Not sure what he is....

corw314

Colossal Squid
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But as we speak....he's dripping.....On a whim...called Pa Friday....they just got him in. Jess and I ran out this morning. Got home at 5 tonight. Did water change and tested tank, all's ok. Removed some of Inklers leftover food crabs that seemed too big for this little guy. He's actually bigger than Inkler was at his death. I can see 2 eye spots. He was white when I started opening the bag but by the time I had him set up to drip, he was pitch black....He reminds me of I think it was Gimpy with his short fat legs but they are also long but not like the Briareus. Keeping fingers crossed. 1/2 hour to go drip time...
 
The eyespots don't look right for hummelincki. Do they always stay brown or are they showing any color? I am half thinking O. maya unless you see a blue ring around yellow. Maya (O. hummelincki) looked very much like that in photos and was thought to be O. maya when I purchased her so I am thinking they look very similar.
 
I'm thinking maybe a Merc, but still am not sure and on second look I do not remember Mercs changing as much as this one does. I do see color yellow and blue but have not had a good sighting yet. I put the bag into the tank and she was pacing, wanting out so I cut the bag on both ends so she could come out when she was ready which took maybe 2 minutes. Very quickly she spotted a crab and dashed around the bubble filter, emerged seconds later with the crab and proceeded to explore every inch of the tank while holding her meal. Last I saw her she disappeared into the center piece of coral and has been absent since. I observed that twitching behavior sometimes they do and I got this pic of a total spikey look! I remember one of mine did this. I need to go back and look as I remember posting pics with the many different looks.

This morning she is out again sitting on the barnacle eating a snail. Staying Spikey. Very curious. I took a chance and used my magnet to scrape some algea and she stayed out in the open watching but twitching a little. May name her/him Spike.
 
No way is Spike mercatoris. If you see Yellow and blue then I vote hummelincki (only if the eye spots are brown would I think it was something else). I noted a secondary, eye spot mark on Octane that may or may not be diagnostic and I see it in the first photo. Look just above the eye. On octane, it was sometimes a greenish color. I hate to post photos of other octos on a thread but I tried to mark up this one to show the features I noted for identifying a hummelincki and I can't find where I originally posted it to use as a reference.
 

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Well....Spike it is....He is a collector...every time I look in the tank he has shells moved to the barnacle. Last night he had a 4" clam shell dragged up the side to the barnacle. That fell..this morning he found a brilliant piece of glass. When we came home last night, he was black...Very curious and prefers to be out watching us. He has eaten 3 crabs and 1 snail within a 24 hour period. I see the additional eyespots! I'm so excited! Di did you notice sometimes the suckers look red? And I need to go collecting food!! Am going to set up a feeder tank!
 
That's great news! :biggrin2:
Diablo, my first female was the only one of 3 who collected shells like spike. It was so cute to see her srtuggle, trying to carry several at one time. I sure wish I could collect my own food.
 
The underside of hummelincki (and likely vulgaris from what we are seeing but Spike is not vulgaris because of the eyespots) is often a speckled peach but I have never noticed the suckers being red/peach/pink. The rims would be blue/purple though (also with the abdopus group but this is not abdopus because of the arm length and stout body).
 
1 week today for Spike...

So far so good! Have been experimenting with different camera settings trying to get the clearest shot. He flinches when I approach the tank so I do not want to scare him by flashing or even illuminating the tank with another light source. He's a pig! Eating on a daily basis. Has wiped out the snail population I had in the tank with Inkler within a week, plus is eating at least a crab a day. We collected almost 30 crabs last Monday and I have set up a 15 gal long with just a bubble filter, but need to add additional filtration. So far we have lost none which is wonderful! Will post a pic of the feeder tank later.
 
We had one other that reflected blue and I remember writing to be sure he was seeing that color. According to what I have read, blue is not a chromatophore color in any of the octos (some do have more colors available to them than others) but the reflective cells are known to produce it. However, we typcally see a concentration of blue like in the eye spots. I don't think, as with you, that I will ever get bored with these guys.

Possible correction (now I am confused). I JUST watched a video on the blue ring and they stated that the blue IS from chromatophores rather than leucophores or iridophores :bonk:
 

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