Rocky - O. Bocki

Joined
Apr 12, 2013
Messages
12
Picked him up last week. The lfs had called it a Brown octopus. From eye to tip he is about half an inch. He also said it was collected in the Pacific. Got plenty of pics but they may not be helpful for iding. Let me know if you need better ones. Thanks in advance for the help.
 

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I'll give it a GUESS but I'm afraid you are right about the photos not helping much with ID.

You said Pacific. I am guessing this would be Indonesia/Philippines and not US West Coast or Mexico. From that area we usually see two different animals and a third now starting to show up. One is a member of the Abdopus complex, often aculeatus, the other is an unidentified (but the ones we see are all very similar and likely the same species) small macropus. Lastly, recently we have seen a couple of dwarfs from the area that are likely O. bocki.

The large eyes suggest a nocturnal. The long arms and lack of color around the sucker tips, make me think the macropus is the most likely candidate. If the arms are short and just really extended in the last photo, O. bocki has distinct eyes and a good photo of them will help make that call. Both are small nocturnals.

Is its color a reddish brown? Do you sometimes see reflective green spots? Have you seen a bright red color with bright white spots?

Here are a couple of journals for the macropus:
Waldo
Ziggy
Puddles

Here is an ID request of a suspected bocki

All octopuses need lots of dark denning space to hide but nocturnals need daytime darkness. Not providing serious (as in you can't find them) hiding places will cause extreme stress and can be lethal. All of us that have kept nocturnals have found that red lighting will allow you to nicely observe the animal but allow the octopus the darkness it needs. I recommend leaving the red light on all night (I leave mine on 24/7 simply to avoid using yet another timer) so that it acclimates to the red light night. Unfortunately, red light is terrible for photography but if this is the animal I believe it may be, you will not see it out in daylight once it fully acclimates. The sad exception will be at the end of its life. The video in Puddles thread was taken very early one morning but you will note I comment on knowing we were entering senescence because he was out.
 
Thanks wheatly. I've been checking pictures online and I'm starting to agree with you on it being an o. Bocki. Any chance you guys now what size it would grow to if it is a bocki?
 
From Cephalopods A World Guide by Mark Norman the mantle of an adult will be about 1" (2.5 cm) with 3.5" (8 cm) arms. HOWEVER, octopuses have a way of not sticking to standards and can vary highly in size (somewhat less so for the dwarfs, O. bocki being a nocturnal dwarf)
 
LOL, we hand feed ours 6 days a week (we fast them one day). Right now both of mine require a feeding stick but eventually we stop using the stick. We rarely have access to live foods so 90% of the time it is frozen. At the moment, we cannot find crab legs so I am on the hunt for some live clams. At least one of my two will need to be fed with an open clam, the other may be able to open it herself.
 
The eyes definitely have that distinct O. bocki look. Be aware that octopus species determination from photos is only an educated guess (and in my case the education is not formal). Physical examination may be clearer but a necropsy would be needed to be 100% (maybe). Roy and Crissy have done years of field work and mention noting variations that may look vary similar but may be undescribed alternates.

I have used a variety of red lights and members even more different combinations. So far, no one has noted any real differences in brightness or type of red light used.

With your permission, I would like to move your ID thread to our journals and hope you will continue to record your experience. Have you given it a name? I modified your post to allow the video to stream directly on TONMO. To do this on your own, open a new window or tab and go to the video on YouTube. Copy the URL displayed in your address bar (NOT the share or embed code they provide) then return to the TONMO page, position your cursor where you want the video displayed and clickon the little film icon in the editor. If you get a popup disabled message, enable popups and reclick the icon if the window does not show. Paste the URL in the popup and it will be embedded when you save the entry.
 
Will you be giving it a name? Names are very useful even if you don't use them with the animals as it gives a title search when looking for information on a specific animal.
 
I've decided to name the little guy rocky. This guy rarely makes appearances. I only catch him for a minute in the morning.
I also picked up a another octopus. Once I get pics I'll post him up as well. He was sold to me as a macropus.
 

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