Cuttlefish Aquarium

[CoMMaNdeR]

Hello guys,

I always wished to keep a tank with at least two cuttlefish. I have good experiance with reef tanks and now it's time that I try to keep cuttlefish.

I read some info about them but still I can say I am not good updated about many things, like which species, food requirments, corals & fish that are safe to keep with them etc.

Can you please help me out?

BTW, I am planning to keep them in a well established 30g aquarium, with sump, skimmer etc.

Thank you alot.

 

[Animal Mother]

You won't be able to keep more than one dwarf cuttle (Sepia bandensis) in a 30 gallon.

Try finding a copy of the book Cephalopods: Octopuses and Cuttlefish For The Home Aquarium by Colin Dunlop and Nancy King. It contains pretty much everything you need to know.

No anemones or corals with potent stinging ability/sweeper tentacles. No fish, period. They are predatory and what fish they can't eat will likely eat them. If you get a bigger tank you can keep multiple dwarf cuttles together, 55 gallon for 3, 75 gallon for about 5 or 6, etc.

Best place on the net to learn about them is TONMO.com

 

[Koshmar]

Another site would be Cephbase, the cephalopod page. Maintained by a Dr. Wood, it has links to multiple articles about keeping them.
You'll need heavy filtration, a rounded tank (no corners) is best because of a little situation called "butt-burn" that occurs when jetting, I would advise against shipping an adult because of inking, You'll need a lot of food if you're going for juveniles/eggs.
Best of luck on the research.

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Hello guys and thanks for your reply.

My system consists of a 30g aquarium and a sump of 10g so totaly I have 40g. I think 40g is good to keep 2 cuttlefish right? As for filtration, in my sump I have alot of chaeto algae and a turboflotor 1000 sl skimmer, overated for this kind of setup and that's why I beleive it will be good for this type of fish/invert that produce alot of waste.

Living in Europe it will be a bit difficult for me to buy sepia bandensis but will be very easy to fins sepia officinalis, even I can go to the sea and bring 2 juvenilles.

I have a question, if I bring a bunch of sepia officinalis eggs and try to hatch them in my aquarium. What do you think I need to raie the babies? Will they accept frozen mysis or artemia?

Thank you

 

[Animal Mother]

Sepia Officinalis grows to 16". You won't be able to keep one for more than a month or two. They grow THAT FAST. No way you could keep 2 unless they are hatchlings and that would only last for a couple of months like I said. I cannot emphasize how fast cephalopods grow. As the other person pointed out, they can injure themselves in a small tank also. They jet around when startled and they can jet straight into the glass and bust their mantle open, exposing their cuttle bone, then they die from infection.

You would only be able to keep 1 dwarf cuttle through maturity in a tank that small. They need space to move about, and they will attack each other.

Babies will not accept frozen foods for at least a few weeks. You will need LIVE mysis. Amphipods are too difficult for them to catch until they become experienced hunters and grow. They eat A LOT.

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Thank you for your information.

I do not know why on the internet many people say that a 30g is enough for 1-2 sepia. I will give it a try and if they grow so fast I will give them to the LFS.

From where do you buy live mysis?

 

[Animal Mother]

I order my live mysis from www.aquaculturestore.com but I don't know that they would ship overseas.

TONMO.com is THE place to get your cephalopod husbandry information. The information is current, and comes from people from all over the world with years of hands on experience, both on a professional and hobby level. Many of them have degrees and are experts in various fields of Marine biology. Some of them have bred sepia species. They know what they are talking about, and if they don't know the answer, they'll tell you they don't know the answer, instead of making something up.

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Thank you for the info and help.

Happy new year !!

 

[Thales]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14084577#post14084577 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CoMMaNdeR
Thank you for your information.

I do not know why on the internet many people say that a 30g is enough for 1-2 sepia.

Thats because there are many species of Sepia. Some are 2-4 centimeters and other get to be a meter and everything in between. One of the things I would like to see in all ceph keeping is the use of actual species rather than generalities.

Good luck!

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

What you mean by 'keeping actual species' Thales?

Do you mean wild caught species?

 

[Animal Mother]

He means defining individual species, like S. bandensis, S. officinalis, S. latimanus, etc., especially when discussing the husbandry requirements.

Generalizing "cuttlefish can be kept in a 30 gallon" is misleading and inaccurate, whereas saying "Sepia bandensis can be kept in a 30 gallon" or "Sepia officinalis can be kept in a 180 gallon" doesn't allow room for misinterpretation.

 

[Thales]

Yep!

Most of the articles out there actually make the distinctions, but people still seem to lump them all together.

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Does anyone keep squids in the aquariums?

I know people that keep cuttlefish and even breed them with success but what about squids? Do they need same requirments as cuttlefish even for breeding ?

 

[Koshmar]

I'm no expert on squid but from what I've read they are social animals that need a lot of room to swim. I've heard of long distance migrations made by groups of squid. One post I read was written by a guy that caught two small squids from the ocean and attempted to raise them. They died shortly after.
I would definately check out tonmo.com, I'm sure someone over there has kept one, though probably in a well equiped facility.

 

[Thales]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14084646#post14084646 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Animal Mother
I order my live mysis from www.aquaculturestore.com but I don't know that they would ship overseas.

TONMO.com is THE place to get your cephalopod husbandry information.

Its not that people don't want to answer your questions, its just that they don't want to answer the same questions over and over again.

Squid are very difficult to keep in captivity.

 

[CoMMaNdeR]

Does anyone has ever breed squids in captivity?

There is nearly no info in the internet about how squids hatch, how long, temperature etc.

 

[Animal Mother]

To put it plainly, no.

Squid require more space and live food than would be practical for any kind of home aquarium situation.

Did I mention www.TONMO.com is full of information about cephalopods?

 

[Henry100]

I have read an article about keeping and breeding cuttlefish(Sepia Officinalis) in laboratory tanks.It says that they are around 8-10cm long when being 4-5 months old.It also says that they accept brine shrimp and mysis shrimp from the first day of their live,although mysis shrimp is a healthier food for them than brine shrimp.It didn't mention the word ''live'' anywhere,as I remember.You can also find it,using a search phrase such as ''breeding sepia officinalis'' or ''sepia officinalis'' in MSN search.

 

[Animal Mother]

It took my baby S. bandensis a month to even consider trying frozen. That was trying every other day. They accepted live food no problem.

Okay, so according to that article, you assume you could keep an S. officinalis hatchling in a 30 gallon for about 4 or 5 months, then they'll be about the same size as an adult S. bandensis. Then when you go to relocate it how do you take it out of the tank without it bashing itself apart trying to elude capture? 8-10cm at 4 or 5 months means they have grown about 10 times their size since hatching, in that short period of time, assuming they hatch out at about 1-2cm long as they do to my recollection. Given my experience with octopuses, I can say cephalopod growth doesn't really slow down significantly until they are full-size.

There's no good arguement to keep a species that grows to 1'6" in a system that is maybe 2.5 times that in width, and probably not even 18" in depth from front to back.