Octo ID 2

[Rosendorn1]

Greetings!

Do you have any idea witch species my new octo could be?

He hides mostly under the liverock and ist only active between 5 and 7 pm. Eats everything, from hermit living crabs to snails and frozen shrimps

 

[TDean]

Aculeatus?
Shows a lot to texture and color change
Does it have those two white dots on his mantle?
How big is it, and were did you get it?

 

[Octohk]

I thought Aculeatus also (which I have) , but yours seems to act different and has a strange pointy head.

 

[Rosendorn1]

thanks for the help.

Hmmm, if i google aculeatus, i get the many verry different pictures and some movieclips of funny bipedal walking octopuses.
Where can i find a scienetific source for identification?
I think, he looks exactly like this one witch i fpund ins ome photojournal:

octopus prime

To your questions:

His body may be as big as a walnut and his armdiameter is ca. 32 cm.
I got him from a big reefkeeping-shop here in dietzenbach/germany.

 

[mucktopus]

I was able to see a few frames of the video and it could easily be a small adult A. aculeatus. Species in the genus Abdopus are very hard to tell apart, and probably many get sold under the name A. aculeatus. In terms of behavior and care, it's probably not necessary to identify to species the ones that make it into the trade (which would require killing them and doing various counts).

But if you want to read up more on identifications, try to track down these below. They are too large for me to post them. If you want the pdf, PM me your email address and I will send the reprints.

Taxonomy of the group and some natural history information:

Norman MD, and Finn J. 2001. Revision of the Octopus horridus species-group, including erection of a new subgenus and description of two member species from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Invertebrate Taxonomy [print] 15: 13-35.

General natural history, behavior, and body patterns of live A. acuelatus (lots of photos):

Huffard CL. 2007. Ethogram of Abdopus aculeatus (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae): can behavioral characters inform octopodid taxonomy and systematics? Journal of Molluscan Studies 73: 185-193.

Additional pictures of live animals (though most are behaviors not likely seen in the home aquarium):

Huffard CL. 2006. Locomotion by Abdopus aculeatus (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae): walking the line between primary and secondary defenses. The Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 3697-3707.

 

[Rosendorn1]

Again i want to thank you for the works you send me. After studiing them Im sure that if got one of the Abdopus-species. The Descriptions of behavior and habitat was very helpful to understand what i have and how i can care about it.
Fortunaly i made everything right till now. The Okto lives in a tank with much algae, a few soft corals and strong streams. It eats almost everything out of my fingers, and the guy is more agressive than shy. Everytime i feed him, he hunts my hand and tries to pull me into the tank.
Fascinating is his alarm-colour: it has the Abdopus-typical dark stripes from the mantle into the arms.

But i never saw it walk on two arms like in this movieclips.