A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Macrotritopus sp
This was one of my most exciting find in my diving experience, to encounter this very rare Octopus. The body is less than 5 cm in size, with very long tentacles. Its body is translucent with spots of brown in the middle of the body and along its tentacles. When I first saw it, it was floating in the water column near the surface, looking very much like a Squid rather than an Octopus in view of its translucent appearance. It then settled to the sandy/rubble bottom 'searching' for food. When I first saw it, I knew right away it was something very special. It is still an undescribed species of Octopus, but identified to the genus Macrotritopus, a pelagic Octopus.
Saw this in the shallow water of less than 5 meters during a night dive.
New Organism to Project Noah.
Spotted on Feb 25, 2012
Submitted on May 27, 2016
26 Comments (1–25)
Congratulations Albert. Another fantastic sighting and images.
Awesome find! :)
Fantastic! Congrats, Albert.
Thanks, @Daniele for the few this one and the few other placings :)
Thanks too, @Mark and @armadeus.4 )
Wonderful spotting and what a find! Congratulations again Albert! :)
Fantastic find and spotting. Congratulations Albert.
Congratulations Albert! This rare little beauty came 2nd in our 2016 Best Photo mission for the category "Others"!
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...
Thanks, @LuisStevens :)
Congrats Albert!
Thanks, @Wild Things :)
Congrats Albert!
Thanks, @elmschool19 for your kind words and appreciation :)
This is amazing! You are so lucky that you got to see something so awesome!
Thanks, @sunnyjosef, @Pradeep Kumar, @Leuba and @Antonio for your appreciation.
This Spotting was truly special to me :)
Congrats Albert... Excellent spotting..!
Congratulations beautiful spotting!
Just wonderful ! So pleased for you Albert. Thanks for sharing.
Great series Albert,congrats on the well deserved SOTW and thanks for sharing
Thanks, @Dilan, @Christine Y., @Lisa and PN Rangers.
Congrats AlbertKang!! Nice spotting!!
Congratulations AlbertKang! This cute little octopus has been selected by our PN Rangers as our Spot of the Week!
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...
https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/7...
Very beautiful spotting!
Thanks, @Ashley for the nomination.
Thanks too, @triggsturner and @Polilla.
One of the reason it is not desctibed yet is because, no Taxonomist or Marine Biologists have seen/found them during their dives. They need to collect it for detail taxonomy study before describing it scientifically.
And as this Octopus is very rare and pelagic in nature, there is no definitive location or dive site where one can go to and try to look for them.
Great spotting Albert. Absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much for sharing this. Hopefully this species will be named and described and we can learn more about it.
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!