[Octopus]: Spider and Cletus - 2 new octos aculeatus mabie??

Have a look at these pictures. You are trying to determine if the octos could be the same (I am thinking this is about the same sizing but neither pictures have reference points). Aculeatus will be much less robust, particularly comparing arms to mantle girth.

Glass dancing during the day is typical of Aculeatus adults but not a telling factor as other species will do this as well. Additionally, it takes a good two weeks for them to initially acclimate and then maybe 2 months to defend a den so I never expect behaviors I first see to be continued.
 
ive gone threw that thread several times back and forth compairing littlebit to my larger octo( now named cletus) and i don't think they are the same species, littlebit has a rounder mantle and eyes wear cletus seems to have longer more cylindrical eye stalks and his mantle seems more elongated and football shaped most of the time. i have never seen cletus display the redish color that littlebit comonly wears in the pics, his most comon color is the brown/white mottled color in the last pic i posted ushualy along with a white skunk stripe up one side of his face though i have seen many other color patterns from him and a very cool passing cloud display once for about a minuet. i believ the pic you referd to in post #2 was taken just minets after i released him in the tank and i have not seen that color pattern since then.
my smaller octo(now named spider) has prety much the same color displays except he/she often has a spikey texture and often flashes a dark/white almost polkadot pattern when i get up close to the tank.
i also noticed that littlebits arms seem to be more defined and allmost muscular wear cletuses are just kind of round and smooth.
 
nobody here but us plants
 

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The differences you noted would be the ones to look for as diagnostic so I think your tank sizing is safe :biggrin2:. The eyes more than the color pattern is what got my attention in the one photo. Vulgaris has, as you noted more of a lump than a stalk and is quite robust in the arms. Even being a very small vulgaris, she was the strongest octo we have ever kept and played very rough. She did want to play so she was not trying to get rid of us but she was extremely strong for her size.
 
i just had a prety cool interaction with spider wich i think started with a defensive display in front of his den wich is right near the front of the tank, when ever i see him siting out in the open i go over and put my hand on the glass to try and get a responce, this time he poked out a litle at a time untill his entire body was exposed then faned out as big as posible and flashed a few light dark patterns and jumped from the rocks to the glass wear my hand was and sat their for a few moments then moved back to the rocks. after that i threw him a fidler crab wich he eagerly pounced on and returned to his den (the hole behind the blue mushrooms pictured in post #3), this was our first interaction that was not either feeding from tongs or just runing away from me. he is a ravenous eater and is growing fast ,i'm going to have to move him to a bigger tank sooner than i thought
i have also seen a change in behaviour in cletus my larger octo but with him it's the oposite he has become more reclusive and runs to hide whenever i open the tank to try and feed him and only seems to want to feed when i'm not looking he still comes out and roams the glass at various times of the day and night but has never aproached me like spider did today.
 
Glad to hear that they're still doing so well for you! That sounds like a wild show he put on for you there; thanks for sharing the stories (& photos). Please, keep us posted!
 
a few pics of spider right after he grabed the crab and some macro. and one of him siting on top of the rock i think is his den
i tried hand feeding him today but he started to retreat so i droped the crab and he turned right around and grabed it, i think i need to go back to useing tongs for a while then try the hand again
sorry for crapy pic ,the tank was dirty and shrimp kept swiming by the camera
 

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I find using my video gets the best shots because of the extraneous movement. Unfortunately, they don't get looked at as often as photos (including by me :roll:)
 
cletus and spider hanging out

these two wer trying to get at each other like crazy today
i'm starting to think i need to come up with new names becouse i'm not so shure cleatus is a male anymore, posibly the third leg had been lost and i was looking at the not yet fuly grown replacement? either way i'm not seeing what i preveiously thought indicated a male, also now that spider is geting bigger and more outgoing i'm not seing any indicater of a male third leg either.
 

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The one on the right might have enlarged suckers, another indication of a male (this may be an artifact from sticking to the glass though). Try to get photos of the third arms. The spermatophore channel is often visible in photos but you may not see it just looking.

I have never tried putting two octo tanks this close together (visible to each other, yes, but not touching). The interaction should be interesting to watch but be sure your covers are well secured. This species is known to cannibalize itself (at least during a tank mating attempted by Roy) and one of my major concerns when mating Mama Cass and Tatanka (O. briareus, not aculeatus but established cannibals) was that she would kill him in the process (fortunately, this did not happen and the mating was somewhat successful in that the eggs were fertile but failed to produce young that lived more than two days).
 
i am suprised it took this long but i think this was just after their first discovery of each other, i droped a crab into that corner of cleatuses tank and he? ran away but spider saw it from the other side of his/her tank and came bolting over to try for the crab and this got cleatuses atention and he came back over and got face to face, lots of frantic dancing and color flashes insued for a few minuets untill they seemed to realize they can't get to each other then they hung on the glass for a while for a little stair down and then went back to minding their own buisness.
bolth tanks have well secured glass tops and spiders tank is only half full with mangroves growing under a glass top and he has never showed any intrest in even reaching a single arm out of the water wich is a little disapointing only becouse i would have loved to se my octo swinging from a mangrove tree.
 
origonaly my plan was to move cleatus to my 92 becouse it is larger and put spider in the 72 wear cleatus is now but if i understand corectly moving an adult female to a new tank can triger brooding so i'm now thinking it would be best to move spider right to the 92 and leave cleatus in the 72 to live out it's life their just in case they are females this would be the best corse to take corect?
 
I don't believe we know what or if anything we do will cause early brooding. Often females will start to brood soon after entering an aquarium but this could be more related to time of capture (because they are out foraging and seeking mates more just before brooding) than anything tank related. I have moved females that I have kept from very young to larger environments and not seen early brooding. That being said, the tank sizes you have are likely fine for the full lifespan.
 

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