Ted Cactus was an alias given to the alias Ed Marimba by Don Van Vliet, so that Art Tripp had two credits for drumming on the album [m83986] - simply an ongoing 'in joke' by Vliet.

As Tripp later said in a 2006 interview with Steve Froy, I was going to keep my real name... since Art Tripp was reasonably nuts enough.

However, he did continue as 'Ed Marimba'. The 'solo' Spotlight Kid album by Vliet's 'Beefheart' persona credits all the musicians by aliases, with no credit to a group.