Cuttlefish!!!

The less stress on the cuttles the better. So if you have to bait litte hooks and fish for them I would get them out of there.
As far as cuttle size, with out ID ing the species you don't know how big they get.
They could be full grown now for all you know. A lot of cuttles stay rater small compaired to Sepia.o
chris
 
Hi Mike,

My tank is closer to 200 gallons if you include the sumps etc. I am down to 6 cuttles as of last week because one got eaten by the other. I never meant to get 7 i ordered 5 but Richard being such a nice guy threw in extra. My intention has always been to re-home most of them and keep a pair or trio for breeding so my stocking level was temporary at best. also remeber that i run a aqua medic 5000 skimmer. that holds and extra 7 gallons or so too and stands over 4 feet tall.

If your tank is mature enough and can handle the waste then go for it, i would. remeber they are way more messy than an octo to keep!

I would take those damsels out!

From looking at the pics again i would guess yours have a mantle length of 3" is that about right? The size guide of the mantle alone will help ID

Hope your having fun with them :)
C
 
i had the same situation a few months ago. A brand new octopus in the tank and I had not taken out my four damsels. I didn't realize the octopus would be so small. I had to take out all the rocks (except for the one the octo was in) and spend an hour catching all the damsels. Once I got to the fourth one I was actually pretty good at catching them :D
 
Well guys, I'm down to just one cuttlefish now. I have no clue what killed the other 3. That's right, 3 are dead. I decided to go ahead and get the other two that were at the other store. So, I had a total of 4 in my tank as of last night. This morning I saw one of them not moving, so I decided to turn the lights on to take a look. I found 3 dead ones right off the bat out in the open. I don't think they were picked on, because there were no signs of them being eaten. After searching around, I found one guy left alive. He is the smallest of all of them at about 2" mantle length. I find it odd that he made it out of all of them since the big guys should be able to hack it more. Anyway, I'm determined to get the damsels out now, even if I have to strip the tank bare. I'm going to try to bait them with small hooks first though. Below are the results of the tests I did on my tank after noticing the dead duttles.

Nitrite = between <.3 and .3
Ammonia = 0
Nitrate = 12.5
Salinity = 35 ppt
PH = 8.0
Temp = 72

I didn't think these numbers were that bad. The nitrite is up some, but that's it. I may do a water change anyway just to make sure everything equals out. Anyway, any ideas on what caused them to die? Was it just stress? I thought I did everything I could to make it stress free, short of getting rid of the damsels.


Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
Sorry to hear about your crappy luck again!

I hope the other one survives!

Let me know if i can help.....................
 
Mike sorry to hear about your loss.
I was kind of joking about the hooks, (they might work though) You can buy fish traps or try a plastic minnow trap.
I really hope this litte guy pulls through for you.
Were all here if you need help.
chris
 
Well, the lone survivor has the run of the tank now with the two starfish and the two sea cucumbers. I took advantage of the rocks being out of there and scraped all the algae that I could in those hard to reach spots. I will offer him some more ghost shrimp tomorrow to see if he will come out to eat them. I'm worried about dead ones piling up in the tank though. I guess I will have to gather them up if I see them dead the day after. I took some pictures with a real camera, so I will scan them and post them when I get them developed this next week. I'm glad I got these guys in, but I have no idea how the companies I got them form shipped them. They might have been barely alive when I got them and stressed to the max. I think it is a minor miracle that any of them survived at all. I'm sure the super-aggressive damsels didn't help any either. I wish someone would tell people not to get those fish for a starter. Yeah, they are hardy, but they are a royal pain after you first get going. I'll keep you guys posted.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
Mike, I have to feed my cuttles twice a day now to keep them "happy". They eat more than an octopus by far. Try feeding the cuttle by tying shrimp to a thread.
I sometimes feed them by hand if one is getting chased from the food area, but they are relaxed with me, its ages since one inked.

If you have adults of a small species, what are the chances that the lone survivor killed the others? They could all be males or a species that is very territorial.

The Sepia o's that i have are only just tolerating each other because they grew up together. Adding two mature animals together is WWIII apparantly.

Just an idea????????
 
Colin,

I tried putting the shrimp on a thread thing, and the cuttle didn't go for it. He only seems to go for live moving shrimp. I will post the pictures I have of this new guy when I get them developed this week. He blends in very well and is often hard to find cause he looks like a little rock. He has even made his body spiked a little to blend in better! I'm hoping to reach the point where he feels free to roam the tank without any fear. That way I can offer food in the open without having to coax the shrimp in his direction without scaring him in the process. I don't think this guy was an adult cause he is very small. Maybe the others guys stressed out or did have some fighting. I still find it odd that the smallest guy of the bunch is still here. Do you think I should try to order some more cuttles through the local stores again or stick with this one guy? I really like the idea of have at least two in my tank, and mating these guys would be fun too.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
I would stick with just this one for the time being and learn how to care for it. I was kinda overwhelmed for a bit with seven to feed and care for at once! And anyway, if you order more, what are the chances of them even being the same species? or size? and i still reckon from what i know and what Richard told me, that if you put two together that are not used to company you've got a fight.

Make sure you test your water, having three die in the tank will have affected something, maybe that's why it wont feed.

Try not to disturb it too much when feeding, can you get crabs? (obviously i mean the sea dwelling crabs! :D ) that si by far their favourite!

This cuttle may have survived because it is the smallest. The others, being bigger produced more waste in their bags????

Colin
 
Chris,

My temp is at 72 during the day. It drops down to about 71 or 70 during the night though.

Colin,

My last cuttle has been eating every day. I have only had success putting live food near him though. He has yet to come out of the rocks and hunt for food. I basically end up dumping a bag of about 10 live ghost shrimp in his direction and he eats a few of them right away. Sometimes I have to coax them in his direction again if he misses on the first shot. I went ahead and ordered two more from the closest pet store. In the meantime I will keep fattening up this guy. I'm still waiting on the pictures from the real camera, but I will try to take some digital ones tonight. They won't be as good of quality though. I need to get a camera that has a manual focus.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
You might want to try bumping the temp up a little. With the exception of Sepia.O most cuttles come from tropical waters. Their normal temp would be between 78-84. My mimic tank is kept at 82. A lot of tropical species are also nocturnal so you might want to try dimming bright light if you have any on.
 
Chris,

I'll try bumping it up to about 74 or so. I'll take off the DIY Chiller and that should do it. If this little guy is a Sepia officinalis, is the warmer temp going to hurt him? I wouldn't think so. Anyway, I watched him eat 6 ghost shrimp yesterday that were about 1/2 inch long each. I would put one near him, let him chew on it a while, then drop another near him. He should grow pretty fast if he keeps eating like this!

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
Mike,

I think getting another two will be a bad idea! I have read that cuttles will fight and Richard told me the same about S o's he had too.

A rigid piece of airline cut into a point is good for spearing food and waggling it in their faces! That worked for me!

I'll check for your pics tonight
C
 
Here is the first of two good close up pictures of my cuttle. He has made himself dark and bumpy to blend in with my live rock. It makes him very hard to spot.
 
I'm not sure how else to identify this guy. I'm unlikely to get a good analysis of the suckers on the tentacles. If the spikes are a temporary blending disguise, then would this rule it out as a Sepia bandensis? I will post more pictures as I get better scans.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com
 
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