I still have the ornate but that cyanea was sacrificed in the name of science . Every so often I get others depending on how motivated I am to get them. I also have had a couple of cresent octopus last year.
Nice to hear from you again, and thanks for posting the pictures. The ornate octo is really a looker... I've never heard of a crescent octopus before...
Hawaii is great. I've been so busy with raising other animals I haven't had much time to spend on the ceph's lately. I haven't had any of my octo's lay any eggs yet. I would like get some cyanea and ornate eggs. I think the ornates would make a good aquarium species. The cresent's are not that good looking and have yet to be fully described, I'm about to send some samples to Eric Hochberg so he can finish the classification. And yes the ornate belong to the macropus group
I have kept two in the mactopus complex (one male and one female) that likely came from somewhere in Indonesia. I have seen diver references calling what looks similar, luteus but the lueteus description (Norman) does not match the small octos I kept (the ones I found on dive sites were much smaller than Norman's sizing as well but age could not be determined of course). Both were overtly human friendly but VERY nocturnal and would not come out until about 3:00 AM. According to Norman O. ornatus can have a mantle size upwards of 5". Is this what you are seeing in the ones you find? He also says they like octopus for dinner. Strangely he does not classify it as macropus but it certainly has the appearance of that complex. I love this book but I wish they would fully update it.
Wow, what attractive specimens! I've never been very familiar with O. ornatus, but now you mention it, it really does look like a Macropus species complex.
Mine does hide during the day but comes out at dusk. I collected mine in a tidal pool area about an hour after sunset. I really can't say too much other than that. I feed him frozen shrimp which he acclimated to quickly. I've had him for about 4 months and he is now about 4in in mantle length. This species is probably the second most common in hawaii.
What size tank seems to be appropriate? If these guys are anywhere near a personable as my two AND they come out early evening AND the tank is no more than for a briareus, they would make great home aquarium specimens.
The one I have is in a 400 gallon tank. But I think a 40-50g might be the minimum size for an adult due to its a long arm species the one I have is about 3ft tip-to-tip and he can be fairly active at times. So that might be a little bit on an issue.
We're always looking for smaller octopuses for our Tonmo.com members. Maybe someday we'll have a
breeding program and be able to supply our octopus of choice.
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