aquarium cuttles

[Sarrah]

Hi
I've been volunteering at my aquarium for a bit. I'm an education volunteer so usually I just get to talk about the animals but the other day my boss suggested I go around with an animal husbandry volunteer while she fed. We fed loads of animals, I especially liked watching the sea anemones and bamboo sharks, but by far the best was watching her feed the cuttefish! I did have a couple question though that she couldn't help me with: First, though you can see pattern change watching the cuttles move around their tank, there was no colour change during feeding, which I had expected (and seen on videos....). Is getting fed in an aquarium just not exciting enough? Do any of you keep cuttles that change colour when feeding? Also, both cuttles float around with their front two arms raised - I had read that this behaviour usually came about when hunting, but it did not show up during the feeding. What is the real meaning of this position? I've seen them hover in it for 10 minutes, without feeding or interacting visibly with the other cuttle in the tank.
Thanks for any answers. Clearly I don't know much about these animals but the 2 at the aquarium are very cool and I'd love to understand a bit more!
Sarrah

 

[Colin]

Hi Sarrah

First off, welcome to TONMO.com

The cuttles that I have kept actually went through more colour changes while feeding than at other times... perhaps the ones you seen were adults in their mature 'zebra' patterns? They seem to keep these for long periods of time?????

They would also just float about with their arms above their heads like you mentioned, I think that it helps to break up their outline and make them look more like a buch of seaweed than a cuttlefish

heres a pic

C

 

[Sarrah]

Hi Colin

Thanks for the reply and cool pic!! Hopefully I will get to watch them feed again (or get a chance to feed them myself.....!!!)

Sarrah