New here but diggin' it, ID help

Guero

Pygmy Octopus
Registered
Joined
Aug 8, 2008
Messages
13
Hey guys and girls, what's up?? I'm new here but enjoying it a lot. Lots of great info and help so far, thanks. I've had a lot of tanks before but never SW. I spend a lot of time here in San Diego in and around the water fishing, so this will come real natural for me I hope. My last was a 15" Female Large Mouth Bass in a 150 gal. tank

Anyways, I always wanted to get an Octy tank going, so I made it happen. Had the tank run for a month+ before I put any livestock in it. No issues with the tank at all so far. Finally got an Octy to put in it and 2 months and no problems at all. I built a cave/fort for him ahead of time and he took right to it, even remodeled a bit. He started eating the next day and hasn't stopped. I'm 3 blocks from the Pacific so I get fresh live hermits and snails to put in the tank. They do a great good cleaning until he reaches out and grabs one. I have put 2 starfish in it with him with no issues so far. I would really like to put in a little coral, I really like the Rasta Hat's. I've been reading here a lot about others folks experience's, so hopefully I'll land on something.

Anyways, here's some pics of Fenway(Yeah, I'm a Sox fan) and his home. (Pics are from an iPhone, sorry.) So if you know what he is, cool, not that it really matters, I'm just glad he's here and being himself. He came from across the border in Mexico, cool water, don't have my tank chilled yet, hope I wont have to. I live on the coast and it always nice here. My old LMB tank always was around 68 degs. in the summer.

Thanks folks......
 
watch
 
Upvote 0
I keep trying to make a list of precise markings for hummelincki and many on Fenway fit but there are some major negatives. The capture location (temperature and ocean), lack of blue eye spot surrounded by orange (which might be there but not visible in the pictures) the absence of the parallel brown stripes that are on the head and pass through the eye (almost always detectable but not always prominent) and the full yellow coloring don't fit my observations. In addition to the personality, the mantle proportion to arms (arms may be slightly longer), the peach underside with blue circles on the suction cups, the pigtail of skin when not showing crypsis, the skunk stripe when showing a cone head, the reflection of blue in the crevices when showing a "fur" look all match my hummelincki observations. So now the question is what other medium sized octopus would fit the common traits.

More pictures Guero, please.
 
Upvote 0
wow, Watley, your really trying, thanks.....:notworth:

here's a couple more,,,,btw, the pic of him that's real yellow, is just the flash I think, cause he's not yellow at all
 
Upvote 0
Guero,
Am I correct in my understanding that you have NOT seen two (one on each side) very round circles of blue color surrounded by an orange ring on the webbing just below the eyes? It would not always be visible but by now you should have seen it if it exists. What I am asking about can be seen on my avitar or look at my hummelincki's thread for more pictures for a comparison:

[Octopus]: - Octane - O. Hummelincki (filosus)

There have been hummelincki reported being captured in Nicaragua but that is way south, warm and on the Gulf (we know they are found off the keys).

Without eyespots, I am going to guess rubescens (I have not seen one so guess is a key word based on the similarity of body and arm type to the Hummelincki and the fact that it is common to where you found it). If the guess is accurate, be aware that Roy has reported that they have a tendency to bite but are otherwise quite personable.

File:O-rubescens.jpg - Wikipedia

There is a book you might be interested in picking up that is full of photos of cephalopods:

Cephalopods A World Guide by Mark Norman. Pricey (sometimes you can find it used) but it is a must have for most of us. The data is minimal on each species but there is a nice collection of octopuses, giving approximate mantle and arm lengths as well as known geographic location.
 
Upvote 0

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top