My new cuttles

[cephalopoder]

Ok, I let the cat out of the bag earlier and now here are some pictures. But first a little info.

I was able to score four healthy cuttlefish. They are Sepia.bandensis, the stumpy spined cuttlefish.
They acclimated very well and were eating with in minutes of being put into the tank both ghost shrimp and fiddler crabs. I ordered four hoping I might get a pair that I could attempt breeding.I think I might have witnessed some courting behavior tonight and a possible mating
attempt already.:) These cuttles have the signature tiny blue dots along the fin bases.
The short lines on the upper body are also present. They can clearly be seen in some
of the pics. Although nocturnal, I have seen them feed both day and night.
chris

[cephalopoder]

Here is a second pic. Sorry for the poor quality. The file upload size limits what I can post.

[OctoMonkey]

Hi Chris they look cool,

I first noticed some mating may be going on with mine after i spotted sucker marks on the female's face, em thats before he sucked her face RIGHT OFF, that is.

They look a lot like Mike's cuttles from when i watched them on his web cam. What you say Mike?????

What sort of size are they Chris?

Colin

[mantisshrimp]

How long do cutlefish live?

[cephalopoder]

Colin, they range in size from 2"-3". The majority of them are full gron for this species so I am not sure how much time thy have left. There isn't much info on this species and I know of only one scientific paper written on them back in 1939.
Mantis shrimp.. Cuttles can live for up to 2 years depending on the species. I think this specis might be a year or less from birth. There is not much recorded info on these guys to go by though.
chris

[schmunkel98]

Chris, those pictures are a dead ringer for my cuttle. That is cool that you were able to get 4 of them alive and well. The guy I have now is the only one of five cuttles that I have received which is still kicking. The octopus and him have been hanging out more and more lately. Maybe they are getting used to each other. :)

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

[cephalopoder]

Well Mike some bad news. Three out of four have died. One each day. They slowly stopped eating and one was found dead each morning. I suspect mine died the same reasons yours did. Stress during shipping, use of chemicals durring collection, old age( thse guys were full grown when we got them?)
They ate great the first two days then slowly refused food. Water conditions are great. ?

[goodman770]

Just out of curiosity....what size tank are you guys using for these cuddles?

[schmunkel98]

Chris, that really stinks. It takes so long to get these guys, and then to have them die is awful. How big is the one you have? My guy is about 3" long. I think he might have grown a little these past few weeks, but it is hard for me to tell. I think they can get up to about 6 inches in length? The next time I get any cuttlefish will be from Richard Stride to make sure I have several alive and kicking.

Goodman770, my tank is a 135 gallon reef ready tank that has the one cuttlefish, one octopus bimaculoides, seven giant turbo snails, two sand sifting stars, and two filter feeding cucumbers.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

[OctoMonkey]

Sorry to read about that Chris, i hope that th elast one makes it!

Any ideas about what happened yet? Have you checked with teh supplier to see if they have more?

C

[NHreefer]

I spoke with Brian at the New England Aq. who runs the tropicals exhibit and spoke with him about their cuttlefish. They have spawned numerous times but the staff have yet to rear any. Next time you go down that way you might want to try to talk to whoever caes for them and see what they can tell you.
HTH Chris

[cephalopoder]

They have Sepia.o the same cuttles that colin has. They got theirs from the NRCC. Woods Holes gets this from them as well. I wonder why they haven't had any luck rearing them? The species I had were wild caught and weak from collection and shipping. They were also a tropical species that not much is known about.
The ones that the NRCC sells to them are lab raised and very hardy. They should be a breeze to rear them when the eggs hatch as long as they have the proper food. Bill Mebane at woods hole has had great luck with rearing at woods hole feeding newly watched killifish and mysids.
chris

[NHreefer]

The ones I saw the the NEAQ were like 2 feet long, huge. Maybe they have more than one kind, I'll have to look into the woods hole thing. I'm also a Member of the NEAQ Dive Club, and United Divers of NH. I do alot of collecting around Newport in the summer. Have seen quite a bit of squid out there. I was going to try and catch some but they are too fast. Maybe I'll take the nephews and neices tomorrow to the Aquarium, they just stand with the penguins all day!.
Oh Well, I'll keep checking.
Chris