• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Cuttlefish diet

Interesting discussion - I've done a lot of reading on this subject, but for humans! However, the same concerns exist.

The best quality seafood with the most nutrients is either very fresh or quickly frozen and rushed to you. Ideally it should be kept well frozen and never allowed to thaw, then freeze again - you pay more for seafood that's been properly handled.

I used to go early in the morning to the best seafood shop in town where they had gulf shrimp caught the day before, frozen on the shrimp boat and rushed to Dallas. The store unfroze the 5-pound block of ice and shrimp early in the morning. I was able to buy shimp that was still partially frozen and rush it home on ice. I used it that day, maybe the next, but no longer. That seemed to work very well. It was also quite expensive ($16-$22/pound).

Also, if you catch your own food along the seashore, the question of water quality and pollution comes up. I don't imagine this is an issue for Colin in Scotland, but it's something to consider along some of the US coastlines.

I've read of cephs rejecting food that's too old, such as a frozen shrimp thawed out several days before.

It's an interesting point about the food affecting the lifespan - there's so much we still don't know.

Nancy
 
I knew that food cooked and then frozen would definitely lose nutrients, but what do you guys think if the food was partially cooking during the thawing process?..also I have access to selcon, how long should the shrimp soak and what keeps the selcon from being mostly lost when it hits the water?....it would be very easy to slip these guys some vitamins, food sticks, or anything else in their food, so any ideas on what would be best to sneak to them?
 
Hi Oscar

yeah I got half a dozen of Mike's wee babies :smile:

They are doing fine. Still in a nursery tank as I havn't quite finished my new fish room project, but its getting there.

They are still on live Crangon shrimps and tiny shore crabs at the moment, hope they will move onto dead food soon

cheers
Colin
 
sounds good - i bet you'll be glad to be back into it after all that time! And the fish room sounds like you managed to persuade the other half... how are the salamanders and that going by the way? any new additions?
 
I have adopted a few of Righty's baby bandenesis and am currently feeding them shore caught pods. However, Ive been concerned about the possible pollutants as mentioned earlier as well. I live in the san francisco bay area.

Are there any other suggested foods that 1/4 inch month old bandenesis can eat? At this age I think we are pretty limited in food choices.
 
Hey! How are they doing?
Size is the important thing - so anything you can get your hands on that is just smaller than the cuttlefish themselves will work.
Baby guppies or mollies
Baby saltwater guppies from octopets
Live mysids gotten from where ever you get them (mysid-shrimp.com)
You could also use frozen mysids if you can get them to eat them (terrible sentence structure!)

Where are you collecting from?
 
Hey there =)

Two days after acclimation, unfortuanetly one didnt make it. I am unsure what occurred. I have tested the water in the tank many times and the only thing i can detect is maybe nitrates at 5, which is pretty much gone after I did a water change. Its been almost a week and a half now and the others seem to be doing well. They are eating a couple times a day, maybe more becuase I throw 3-4 pods in there a day.

After going to 3-4 beaches, I found that you need to go to places with very little waves/currents. More inland seemed to be the key. Im going near candlestick park just a couple miles south of 101 from the city.

I was prettybummed out about the one loss, and would like to wait another week or so to be sure everything is ok and if possible, I would like to get another one from you for I still want to attempt keeping 2 in the 50 gallon tank.

Have you found any local sources for food to feed your babies other then wild caught pods? Im not aware of any local stores that carry mysis shrimp and I havent tried weening to frozen foods yet. I may try this weekend.

Thanks again!
 
When things settle down, come by and I'll replace the one that didn't make it.

I am using the local pods because anything else is too expensive, and I have raised them on them before (more terrible sentence structure!) till 8 months when they died from an abrasion that got infected. Soon though, they will be big enough to move to ghost shrimp and other fish.

There are really no local sources of mysids that are reliable - though reed mariculture may start soon.

:biggrin2:
 
Thanks Righty!

I will probably stay on the local caught pod diet until they are big enough for small ghost shrimp or bab guppies. I just noticed that one has grown to about a half an inch. Ill post pictures and perhaps video soon.. =)
 
Mermaid Aquarium 46513 Mission Blvd., Fremont, CA 94539 • (510) 498-8272 says on the seapod website that mermaid carries them.

the Bandenesis, how long to gorm to full size.

thanks
 
The species of shrimp that I have been catching are called crangon and once you get the hang of it are quite easy to catch, They lie just under the surface of the sand.

Best place to look for them, I have found is it an estuary, in the puddles left when the tide goes out. From talking to a good friend last week, apparently the best place to get mysis by the thousands are a mile or two upstream from the coast.

Here a pic of the tank I am using for the shrimps.. (think that mike was looking for pics?)

Its 44x22x20 inches and hold about 80 gals. There is about 20 kg of live rock and the skimmer is an aquamedic 1000 multi There are currently about 200 crangon in there with half a dozen flatties and a couple of sand gobies
 

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Since Shanlyn gave the go-ahead on the cuttles, I am first setting up two tanks for breeding guppies and mollies (salt)...I am jealous of you guys near the beach !!
greg-in-the-desert
 

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