Meet Herb, any idea what type he is?

Can you tell us something more about Herb? Is he active during the day or at night? How large is he - looks fairly large from the photos. (Estiimate his mantle (body) length and the length of his legs.) If you were told where Herb comes from, that would be helpful, too.

And welcome to Herb!

Nancy
 
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Nancy;82883 said:
Can you tell us something more about Herb? Is he active during the day or at night? How large is he - looks fairly large from the photos. (Estiimate his mantle (body) length and the length of his legs.) If you were told where Herb comes from, that would be helpful, too.

And welcome to Herb!

Nancy

Herb seems to come out only at night, so far. I've only had him for 4 days. He is approx. 1.5" long (mantle) and his arms are probably 4-5" in length.

I am not sure where he came from. I picked him up in Calgary, Alberta Canada. The LFS told me he was a cyanea which I have seen photos of and he doesn't look at like one to me. The LFS barely speaks english so I really can't tell you anymore than that. :hmm:
 
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Hey!!


Herb looks a lot like S.S. (aka: Super Sticky) who is also nocturnal! Especially photos 6 and 7. I also looked at cyaneas and cannot tell because they can change so much. No wonder it's so hard to ID them!

With mine, the keys I'm looking for are the nocturnal habits, self-absorbtion (:silenced: oops, I mean...) the up turned nose and how mine usually has no spikes coming from it like a lot of octos do; at rest anyway. I noticed immeadiately how smart mine looks. The eyes show wizard knowledge. This is NOT a stupid octopus!! It also seems that yours has the long legs compared to the mantle and is very light brown with darker brown spotting at times of no incognito. The legs on mine taper a lot more than my other octos have too. I want to call it sexy in comparison to my previous bimacs, but that just doesn't seem right. How about the black widow of spiders? They also have longer more tapering legs for their species...whatever. :roll:

Has yours grabbed you yet? I was showing mine a new toy made of various widths and colors of straws so he can build something. He got really excited when I held it out for him and grabbed me when he grabbed the toy. Thus the name....like waaaaaay sticky, yet it felt dry. Odd. All I can say is that he's NOT coming off unless he lets go. :lol:

I'll let you know if I find anything else, but I'm a bit stuck too. My LFS got it from the same place as my other two, but they don't seem to want to give up their source and say that it's just hard to tell. Actually, the first one I got the source called a brown standard octo which he wasn't, so maybe they are not so sure either. :sly:
 
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"Super Sticky" you say? LOL I can vouche for that. Mine hasn't grabbed me but I was relocating him yesterday and he wasn't big on going into the bag I was trying to put him in so he climbed up, out and into the sink I was working over. This is where he demonstrated his "stickiness". It took me 15 mins to get him into the bag, it seemed that he wanted to touch/play with anything and everything he could reach.

He seemed very relaxed during the whole process. He didn't ink when I scooped him into the net, didn't freak out when he was in the sink and seemed pretty happy to be sliding into his new tank.

He certainly is nocturnal. He's up at 8:45 PM and to bed around 5:30 AM. Which is too bad because I would like to see him more but what can you do?

I have never seen any spikes on Herb either. For the most part he is always nice and smooth. As you said his colors are mainly tan or light brown with dark spots. This is my first octopus so it's hard for me to say if his legs are longer then others but they sure seem long to me. Sexy? Hmmm, some might think so I guess LOL

The owners and employees at the LFS store where I bought Herb don't speak very good english so I had them write down what they thought he was. I think they just grabbed a name out of a hat to please me to be honest with you.

I really wish I knew more about him. Especially what temperature of water he prefers. I have had his water temperature set to 78 since acquiring him but now that he is in his own tank with a seperate sump I can adjust his temperature to whatever he likes. I have read some people have had more sucess keeping their octopus alive in cooler temperatures, low 60s and lower.

I too will let you know should I find any more information on Herb.

Thanks.
 
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Bassman, don't change the water temperature! Your octo seems quite happy with the temperature you have now.

The lower temperature discussion applies to bimacs, which are sometimes kept at much higher temperatures than the ocean water they come from, sometimes even over 75 degrees. They can tolerate this, but seem to live longer (and possibly be less active) at lower temperatures (one public aquarium keeps theirs at 59 degrees)

With the exception of bimacs, most of our octopuses come from warmer waters.

These sound like very interactive octopuses, fun to keep!

Nancy
 
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Nancy;85755 said:
Bassman, don't change the water temperature! Your octo seems quite happy with the temperature you have now.

The lower temperature discussion applies to bimacs, which are sometimes kept at much higher temperatures than the ocean water they come from, sometimes even over 75 degrees. They can tolerate this, but seem to live longer (and possibly be less active) at lower temperatures (one public aquarium keeps theirs at 59 degrees)

With the exception of bimacs, most of our octopuses come from warmer waters.

These sound like very interactive octopuses, fun to keep!

Nancy


Thanks Nancy. I wasn't going to touch the temperature until I had 100% confirmation of what type he is and that he would indeed benefit from lower water temperatures. He seems happy now so I will leave things as they are. :smile:
 
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