Pacific Octo

[brett9774]

Hello

A friend of mine bought an octo from the LFS and they said they didn't know the exact name. They bought it as a pacific octo. What is the scientific name for a Pacific octo? I did find something that called a O. Bimaculoides a pacific octo but the fish store had said the this one would get large. The O. Bimaculoides according to fishsupply.com will get to be about 20 inch with tenticules.
Thank you,
Brett

 

[cephalopoder]

There are a few species of octopus common on the pacific coast. The two that are most likely to show up in the aquarium trade O.bimaculoides and O.bimaculatus. O.bimaculatus will get larger than O.bimaculoides. It is not as common in the trade because it is a deeper water species and out out reach of most collectors.
Both, by aquarium standards get to be quite large compaired to a species like O.mercatoris that is a pygmy octopus.
O.cyanea comes from hawaii and gets to be a monster.Again, this is not a common species in the trade. Your best bet is to take a few high quality pics and post them. Both bimaculoides and bimaculatus will have have two blue rings below the mantle serving as false eye spots.
chris