New babies

[DHyslop]

Even without seeing it happen, I strongly suspect Chubbs being behind this. They appeared overnight (now that I got a good look at him there are two more smaller marks on his other side) within days of when the two began this squaring-off behavior.

I realize that's not very rigorous, but it does make more sense to me right now.

Have you known these marks to heal, at all?

Dan

 

[Thales]

It seemed some of them went away in the later groups.

 

[Paradox]

Ive seen this too! At first I didnt know what to think, but I later decided they were bite marks! They were always circular or semi circular. They usually healed sometimes leaving a scar that you can only see because that area doesnt change color as well and would stay dark or black.

Ive thought of illness or fungus, but my instinct really believes bite marks. My current batch were all females and no marks have appeared in the entire 7-8 months of having them. My last batch were 3 males and 2 females. There were often marks, usually on the smaller cuttles.

 

[cuttlegirl]

Given the shape of the cuttlefish's beak, I wouldn't think the bite mark would be circular. Maybe they're suction cup marks (hickeys???)? I haven't seen this on mine, but I will watch closely from now on. I don't remember ever seeing anything like this on my S. officinalis. I had "butt-burn" and secondary bacterial infections, but I never saw and intraspecific injuries (of course my tank was 8 feet in diameter!!).

I'm going to do a little research...

 

[Colin]

I had always assumed that they were bite marks too. I once had an officinalis killed by another cuttle and it was covered in such marks too.

 

[DHyslop]

Boo common shore shrimp

Hooray crabs!

About a week ago we ordered a new batch of shore shrimp. Paul didn't have any all week (Ernesto?), but instead sent a free order of the tiniest fiddler crabs he had to last us until he could get some shrimp out after Labor Day.

The cuttles were very curious about the crabs as soon as we put them in, but it took them a couple hours before either one tried to strike. And even then they didn't have much luck: they would grab hold and fumble for a bit until they realized that theses things are hard and not soft like shore shrimp. Even worse when they struck one that was crawling on the divider screen: the cuttles are used to tagging a shrimp and pulling it into them but are mighty shocked when they "retract" and are pulled into their prey!

I was on the verge of panic last night that I wouldn't have anything they'd eat for a week when I looked in and saw one of them with his arms wrapped around the most awkwardly shaped bundle with little crab legs sticking out.

And then later that night we found the carcass of the largest of the crabs that had been put in: he looked intact, except he was completely empty with a little hole in one of the corners!

After this batch of shrimp is up we might switch to fiddlers. Each crab costs more than twice each shrimp, but I need to see how many they eat per day. Paul also sells them in smaller lots, so I need to talk to him to see if he can accomodate larger orders.

Also, an update on the marks. They've appeared on Chubbs a grand total of twice. They completely heal in about 2 or 3 weeks. Although I still haven't seen it happen, I believe they're inflicted by the other cuttlefish. Despite a lot of squaring-off, I haven't seen any new marks in over a month. Chubbs isn't quite as submissive to Checkers as he was before, and that might have something to do with it--he doesn't just let the other push him around as much.

What's funny is that for all the time they spend doing their male-male behavior, they still spend a lot of time sitting or swimming together peacefully.

Dan

 

[Nancy]

So your little cuttles have a new skill - they can eat crabs! They have so much to learn when they start out.

It's good to see you're getting the same wonderful personal service from Paul that I did. We were always able to work out something and he did his best to give me exactly what I needed - small fiddlers or larger fiddlers or female fiddlers, etc.

Please keep up the detailed reports - they're fun to read!

Nancy

 

[Paradox]

Congrats!!

Im always excited about that time when they switch to crabs. For me, that means I dont have to pay for thier food anymore though..

Typically, the cuttles dont use thier feeding tentacles on crabs. They seem to dart in really fast with all arms open.

 

[DHyslop]

I found another carcass this morning. I put a couple crabs in tonight, but they're still a little clumsy in catching them. I saw one strike, pick up the crab, then drop him after a few seconds. I noticed that he didn't use the tentacles.

The little guys just need some more practice. Tourist season ends after tomorrow so we're going to see if we can't find some little crabs at the beach. The only bait crabs we've found might be OK if we had an adult S. officianalis! If the beach doesn't pay off we're going to make Paul Sachs real happy over the coming months

Dan

 

[Paradox]

Ive found that crabs are easier to find in areas like bays with rocky shores. When I first looked for collecting spots, I went to all the beaches with sand and found nothing. When I went inland more, the shore of the bay is calmer and with a lot of rocks. When the tide goes down, turning over the rocks that are a little higher then the water level revealed some crabs...

Hope that helps i nyour search.. It took me a couple days to find a good spot.

 

[DHyslop]

We've tried a few spots in the past to no avail. There aren't many rocky areas around here, but where there are we do sometimes see dead crabs in the tidepools. Its just a matter of finding where the live ones are hiding!

 

[Paradox]

With the spots I frequent, the rocky shores arent neccessarilly natural.. They are landfill and the rocks are more of remnants of old and crushed roads, which I guess are a combination of stones mixed with concrete. not the best description, but i hope this may help you find a spot.

 

[DHyslop]

My first cuttlefish bite!

I was playing around with Chubbs a few minutes ago: sometimes I will chase him around the front pane with my hand until he calms down and sits in it. I figure I'm not stressing him out too much because he never inks and he always will sit eventually. He'll sometimes wrap his arms around my fingertip and feel me up a little day. Today, sure enough, I felt the little tiny prick of his beak. He let go for a seconds, then bit again and held on. After a little while of his beak embedded into my finger I gently shook him off.

I wonder if he's practicing for the fiddlers!

 

[DHyslop]

Well my shrimp arrived within minutes of the departure of the last fiddler.

I'm not sure if Checkers has been eating the fiddlers: I've only seen it happen maybe half the time, and I'm pretty sure Chubbs was the culprit. I convinced Checkers to eat a krill last night. I've tried to offer them a few times with little luck. This time when he wasn't interested I decided to get aggressive and start poking the shrimp around near his arms. He wasn't happy with that at first but as soon as it touched the underside of an arm he was on it like stink on a monkey!

He wrapped around it so tightly I couldn't get the feeding stick off. I'd try to pull it a little bit but only succeeded in pulling the cuttlefish in little circles around the tank. He didn't seem to mind.

Chubbs likes the fiddlers but can't eat very much of them and doesn't seem to eat as often--I wonder if he's full enough to last for a few days or waits until he's really hungry to take one on. Either way we're likely going to go through a few more batches of shore shrimp before switching to fiddlers as a staple.

Dan

 

[xavier]

why is there no pictures of these guys?!?!? i want pics they sound soo cool!