Slimey little bugger. I think its a baby two-spot.
Are there other octopus species found in tide pools? I couldn't get a better shot. It was getting dark and we had to use a flashlight to get even this. Someone put a hermit crab or snail nearby and it reached out its tentacle to grab it. About 2-3 inches across wrapped up like this.
You can see both his spots pretty well here.
I had never seen an octopus in the tide pools so I was super excited! It was even my birthday! It was approximately 4 inches wrapped up like that.
This was the other thing I was hoping to see at Leo Carillo. This one was itty bitty, but with plenty of chutzpah: it inked, it shot water, it tried to climb out othe dish.
The California Two-spot Octopus (Octopus bimaculoides), also known as the "Bimac Octopus", is an octopus species that lives off the coast of California. One can identify the species by the circular blue eyespots on each side of its head. Due to their friendly temperament and relative hardiness, they are considered by most experts to make the best pet octopus. Bimacs usually live to be about two years old. They are closely related to Verrill's Two-spot Octopus...
