Nice stuff. Alex's colour job kind of reminds of this elephant snout monster I saw on his site. Had a shovel or something. I love the way you strike a balance between detail and form, Alex. You're not afraid of flat areas with little detail, but you can still push the details in other places without creating an imbalance that makes it look like their completely different styles. It's something I've really liked when looking at your landscapes or tilesets.
I'd like to second what Alex is saying about the claws, seems like a good idea. Just a suggestion here, but It would be interesting to see the contrast between the ocean and the sand cut down and more dithering between them. I'm thinking this so that the foreground and background would merge and almost seem like one. Maybe it would add to that merky, you don't know how far anything is underwater effect.
BTW, is that a belt on the octopus? Didn't notice it at first but it looks cool. Good job on fitting it in and all the little things on the tentacles.