First Octo, Help me ID?

[jelliott91]

This is a pic of my first Octo, just got him today, they called him a caribbean pygmy at the fish store. Not really sure of the exact species so if someone could help it'd be greatly appreciated.

 

[CaptFish]

to TONMO

Kinda looks like a young briareus, but I'd like to see some more pics before I give a more firm answer. From that pic it could be a few different species. Do you know where the octo came from? The Caribbean? Indonesia? that helps alot in the ID.

 

[DWhatley]

More pics please. I would say it is NOT a Caribbean pigmy (usually Octopus mercatoris) There is another Caribbean dwarf (Octopus joubini) and that is a slight possibility but the white with touch of peach, what appear to be long arms, a lot of webbing and thick front arms go a long way toward with CaptFish's initial ID. More photos, approximate mantle and arm size (particularly the ratio of mantle to arms) and activity time of day would be helpful. Look for it to show green fluorescence (like a covering of green reflective spots), exteme webbing, dark mantle with white arms and mottled peach all over (not all at the same time to help confirm.

To view confirmed briareus, look at the List of Our Octopuses 20xx near the top of the Octopus Care forum. The animals our members have journaled will be listed with a link to the threads and photos.

 

[jelliott91]

Ok so they said he was from the caribbean, but i'm not sure, and hes yet to make his way into any of the rocks or pvc piping for shelter. I'm worried that this is a sign of stress...Though initally he's changed from being translucent to a darkish red from the tip of his tentacles to about 1 inch up. But they classified it as a pygmy at the store? Not sure, since they seemed to know very little. Here's a few more pics. Sorry that theyre so dark, but theyre taken with my iphone and i reluctant to turn on any lights because of how stressed he seems?

 

[jelliott91]

He's from the caribbean they said. Sorry i tried to post these pics last night, dont know what happened? but anyways, he was acting quite stressed and refused to den up, I eventually just put an all black coffee mug next to him to see if he'd at least move over to there and hide. After about another 2 hours he eventually slid down the glass, layed down on the sand with his mantle down and beak up, used all his tentacles to cover himself, and then passed away....Very sad...I spoke with the fish store because he was missing a tentacle upon arrival and they promised me another one free of charge... sad day though..Here are some more pics i got.

 

[DWhatley]

This was not a dwarf species. It is the largest species we commonly keep and needs a 60+ gallon tank but it is from the Caribbean. The top left picture show the webbing and if you had a little light you would have noticed that those dots were green. You may have noticed the green when you removed it from the tank.

Your diagnosis on stress was typical and we often see this species not leave the wall or container for several hours on release. Noramly they recover but I have lost 3 young ones in the last year. One died the day of arrival and the other two in less than two weeks and I cannot explain why. The last one was eating well and growing so I am frustrated and baffled.

As always when trouble brews, check your water parms. I prefer about 3 hours of acclimation but the most important part is to reduces stress and match your holding water to the tank water. Low light level acclimation helps with stress somewhat but the initial photo does not look like a healthy animal (photos, however, don't always show what you see). The colors should be strong and not milky or grey. The grey look is particularly ominus.

Expect missing arms (octopuses have 8 arms, cuttlefishes have 8 arms and two tentacles - they are different). The only way you are likely to see an octopus without regenerating or missing arms is to grow them from eggs as even young ones will have found a crab that was faster or larger than it was. The arms will grow back. We don't like to see them lose one IN the aquarium though because of the risk of skin infection.

Please journal your next one. it will be healthy.