Octopus Emotional Coloration - Photos of common color patterns

Part of skin texture will be physical attibutes. Not all octopuses have the same abilities to change their skin (aculeatus is on the high end though, look for some of Muctopus' videos, comments and papers on the net (Huffard aculeatus). At the other end of the scale the mercatoris barely show more than a bump or two. So you could experiement with your new guy to see if hunting, eating, playing give any kind of consistency (keeping a tripod and camera handy and always photographing the consistent events). One of the common displays is that skunk stripe but no clear reason for it has been determined. It may be that each octo used its abilities differently, particularly the more recluse animals but aculeatus seem to live in close enough proximity that there may be consistency in display. You might PM Mucktopus for some ideas about in tank experiements and what to watch for.
 
Fascinating topic! Although I don't have any experience with captive octo's, the behavioral contexts in which cephalopods use different body patterns was the focus of my undergraduate thesis.

Body pattern expression in response to environmental stimuli (the camouflage for which octo's are so famous) are more apparent and easier to properly study, but body patterning as an expression of internal emotional state is supported by evidence both anecdotal and empirical. It can also be noted that, in most cases, inter- and intraspecific signaling is more complex in the teuthoids and speioids than in octopods, reflecting their vast differences in sociality.
Passing Cloud Displays may be used solely as a method in hunting prey, but Zebra Displays, Deimatic Displays towards predators, and body patterns during sexual encounters seemingly only have communicative functions.

Here's a photo of different O. insularis individuals from Jennifer Mather and Tatiana Leite's article in a 2008 American Malacological Bulletin (a fantastic publication), just to reinforce the diversity of displays we can be talking about!


Reference:
Leite, T.S. & Mather, J.A. 2008. A new approach to octopus? body pattern analysis: A framework for taxonomy and behavioral studies. American Malacological Bulletin. 24, 31-41.
 

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Very interesting- didn't know about that one. Now to try and track it down...

Here are some Figs showing more variation in A. aculeatus, from an earlier paper. In the wild (Indo) and in a large tank (Australia), A. aculeatus body pattern was associated with locomotion, reproductive/aggressive behavior, defense, and evolutionary history.

Huffard, C. L. (2007) Ethogram of Abdopus aculeatus (d?Orbigny, 1834) (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae): can behavioral characters inform octopodid taxomony and systematics? Journal of Molluscan Studies 73: 185-193

If anyone wants to pdf, send me a pm with your email address and I'll try to send it this week.

hope this helps,
Crissy
 

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I actually just made the connection that mucktopus wrote that aculeatus paper!
:roflmao:
Hahahaha I used it as a reference for my last science fair!
 

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