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setting up tank for baby S bandensis?

squiggy

Hatchling
Registered
Joined
Aug 17, 2007
Messages
3
hi all, ive been wanting a cuttle fish or octopus for a long time and my LFS got in some dwarf cuttle eggs and there hatching, right now i have a saltwater nano tank(its an 8g biocube)and whant set to set up a 10g to raise afew cuttles in net breeders then give each there own 10g(or 20g)tank, i was planning on useing some dead sand, afew pounds of live rock from my 8g plus some dead base rock and some macro algea and mabie some water my 8g too, if i do it that way how long untile i can add the cuttles?, sence iam useing well aged and dead rock there shouldent be a nitrite/nitrate spike right? and sence the cuttles will be so small not mutch bioload, i will keep them in the 10g wile i get new live rock and start up there 20g tanks untile they cycle, and do i realy need a skimmer? ive never used one before if i just do a weekly(or bi wekkly) WC and have a couple HOB filters(changed often)will that be enough?

sorry for the long post i just dont whant to do anything wrong sence ive never kept anything like cuttles before

thanks
 
:welcome:

although those might be OK for hatchlings, from recent member experiences, you'll want to be ready with a much bigger tank on rather short order. Cuttlegirl found that her 3 outgrew her 30 gallon pretty fast, and I think she's said that she thinks even just one would get too big for the 30gal to support at some age (I think it was 6 months, but do a forum search on her posts to make sure.) I think that pretty much matches up to Dan, Thales, and D's experiences, too.

Because cephs are so sensitive to water quality, we recommend 3 months for new tanks to stabilize enough to move them in, it's probably unwise to assume you can cut that shorter. Skimmers help a lot when there's inking, and I think they're pretty good for the type of waste cephs produce, so they're definitely a recommended part of the TONMO standard recommended setup.

I'm sure our bandensis keepers will chime in with more details shortly... :cuttlehi:
 
thanks monty when you say her three out grew a 30g do you mean they were togeather? i thought they had to be kept alone? iam going to get three and see how they do iam hopeing at least one will live if they all do i will probably just keep one or two sence three tanks are a bit mutch, i was thinking of raiseing them in the 8g in a net breeder sence its been up for 9 months but i cant add a skimmer, how mutch waste would three baby cuttles produce? also i keep the tank at 78-83 but the only place i can get baby cuttel food is at the beach witch has pretty cold water and iam not sure how poluted it may be(i have to get food from there sence theres no other option unless they take frozen)so iam worried the scuds/shrimp will just hit the warm water and die or give my fish/shrimp parasites or diease is that possibel?
 
If you get all males they will likely fight. Cuttlegirl had 2 male and 1 female. Three would be the maximum in a 55 gallon tank. Twenty gallons is really too small, thirty used to be the recommended but I believe people are starting to say 55 (much like the change with Bimacs a while back), even for just one.
 
Thirty was my recommendation for one animal.
Grouping them successfully seems to depend on if they were raised together or not, and the age of the animals.
Mixing adult wild caught animals almost always leads to fighting and usually at least one death. Mixing babies/juveniles can be more forgiving.

I just moved my 4 month old juveniles from the small nursery tank, where they got along fine, to a sectioned off area of the 125, where they immediately fought. Perhaps new surroundings makes for new dominance games.

The issue with these guys is they start very small and get much bigger. That being the case, I don't believe they are actually suited to only one tank, rather to ensure feeding a progression of tank sizes seems to work out best.
 
thanks for the help ive started setting up the 10g with macro algea from my other tank and rock with new sand and some base rock, then iam going to see how well it looks when i get back from my 10 vacation and see if the LFS even has cuttles or eggs left, if they do and the tank seems stabel enough i will get one or two and see how they do(iam going to try and get a skimmer wile iam gone too)if the tank starts cycle or something i will move them to the 8g in a net breeder, but dos anyone know about them or there food giveing my fish, shrimp coral in my other tank parasites or anything? and just how fast do they grow?
 
You had better start setting up a larger tank than a 10 gallon for them... I had a 30 gallon set up for 3 cuttlefish and I bought a 55 gallon (already cycled, with live rock) shortly after purchasing my hatchlings. I had a small cycle (since I had to tear down the tank and move it to my house. At 6 months old, I moved mine to the 55 gallon. You will need a protein skimmer for sure, but they will spend little time in the 10 gallon, they grow very fast.
 

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