Please help me identify my octopus

apollo

Cuttlefish
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Mar 31, 2012
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I recently obtained this octo. The pet store where i pruchased him/her from was not sure about the species. I was hoping someone could tell me his/her species.



 

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Yes, I agree with CaptFish that this is in the Abdopus complex. We have seen several variations in robustness and size in this group so I am never comfortable calling aculeatus as the specific species.

Interesting you noted that about the mercs. Not everyone has the opportunity to socialize with them like that even in the end. Of all that I have kept, one (Sistrurus) was social after 5 months and remained that way all his life but the others only agreed to attention near the end.
 
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I have been fortunate to keep a considerable number of octos now but some stand out more than others. Sisty was the off-spring of my very first octopus (Trapper). I was able to raise one more generation from Trapper's offspring but there was only one female and she ended up in the other tank. Sisty and Dusa seemed to get along well and when I paired them, I had hopes of having a male-female pair. Medusa was late maturing (or Sisty was early) and he did try to mate with Dusa until Dusa reach sexual maturity and turned out to be male.
 
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Thats really cool. Did you pair the octos at the start or did you wait until a certain age? What were the size of the babies and how did you take care of them?
 
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there were only 6 hatchlings (Trapper did not brood until she was in the tank for 4 months, the very end of the viability understanding for viable sperm). One crawled out of the water and did not find its way back in time the other 5 survived through senescence. I separated them 3 and 3 in breeder nets after a couple of weeks to minimize fighting. Sisty (the most active of the 5) and Medusa "seemed" to pair well from the start and were often found together but that was a human assessment that has no real meaning - you have to guess somehow :biggrin2: It was interesting in that Dusa was always shy but would follow Sisty's lead. They were not put in their own tank until about 5 months. Do keep in mind that ONLY O. mercatoris has been successfully raised with multiples in a single tank and ONLY animals that have been raised together.

For size at birth I compare the large egg animals to ticks that have not eaten and the small egg to fleas :roll:
 
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