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Cuttle ID help!

Joined
Feb 18, 2005
Messages
709
I have a new cuttle that I do not know the species. Can anyone help with the ID.

Here are a couple of images I took. Hopefully they are good enough..I cant seem to get the art of taking good tank pics...

untitled17mr.jpg


and

sideview2tw.jpg


It is currently 1.5 inches or so...

Im hoping its a bandenesis or will have to find it a new/largerhome very soon...

Thanks!!
 
I have some from right as well..actually I will be baby sitting his cuttles for a while..=)

This guy however is from a local fishstore...The tag said "Tank Raised Cuttle" The worker there stated that it was from a guy in LA that breeds them.. However, this fish store has a notoriously bad reputation, so I do not know if this is true and have no idea where it is from...

Congradulations on your new guy...Im sure you already have the obbsession with them. I just cant stop looking at them!!
 
if you bought if from a lfs and they say its a tank raised s bandensis, then either its not tank raised or its not an s bandensis, cuz i dont know of anyone else who breeds, no less sells to lfs's.
 
The sign just said tank raised cuttlefish...no species name..I didnt know any other breeders as well, so the story seemed contrived. Righty's opinion was similar.

Im only accustomed looking at small baby bandenesis, and this guy is much bigger. The babies seem to range in color from white to the dark red. This guy has definite patterns as you can see. Also, the baby bandenesis seem to like having their skin in the rough rocky texture when resting. This guy is always smooth skinned. But who knows..,maybe older bandenesis look much different...
 
OK, not 100% sure on this but I had a cuttle that looked very similar to that. Your description of the color range between white and dark red matches mine too. The irises of the pupils, that kind of zigzag, also matches. The pattern looks similar, and the small slender appearance of the arms. However the head seemed smaller in relation to the body.

I never positively identified mine, but tentatively it seemed to match pictures and descriptions of Sepia aculeatus (juvenile). I think that guy from Taiwan who posted the link to his photo album on this forum had pics of some of his. Does it bury itself in the sand completely?

Mine also had some unpleasant habits, which i have videotaped - producing a "skin" of mucous which they shed, and which seems to be toxic to other types of cuttlefish.
It was also quite topsy-turvy, its body tending to rock back and forth. This same rocking movement was used when it would very quickly bury itself in the sand.
 
I cant see the videos. Sad me.

Do the white markings on the head and body stay the same, or do they change? They kind of look like injuries.

If it was tank raised, they really should be able to tell you more than cuttlefish. :biggrin2:
 
He does half bury himself in the sand...Ive only had him since yesterday, so Ive not had that much exposure to his behaviours yet. Early He had an appearance that actually made me concerned that he had an injury or had some thin layer of skin peeling off..However, he doesnt look that way anymore.

Righty-The spots do change color, but it seems like its a fixed area...like I can see the definition of the spots all the time, even when its a diff color..Hmm did that make any sense?

Did the video work for everyone else?
 
i only know the species from around australia - it doesn't look quite like the other bandensis to me but it looks like it does have the blue spots on the edges on the fin around the mantle... (dunno what to call it) - can you tell from the eye swirl?
 
Paradox, I'm sure it's the same type as mine. It's not skin peeling off I think, but actually some very compact skinlike secretion. Perhaps this protects it from injury by abrasion when it buries in the sand? Mine was only about 3 or 4 inches mantle length.

Mine never adapted well to captivity - it was VERY prone to inking, and it's secretions seemed to greatly irritate the Sepia pharoanis. it got stuck between some rockwork and secreted a different kind of mucous to free itself, HUGE amounts of slime in seconds. I had to remove it from the tank and change most of the water to clear out the secretions. While I was doing this I had to take the S. pharoanis out too. I thought it had calmed down a bit and stopped secreting, and had the two cuttles (the slimer separated in a plastic basket) in the same container as I did the water changes. Big mistake. I checked back and there was a slimy white foam covering the surface (had an airstone in there). The slimy one was fine, unaffected by it's slime, but the Pharoah was catatonic. I rushed the pharoah back to it's tank in a plastic bag and had to introduce it to clean water more quickly than normal, so I let a little water into the bag. It's tentacles were hanging loose (very bad sign indeed). In a few minutes I released it, but it's tentacle suckers stuck to the bag as it tried to come out. It couldn't let go. I gently eased the suckers off, afraid it was going to tug its tentacle off trying to jet out. That's when it jetted out and hit the side of the tank, leading to butt burn that has since got infected. He slowly recovered over the next 24 hours, but has never really been the same since then. He has also been fighting the infection ever since (more than a month ago).

As for the S. aculeatus (I think) I could not reintroduce it to the tank and had to keep it separately. Unfortunately this species is very prone to JUMPING OUT, and this is what it did! It did not last long after that.

I thought I was bringing home another Pharoah when I bought it. Having said all this, the two did not fight and their attempts at communication seemed to indicate that they did not "speak the same language", and so basically ignored one another. If not for the horrible secretions they might have co-existed well, as they are active at different times and not agressive to one another.

I would like to try S. aculeatus again but with its own species and a proper lid to prevent jumping. I suspect they are pretty tolerant about water quality considering that they are not much affected by their own noxious slime. They seem to need a few inches of soft sand, lots of cover, and are more active at night. Rockwork against the glass is a bad idea as they can get stuck. They are extremely interesting

I will try and post my video as well.
 
Great videos! It's definitely the same one. They're kind of roly-poly, and with their bulgy eyes and little arms they look like cute but slightly creepy Japanese anime characters.
 

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