Secret Agentpus (Abdopus aculeatus)

[Animal Mother]

DISCLAIMER: Abdopus aculeatus and ONLY Abdopus aculeatus has been shown to be fairly suitable for a peaceful community of non-threatening fish. I would not try this with another species, and only with non-threatening fish. Seahorse friendly tankmates would be a good suggestion.

 

[gholland]

That was totally awesome! Glad to see you finally got that extra camera time with Grover! Wow.

 

[SSalty]

That guy isn't shy at all. Cool video..

 

[Gonodactylus]

It doesn't look like a guy!

Roy

 

[TrappedMetal]

Looks really quite similar to ours...ours rarely ever goes any different colours that dont involve white, grey, black and anything inbetween those three colours!

 

[reefer334]

Cool Video!!!

 

[Animal Mother]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13116778#post13116778 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gonodactylus
It doesn't look like a guy!

Roy

Yes, Dr. Caldwell, I am 99.9% positive Grover is actually a "she". After 2 months Grover has collected all the small rubble and shells and stuffed them into ever crack, crevice, and hole, and I haven't seen her in a week. Most likely a mother-to-be.

I was surprised, although I never noticed any over-sized suckers or an obvious hectocotylus, Grover was fairly small compared to the last female Abdopus I had. I was crossing my fingers and mentally willing the situation away but it didn't work!

Oh well, never experienced babies before, so that will be a new endeavor for me. Not much hope with the planktonic babies though.

 

[Animal Mother]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13117414#post13117414 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TrappedMetal
Looks really quite similar to ours...ours rarely ever goes any different colours that dont involve white, grey, black and anything inbetween those three colours!

Typical resting colors are usually grey/white mottling. When moving around Grover's usually solid black or black with the white "skunk" stripe up the mantle. Gold and yellow are common colors also though. Sometimes white with black spots and black with white spots. And sometimes sandy brown.

 

[mhills16]

how much can you pick one of these up for?

 

[Animal Mother]

I paid $27 plus shipping.

 

[StripestheEel]

Haha, cool video!

 

[stiltman]

where did you buy it from?

 

[Animal Mother]

MarineDepotLive.com

Grover just hatched out babies on Friday morning. About 100 of them swimming around at 6am. I collected most of them into a 1 gallon jug, used an airline to pump bubbles into it for circulation. Started a phyto culture as well as rotifers.

Unfortunately only 2 remain at the moment. I changed my setup to low water in the jug, floating it in the tank. Minimal circulation seems to be better. Changing out water periodically with new, clean saltwater to dilute any pollutants.

 

[stiltman]

Grover seems to be quite the character. Will she eat the babies?

 

[Animal Mother]

She might have had she the chance. They are extremely small and for the most part swim around, would be really hard to catch but yeah, nothing's sacred in the animal kingdom.

Then again, that's one of the reasons they die after they lay eggs/babies hatch... they don't eat during incubation and sometimes don't even eat afterward.

 

[stiltman]

Very intersting. I'm just starting to get intrested in octos. I wouldn't be surprised if we had a nice species tank set up in a couple years.

 

[wesdaniel]

This was a fascinating video! Thanks for sharing! I've always been scared of octopus, but this one is certainly cute!

Still don't think I'm ready to try one though!

 

[hooterhead]

Is this the only species with the skunk stripe present? I picked up a "common brown" octo out of Bali a couple of days ago and mine displays the exact same stripe as Grover. Still people shy though so a pic is absolutely out of the question for him/her.

 

[Animal Mother]

It's a very common look for the Abdopus, but yes I believe there are a few species that do that. If it's from Bali, it's probably an Abdopus.

Did you get this at work? Dane should hit me up whenever he gets them, I'll come ID them

 

[hooterhead]

Don't work for Dane any more. I work for the local wholesaler now, Saltwater Inc. And yes it came from Bali. He/she seems to be settling in pretty well. It's dug out a nice little burrow with several entrances that it keeps blocked up with shells. Doesn't show much interest in frozen yet so I've been bringing de-clawed fiddlers home for it. I'll get a pic or dozen once he's comforatable enough.