Trying to ID this octopus.

smeans

Pygmy Octopus
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Aug 21, 2011
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I'm a first-time octopus keeper, and I'm having a hard time figuring out what kind of octopus I have here. We got the octopus on Thursday and today is the first day it's ventured out of the live rock to look around the tank. It changes color frequently, and has made a white stripe appear on its mantle occasionally. I was told it was octopus vulgaris, but I'd like to be sure. So far it seems to be adjusting pretty well and has eaten a couple of the hermit crabs we left in the tank for it, but I'm trying to stay ahead of the curve and know as much about it as I can before I run into trouble.

Thanks!
 

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Not vulgaris, quite possibly one in the Abdopus complex (body shape, color and arm to mantle ratio). Do you know where it was collected? Approximately how long is the mantle (from behind the eyes to the tip), how long are the arms? Do you see a blue/purple ring around the tips of the suckers?

Have a look at some of the octopuses in our current journals (See List of our Octopuses 2011 for a list with species and journal links) and try to find one that looks very similar but my money is on one of the Abdopus group.
 
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I ordered it through my local fish store and they didn't have/offer much information about its origins. The mantle is about 2.5cm and the arms are about 15cm. This is just based on guesstimating through the glass. I don't see any blue/purple rings around the sucker tips. I will check out the journal references. Thanks!
 
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The closest one I've seen so far is Squishy. The coloring for Espy doesn't look quite the same as Perry. That's what my son named this octopus, even though I have no idea of the sex. I've been looking at the third arm to try to determine, but it's tricky, apparently.
 
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The coloring for Espy doesn't look quite the same as Perry

Keep watching :biggrin2: Squishy and Espy are probably the same species but you will soon find (especialy when you can't find her/him in front of your face) that they have many looks and colors. With this complex you get some interesting body patterning ability too but Espy has not demonstrated the algae look yet.

Thanks for the reminder iAlex :oops: Please DO start a journal for Perry especially since it looks like we may see several of these in the next few months and tracking them will be helpful.

When you look at the third arm on the right (clockwise, orienting your eyes with the octos), look for a tan colored line in addition to the arm being curled and a blunt tan tip. It is easier to see the channel on this goup than on O. briareus IF they hold still for a few seconds :biggrin2:. The arm is quite curled in the second photo but that may not mean anything in that posture. It should be fairly notable while climbing the glass.
 
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smeans;181006 said:
...It changes color frequently, and has made a white stripe appear on its mantle occasionally...

smeans;181013 said:
...The coloring for Espy doesn't look quite the same as Perry...
This made me laugh. Chances are, it just hasn't changed to that exact coloring yet. These guys can pretty much change to look like whatever they want, just give it time. :wink:
 
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Gorgeous animal! Definitely looks like A. aculeatus- I'd recognize the body pattern in the photo on the right anywhere. Like it may as well be scouting out crabs in Sulawesi.
 
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I've seen those color patterns in individuals as small as 19 mm ML, so it's definitely possible both this and Espy are A. aculeatus. If they are then this means you both got a good deal- at 25 mm ML they're not even ready to mate yet, so could be around for quite a while (relatively speaking). Espy's arms are a little on the short side in the pics, and the color patterns slightly different, so I'm not as confident. But the video looks like aculeatus. So hard to tell for sure.
 
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