Cuttlefish tank

[oscar]

I worked out the volume of my tank at 146 gallons (660 Litres i think)

I want to breed cuttles, could i house several common european or pharaoh cuttles in this or should i try to find a smaller species? (very hard to do so far!)

 

[fluffysquid]

hm... I'm thinking probably not. You could get away with it for a little while before they grow too much.

They will very often turn on eachother! The NRCC feeds them three times a day to prevent it. Because of the sheer volume of food consumed, they switch them from live grass shrimp to large thawed shrimp. Many times, some cuttles refuse this at first and just grab onto his neighbor and start gnawing.

 

[fluffysquid]

i think i'd try that with european rather than pharoah cuttles, just because they're smaller.

at least in the beginning. i like the pharoahs a lot more though.

 

[Andy Lister]

I thought Pharoahs were smaller, commons can get to 45cm long.

You'll not want to keep them in that tank, far too small I'd say, certainly for two.

We have to feed our commons 5-6 times a day on whole sprat and sandeel and they still try and munch on each other, they are about 15 months old now and the largest one is around 25sm long.

Some of the smaller species are fantastic to keep and pretty easy to breed, like the flambouyant cuttle (mesosepia spp.) they are worth looking into!

~Andy

 

[fluffysquid]

Who or where has bred flamboyants? Now this i gotta hear about!

the NRCC had a few flamboyants and eggs, but when the last of them died, that was all for them. They weren't sucessful with breeding.

They were very nice to look at and generally spent their time walking along the bottom. They certainly dont have the kind of space requirements most cuttles do.

 

[oscar]

flambouyant cuttles are metasepia pfefferi... i have looked into them and decided they might be too hard to obtain even though they are found in my area of Australia - though they arent as common as others.

The reason is that because they stay so small, most that are caught are adults ready to die - bummer

If the NRCC had no luck breeding then i probably won't either...

I have decided on sepia mestus (reaper cuttle) which are also in my area and grow to 15cm ML (mantle length) They are also much easier to identify so as not to confuse them with latimanus (which grow to 50cm ML)
Im not sure if they have been kept in an aquarium but stay in lifelong pairs in the wild withough fighting so they are worth a try!!!

 

[joel_ang]

Chances of seeing a metasepia for sale is pretty slim and they would cost a bomb. I saw a flamboyant once at a LFS aand it was going at only $15. He probably got it by chance and didn't realise its value. Someone got to it before me though

I thought pharoahs were 45cm and offic was 40?

 

[oscar]

for pharaohs i have heard anything from 30cm (NRCC) to 45 (record from cephbase or somewhere for a wild caught adult) I think this is due to the range of temperatures they live in. eg Thailand, Australia, Aquariums... even just along the Aussie coast the temps have a range of several degrees.

Sorry i didnt make it clear... i have only ever seen one ceph in a pet shop in Aus, though octos are more common,this was an unidentified squid

For this reason i am looking into trawlers, i have a few trawlers who are willing to help me so far though i need to look into species more thoughroughly. I am planning a visit before pickup to suss out the species.

Its a pity i cant take them all home![/list]