vendors can't identify them. Sometimes you can request a picture or inquire when the sales staff is able to view the tanks but this is very rare.
 
Wow, what a day!! We saw more octopus activity today than we ever really did with Ziggy and Orange put together!! We were all busy and suddenly one of my Assistant Teachers calls me over to the tank. It turns out that DaVinci is sitting on the side of a rock just hanging out watching everything! (Let's call him a "he" for now, maybe it will bring good luck!) He was not right on the front of the rock, but not too far back on the side of it, just inside a larger cave I'd made. We'd go check on him and he seemed to be content just sitting there.

Then when I went to check on him he was eating a live female fiddler crab that I had put in the tank for Orange. (There are now 3 left.) I was planning to take them out because I thought they were too big and might damage him. Yea, right!!! He made quite a meal of it. The shore shrimp started hanging around and he snagged a couple of those right in front of all of us! Boy is he fast! After a nice meal he finally dropped what was left and sat back in his spot for a bit. Eventually he kind of just backed up and disappeared!

That was it for today. I haven't seen him since. I have to say though, that it was just amazing watching him snag the shore shrimp! I am feeling very, very lucky tonight! Hopefully tomorrow will offer more of the same!!
 
Oh yea, it was really something! Well worth the wait! Haven't seen him today though. He ate quite a lot yesterday, so maybe he's not hungry today!! By the way, read about seahorse on "Ds" thread! I love them too! Don't have any right now, but they are so cool! You are really lucky that you're going to get to put one of your octo tanks in your bedroom!! I tried and tried to talk Kevin into letting me have a tank in our bedroom because I figured every time I wake up in the middle of the night I'd have something to watch!! LOL He has trouble with noise though so it was a "no". :sad:
 
OK... so this morning I found DaVinci sitting in the very barnicle hole looking out at me! He's now been there for 6 hours! He's moved around a bit, but not left the hole. He's just sitting there watching us with his eye poking up! Too funny. All the kids got to see him too! :smile: I took a pic.....
 

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O. hummelincki is a medium sized animal, not a dwarf (except some can only slighly larger than a merc and others can have the mantle size of a small O. briareus :roll:). IME, MOST octos won't use the barnacles and my theory is the lack of a second "doorway". However, Carol had one (O. briareus if I remember right) that denned in a cluster and now DaVinci. It will be curious to see how long he chooses to den there. Hummelinckis don't change dens often but it takes a good month before they fully acclimate and nothing in the first two weeks should be considered normal (except Kims zip files :sagrin:).
 

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