Octopus ID is a particularly difficult subject outside of the fact that one animal can look like another at any given time because the experts (and scientific advancements) change the nomenclature. At one point, it was declared that there was only one dwarf species in the Gulf, Octopus joubini. For year O. mercatoris was labeled O. joubini until it was shown that there are at least two species, one that lays small eggs and the other that has large eggs. For now, we call the small egg animal O. joubini and the large egg animal O. mercatoris. The later may change . I have also seen an official reference to O. hummelincki as a dwarf (but can no longer find the source ). This animal has flip-flopped names from O. filosus to O. vulgaris to O. hummelincki, the later being the current official (but contested) name (many octopuses have been classified and reclassified to and from O. vulgaris). You can add to the confusion by noting that scientists have reclassified Octopus into several other genus. We now have Abdopus, Thaumoctopus, Enteroctopus, Wunderpus, Amphioctopus .... I don't EVEN look at the names and name changes for squid !Learn something new everyday!! LOL. And yes O,briareus was my 3rd and that pic i am pretty sure is not one. Had no idea the others were in the gulf. WOW. I have given some locals some bad info. Opps