info needed on keeping a cuttlefish

[richpoolboy]

I just picked up a baby cuttlefish (about 1/4 of an inch long) at my lfs and was just wondering what if anything I need to do thats special to keep it in a 6G pico?

 

[hobogato]

it is almost certainly a dwarf cuttle (Sepia bandensis). it will grow to be about 4"-6" long - likely too big for your pico tank - although that will be ok for it for a short while. the hardest part will be feeding. it will likely only eat live mysids or maybe frozen mysids at this size and as it gets better at hunting amphipods and quicker critters. you can also try newborn baby fish like mollies (they work particularly well because they can acclimate to salt water over a few hours and wont die from osmotic shock as long as they are acclimated properly)

a great site for information is tonmo.com

there are a couple of articals on raising and keeping cuttlefish that are a must read.

good luck, they are cool little critters!

 

[richpoolboy]

thank you, I will check it out. as for now, I just dropped him in the tank and about 35sec. latter..... he is GONE! hope he re-appears soon

 

[CuttleKid]

Putting the cuttle in the tank was a bad idea. You should have put it in a net breeder so you can monitor its food intake.

Best of luck.

 

[richpoolboy]

Well I had planed on had feeding the little guy, do they hide in rock work? I don't think he could have gotten in the filter as I put netting over the intake?

 

[richpoolboy]

as for food I was thinking he looked big enough to take care of the amphipod population since he is the only thing in the tank besides a pistol shrimp and there is a HUGE amphipod colony in there along with copepods.

 

[Octoshark]

As already stated, you will eventually need a bigger tank. I wish I could find a baby cuttle at my lfs, you are lucky.

 

[richpoolboy]

well when the time comes I have an established 55g and another 55g and a 125g getting ready to be set up so I should be good unless he decides to go godzirra on me but there are no Japanese nuclear plants hear by so I think I'm good...lol

 

[Koshmar]

My S. bandensis would always hide under overhangs and come out at night. I would take the pistol shrimp out and start ordering a lot of live mysid. Newborns go through those things insanely fast. It's probably too small to start feeding on pods right now.

 

[L8 2 RISE]

Definitely take the pistol out NOW! They've been known to take down small fish, and it probably wouldn't think twice about the cuttle. You definitely want to order some live mysis/etc. And the reason cuttlekid said to leave it in a breeder was not so you COULD feed it, but so you could watch it eat and monitor the amount it eats. Also, now that it's in the tank, who knows if it's alive- another good reason for the net breeder. Good luck!

 

[richpoolboy]

Found him

 

[richpoolboy]

Do these things normaly hide a lot or are they usualy out front to be seen?

 

[hobogato]

they hide quite a bit until they realize that you feed them. then, they become much more interactive.