cephaloholic;101466 said:
I have the exact same tank and have an interesting idea. There is the coolest looking cephalopod that I saw in a pet store. It is a bobtail squid. It gets about 2 inches and I was hoping someone could tell me if this is an appropriate size tank. Also any other husbandry things i should know eg. feeding, diurnal/nondiurnal/,and if more than one can be kept safely together
Thank You
That's interesting; we rarely see those in the pet trade, although they're kept for research a lot... you might want to re-post this question somewhere a bit more visible, like make a new thread in cuttlefish care (I know a bobtail isn't a cuttlefish, but its needs are probably closer to cuttles than octos...)
I suspect that a number of the pro researchers will be able to help a lot with this, since the Hawaiian bobtail
Euprymna scolopes is frequently used in research. I think one member who lives in Hawaii kept one he caught himself for a little while, too, but I don't remember who it was, and I seem to remember that marinebio_guy or cuttlegirl may have been involved in keeping them in Hawaii at some point in a lab setting.
My recollection is that they tend to be nocturnal, they bury themselves in sand during the day, and they otherwise have similar needs to small cuttles like
bandensis but I'm sure others have a lot more details. They are often studied for their bioluminescence which comes from symbiotic bacteria in their light organs, which is an added niftiness that could make up for the nocturnal and shy aspects. Probably the usual things we say about nocturnal dwarf octos and lighting apply as well: red lights may be useful for seeing the animal being active without stressing it out... moonlights may be better for bobtails, because they use their ventral photophores to mask their silhouettes from below, so if you have moonlight levels and colors at night, they might give better light shows...