Mimic octopus outside of the Golden Triangle?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

supergaijin

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
2,060
Reaction score
965
Location
Indonesia
On the House Reef at about 5m. I couldn't approach withing 3 or 4 feet as it would withdraw but when given some space it would resume this position and I could see one or two legs walking over the sand. It never moved from its hole. Are there any 'Golden Triangle' divers that can tell the difference? Or does the occy need to be actively transforming to get a proper ID?
2013-04-01_054.jpg
On the same dive and in the same area I found what I think to be a Velvetfish- apparently these guys are pretty rare.
2013-04-01_042.jpg2013-04-01_043.jpg
 
The first looks similar to a coconut octopus not a mimic, the mimic will move in the shape of a fish
the second is definitely a waspfish I have a cockatoo in my flickr set but this seems different
 
I have never heard of a coconut octopus... but we certainly have coconuts here in the Maldives.

In Debelius' Red Sea Fishguide there is a very similar species Ptarmus gallus which he calls a Crested Velvetfish, however I have since Googled a bit on Waspfishes and it seems there are plenty more sightings and English names of Waspfish.

TBH, waspfish sounds way cooler than velvetfish... Thanks
 

Back
Top Bottom