Help iding octopus species!

[marvel09]

I just receiced this little guy from Live Aquaria, classified as a "medium" Abdophus species. The last 3 octopuses I received from Live Aquaria were 2 aculeatus and 1 O. mercatoris (I think). This guy looks similar to an A. aculeatus but is slightly smaller than my other 2, has a skinnier shaped head, and is much redder in color. Any ideas?

 

[DWhatley]

They have also been known to ship a small (about aculeatus sized, maybe a little smaller) macropus. Puddles was one of these (as was Beldar but Bell was not from LA). I found them to be wonderfully interactive ... at 3:00 AM. I really enjoyed keeping these two but they were very nocturnal. If you are an early riser, that will likely work too if you can make extra time in your mornings.

We have never established the actual species for these and the divers tag them as luteus. Norman classifies that as a much larger animal but Thales and I agree that it favors an unnamed, sp10, from the same book.

 

[marvel09]

I looked at the thread with Puddles and my octopus definitely appears to be the same species! Its too bad they're nocturnal, I was really hoping for a diurnal species such as Aculeatus, but I'll try and work my schedule around when he's active.

 

[DWhatley]

If it helps any, I would be happy to keep another as they are easy to interact with. With O. mercatoris, I was able to get them to adjust to 11:00 feedings (our last female would even eat at 6:00). I did not work to encourage better timing with the macropues though and it may be doable if you can consitently control the ambient lighting (which seems more important than tank lighting).

Adding a red light is petty much a must and I recommend leaving it on 24/7.