ID without pictures - Round 2!

[devi]

Hello!
I finally, after a few months of waiting, have an octopus on its way to my LFS!! What we've been told is it's small and red. It may have come from Bali, but it may not have. Helpful info right?
Anyone want to take a guess before it shows up?

 

[neurobadger]

From the species I know there's no such thing as a small red octopus.

Either it's not really that red or it's a juvenile.

 

[CaptFish]

There are lots of small red octopus species, especially in that part of the world. but I would guess, based on what we have seen in the past, it is going to be an Adopus or a macropus.

 

[DWhatley]

If from Indonesia, most likely one of the macropus complex. Have a look at Beldar's and Puddles' journals (Puddles has kind of a nice video near the end of the journal). These are a favorite species for interaction BUT they are very nocturnal.

 

[neurobadger]

Macropuses are small?

 

[DWhatley]

Macropus is a complex (even though a largish animal in the Caribbean is commonly called Macropus) and includes an international variety of mostly nocturnal red animals with white markings. Puddles and Beldar are often called O. luteus (Starry Night Octopus) in the dive world but that animal is much larger according to Norman (If you can find a copy of Mark Norman's Cephalopods A World Guide you will not regret the purchase but it has been out of print for several years and getting hard to find - best pricing I can find is in Europe, This one will ship to the US for $20.00 bringing the price to $56 which is a very good price for the book - Amazon's price is absurd and twice the original retail - odd for them).

Additionally, O. joubini can display very red in addition to brown, white, tan and mottled. My little unknown dwarf, Monty, could display bright sponge orange as a young animal but did not display that color as an adult.