Cuttlefish!!!

S

schmunkel98

New member
Well guys, my local Petland finally came through for me on the cuttlefish after two months of waiting! They called me out of the blue at lunch today and said they had two cuttlefish in the store. More importantly, they were alive and kicking! They are about 4 inches big each, and I'm pretty sure they are both Sepia officinalis. I have some blue damsels in there for them to feed on, which they should be able to do since the damsels are about 1/3 the size of the cuttles. I may swing by my pet store and get some live shost shrimp as well. Anyway, I took some quick photos with my digital camera at lunch. I will post them on here if they can fit. More info, pictures, and movies to come! If you watch my web cam you may even see them!!!


Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
CONGRADULATIONS MIKE!!!!
Do you know if they cam in under a scientific name? Or a location?. I do know Sepia.bandensis is in the trade right now. But they only get about 3" full grown and walk along the bottom rather than swim. If you do have Sepia.o then it looks like you have a young ones and a good life ahead of them. Do you have Ceph World Guide? Great guide to ID the beasts. Keep us posted.
chris
 
I talked to the guy at Petland, and he said that they came from Indonesia. He is going to double check on that though. I thougt they looked like Sepia officinalis, but Colin thinks their eyes and coloration is different. I'll try to get some better pictures when I zoom home from work today. I will try to take some movies with my web cam as well. I haven't seen them on the web cam, but they were last hidng out in the rocks right below where the camera view is.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
Thats great, keep us posted. I have a question though. You said you were going to get some ghost shrimp. I thought those were freshwater shrimp, so don't those die shortly after you put them in the tank?
 
Wow I am impressed. Those are beautiful cuttles. I think they look better than Sep. o's and your pictures are blurry!. Very very cute to.. makes want to hung em..ah Well I see your wait was worth it after all.
Very very impressed and great job once again.
I Hope you have a good time with your cuttles man, you waited along time for them,
Take care of your self,
Devon,
BTW: Hey chris on the chat room I left ona bad note..but I didnt leave because I was angry.( I got disconnected) sorry about that and thanks for the tips.
 
Mike
Sepia.o comes from europe the mediterranean and baltic seas. Sepia bandensis comes from indonesia. There are a few others that come from that area as well. As I mentioned before Sepia.bandensis in currenty in the usa trade.
This species is nocturnal and walks using its arms. Your pics look alot like the ones in the ceph world guide for this species.I think yours are too big though for this species.?
As far as ghost shrimp, they are fresh water but will live for a few days in salt. I feed them to my cephs at a treat now and then.
chris
 
Last edited:
The cuttles have been hiding behind the live rock for a while now. I think it is going to take them a little while to get used to the tank. I have seen them move though, and they are not Sepia bandessis. They went zooming toward the ghost shrimp that I put in when I got home from work. All of my damsels are still there, and it seems like the cuttles are a little afraid of them at times. The cuttles are about 2 to 3 times the size of the fish, so I am not worried. There was one instance where 4 or 5 of the damsels went for the same shrimp as one of the cuttles. Well, the cuttle got it, but turned a dark black and retreated back behind the rocks. It seems that white or brown are normal colors and that dark brown or black are a warning. I'm not sure if cuttles are better day or night hunters, so it will be interesting to see howmany damsels are left in the morning. I saw each cuttle get two ghost shrimp, so at least I know they have eaten today. I took some more pictures, and I will post them here in a minute.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
Here's the one that zoomed into the open to snatch a shrimp. It had some competition from the damsels, so it turned a darker color while it slowly backed up behind the live rock while chewing on the shrimp.
 
Here is the other guy, who has parked behind the rocks on the right side of my tank. He got lucky when a few shrimp swam his way.
 
Mike,
The head is definetly all "wrong" for officinalis. Can you get a close up of the cuttle yet? Iam interested to see the eyes..........
 
Colin,

I'll try to get some close-ups this weekend. I did notice that these guys explored a little more at night than they did during the day. Maybe they even snaged a few damsels while they were sleeping! I don't think they were walking using their arms though. Could you tell which species just by eye color?

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
Another aquarium place called me and said that they have 2 cuttlefish in! Can I fit 4 adult cuttlefish in a 135 gallon tank or should I just tell the store to put them up for sale? What if they are a different species? Can I mix cuttlefish species.? Please let me know ASAP!

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
If they are the same species it would be fine. I am not sure how well different species would react. Is there a way you could devide the tank in half? I would think you have a chance of getting the same species from the other place. Sounds your LFS might have gotten them from the same wholesaler. You could also drive over to the LFS and see what they look like. Perhaps you could as Dr. Caldwell.
chris
 
I'm mainly concerned with the size of these guys when they get to be adults. I'm pretty sure my tank is big enough for 4 of these guys, since Colin had 7 in his 80 gallon. Anyway, the cuttles seem to be terrified of the damsels from what I can tell. The last time I checked on them at lunch one of the cuttlefish was in a corner of the tank and one was on top of a powerhead. They both freaked out whenever a damsel would come near. I guess I thought they would consider the damsels a meal not a threat. Will this change soon, or do I need to hunt the damsels down myself?

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Blue Assessor with Percula Clowns?
Replies
4
Views
275
griss
griss
OrionN
Baby CB Regal Angel from Biota
Replies
5
Views
322
OrionN
OrionN
NancyT3
Pyramid Butterfly sick fish - help ID what went wrong
Replies
9
Views
370
NancyT3
NancyT3
NancyT3
Display tank - algae bloom - (19 wk old 140 gal)
Replies
11
Views
337
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
NancyT3
Help with Snail Anxiety
Replies
7
Views
311
NancyT3
NancyT3
Back
Top