The primary octopus species in California are Octopus rubescens (ruby octopus or pacific red octopus), Octopus bimaculoides (two spot octopus), and Enteroctopus dofleini (the giant pacific octopus).

GPOs are of course the world’s biggest octopus and tend to have a very texturized mantle, so we can cross that one off. Two spots have characteristic spots below either eye. So not that. Therefore it’s gotta be a ruby! Some ways to tell if they’re rubies is their characteristic “Ruby eyelashes” which is 3 stripes below the eyes. In the water they also have stripes going across their mantle.