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Hi! I have a couple of S. bandensis questions.

Joined
Apr 16, 2009
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Hi Guys!

I brought my first cephalopod home today. It's an S. bandensis, less than an inch long (so around 2 weeks old, right?)

It got home without incident, and started feeding immediately, which surprised me. It took a brine shrimp and then a small shore shrimp, which it ate all but the head of. After this, it rested on a piece of live rock, using two of it's tentacles to anchor itself on the live rock while the head and mantle drifted around a little bit in the small current :rolleyes:

After a few hours of resting in various spots, it swam into the water column and paced the walls of the breeder box. However, it then went up near the surface, and hovered less than 1 cm away from the water surface. Now, I read that this is a bad sign. However, when I put my head over the top of the tank to look at the cuttle, it went back down to midwater seemingly to avoid me. Should I be worried about it hovering near the surface?
 
Okay. That relieves me. At least it seems responsive.

By the way Thales, I enjoy your site (Daisy Hill Cuttle Farm) very much! Are you also on ReefCentral?
 
The bumpy textured bits on it's head are sticking out of the water. When I blow on the water he goes lower down but then after a while of pacing the glass he goes back up...
 
An inch long could be anywhere from a month old to 3 or 4 months old. If things are actually sticking out of the water, feed the animal a lot as your best bet.

Thanks for the nice words. I am on RC but don''t really like it there. I am on Reefs.org a bit though.
 
Was about to say, my largest is about 1 1/2 to 2 inch, smallest 3 1/4 and they are about 2 months old
 
Well he took food today. The brine shrimp from last night were all gone, and I couldn't catch any of the shore shrimp in my tank. Since one of my three constantly fighting (self-caught) pistol shrimp had no more dangerous claws left, I decided to feed him that. He took it with gusto. However, he got spooked again and inked. Is frequent inking bad for their health?

He also seems to be kind of picky (or he doesn't recognise other things as food). There is a small crab (about the size of his head and tentacle) in the enclosure that he didn't hunt, and he didn't even glance at the de-shelled hermit crab either. Seems like it will have to be shrimp...

Can I try to train him to take guppy fry and blackworms as an occasional treat?

Thales;135998 said:
An inch long could be anywhere from a month old to 3 or 4 months old. If things are actually sticking out of the water, feed the animal a lot as your best bet.

Thanks for the nice words. I am on RC but don''t really like it there. I am on Reefs.org a bit though.
Ah...my mistake then. Looks like he or she is older than I thought. Is there any way to sex them without the presence of other cuttles or dissecting them?

It turns out that it was just being attracted to light. My friend tipped me off. It was at night time and at first it was trying to swim against the divider wall in the direction of the refugium light. Then when I switched that off, it went up to the surface and started swimming against the corner in the direction of the TV. So I got some corrugated black plastic board and shielded his area from the lights and he went back to normal behavior.

You're welcome :biggrin2: You deserve it. I especially liked the metasepia video(s)!

djdime;135999 said:
Was about to say, my largest is about 1 1/2 to 2 inch, smallest 3 1/4 and they are about 2 months old

Ah...thanks :biggrin2:
I saw your thread! Congratulations on the 100% success rate!
 
I have some new questions.

1. What temperature is best for cephalopods? Yesterday, the power was turned off for maintenance and the tank temperature went up to 32 degrees celsius. I will get cooling fans that I can operate in emergencies and possibly if that isn't enough, a chiller.

2. How much flow should I give my cuttle? Should I have still water in his breeder box or should I let some of the water from the filter outlet run into the box?

3. How often and in what amounts do I feed?I am currently feeding shore shrimp that are about 0.6" in length. I also fed a clawless pistol shrimp that was around 0.65" long.
 
Hi mate, i am by no means an expert as this is my first time but i can tell you what i do.

My 5 remaining are in a large plastic container within my main tank that is held in place with tunze magnets. One side of the tank is tilted ever so slightly below water level to allow the water to circulate within the holding pen.

Temp, my tank runs constant between 24-27C 24 being at night.

Hope this helps :biggrin2:

Regarding feeding. I feed 2 shore shrimp per cuttle per day. so 5 in the morning and 5 in the evening. I cannot say for sure they ALL eat 2 each as some are bigger, but i know they all get at least one ( in reality the smaller ones are more voracious than the larger 3 )

As for size of food, it ranges but most are at LEAST mantle size.
 
Thanks for the reply :biggrin2:

It seems like I am doing the exact same thing as you! I have one side tilted under the water level ever so slightlyand the filter return blows a little bit of current into the pen. Are you using just a plastic box or one of those livebearer fry boxes?

Temperature wise, it seems that I have a problem with high temperatures. Do cuttles have longer lifespans under cooler temperatures?

I think that it's about right then. I ran out of shore shrimp so I took off the claws of my two unwanted pistol shrimp and I fed them. Do they consider crabs and hermit crabs as prey? I have tried both with no success.

Thanks for the tips :biggrin2:
 
got a guppy breeder, too small, this is prob 12 x 12 so its perfect. cant take from above as my wavemaker makes it too turbulant lol i have like 60 x turnover
 

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