Octopus in Gulf of Mexico

[zeke92]

Were in southern florida on north captiva island. One of the shells i told my sister was clean (no critters) had a baby octopus crawl out of it minutes later. It clung to my hand for a minute while i tried to get it into a bucket to look at it.
My question is, what types of octopi live in the gulf?
NOTE: The octopus (named puss-in-bucket after puss-in-boots on shrek) is in the ocean once again.

 

[texasmetal]

It was probably an O. mercatoris, a dwarf octopus. They are commonly found on the beach inside shells and cans and whatever else they can hide in that holds water until the tide comes back up.
Other commonly found species of octopuses found in Florida would be Octopus briareus and Octopus hummelincki (formerly known as Octopus filosus).
There are others like O. joubini but they don't seem to be common these days.

 

[discodee]

My husband and I just returned from 10 days vacation on Sanibel Island, FL, from 11/30/11 thru 12/10/11. We, too, found a live baby octopus. Ours was hiding inside a pen shell. We, too, returned the little guy to the gulf, after admiring him. What an awesome experience!!!

 

[siptang]

Disco Dee - Just wanted to make sure... are you from Texas and know someone name Jeff??

 

[discodee]

No, I'm from Cincinnati, OH.

 

[siptang]

Oh ok sorry lol.
There's a forum member Jeff here with wife named Dee so I was just asking.