Hmmm. I thought you said the last time round that the crinitas were bigger, like two inches across each puffball? These are rather smaller than that, more like an inch across. You had theorized glochidiata last year; would the flowers help to confirm or deny that? The pictures I see online have pinker flowers and lighter spines but maybe that's normal variation?

Whitney My plant is just a little bigger than yours. I would dare to say that it is Austrocylindropuntia, most likely subulata. You can google photos of each species (about 10?-11? 12?) and compare. Color will vary a lot depending on light succulents get - so the color alone will not be sure way to correctly ID any plant. In low light, plants will also grow skinnier, longer/taller and often spindly stems. If they have leaves, they are usually too far apart. So the plant could look totally different than it should (I am not saying yours does). Even old/mature plant grown under not-so-suitable conditions will not look as it should.

thanks all for the amazingly fast responses. I will go with Opuntia or "Opuntia ficus indica" since I've found a few pictures that look reasonably similar with labels - "Tall Indian Fig Prickly Pear Cactus Plant Opuntia Ficus Indica" and "Opuntia ficus indica 'Burbank Spineless'" To answer the sunlight question it is in a glass sunroom and gets as much sunlight as New Jersey can give it. The room is heated to a point and doesn't/shouldn't get below 45 on a cold evening. Even today, it was sunny out so it was in the low 60s in there while it was in the 20's outside. The only way to give it more direct sun would be to move its positon somewhat in the room, the late day sun isn't direct to its location. During the summer the windows need to be opened to keep it from creeping into the upper 90s and beyond. Its been out there for the better part of 10 years and has been pretty happy. I have a couple dozen plants out there including 2 pretty large Birds of Paradise I grew from seed and an agave that are all pretty happy. Now for part two, what does it have? There is a issue/disease/pest problem with it and 1 or 2 others in the same sun-room, it seems worse on 1 or 2 of the smaller plants. I noticed it in the last week or two, maybe a little longer. I haven't been spending much time out there the last month or two expect for watering etc.. It seems to start as brown spots and they progress into a depression. It seems dry in the cavities on the left picture. I read something today about soft rot and dry rot. I think I need to move fast tomorrow before the large mama plant (first picture above) gets hit to badly. It mainly has that spot shown in the bottom right picture below. thanks again

Thank you both. I have asked for identification in a spanish forum and nobody knows it. I have pictures of Corryocactus brevistylus and C. erectus from a travel to Peru, but I think is none of these species.