Sexing Sepia officinalis

[invert.junkie]

I have two semi mature specimens of these cuttlefish in a 120 gal at my school, and wanted to find out how to differentiate sex on them.
They are kept apart by a divider but I did let them go together once to see if they could get along, but they seemed to be afraid of each other.

 

[Jean]

to be honest I'm not sure. PM Thales, he breeds cuttles!

J

 

[marinebio_guy]

It very hard just by looking at them. Usually its by behaviour and sometimes coloration. Although I've seen females look and act like males and males look and act like females. Generally if you put them togeather they should be fine, in some cases two males will fight but it only rarely leads to death.

 

[Thales]

Shucks Jean!

Yep, really hard to sex them - even by behavior. Males will act like females and females will act like males.
A 120 (4 feet) is prolly small for a couple of officinalis.

 

[invert.junkie]

Shucks Jean!

Yep, really hard to sex them - even by behavior. Males will act like females and females will act like males.
A 120 (4 feet) is prolly small for a couple of officinalis.

My lab has been keeping them is these tanks for a while, there is two sumps on the tank as well. Its stripped down to get access to them for experimentation.

 

[Thales]

Never actually kept that species myself, just parroting 'common wisdom' floating around TONMO.

 

[cuttlegirl]

I would say a 120 gallon is going to be too small as they get bigger. I kept mine in at least an 8 foot diameter circular tank. As they get bigger you are probably going to have issues with "butt burn." I seem to remember my S. officinalis being more active than my S. bandensis are. You can't really sex them easily until they are larger. Then there will be a distinct difference in size (the females will be smaller) and the males outer arms will be longer and hang down lower. If they get along, you can probably leave them together. I housed 8-10 S. officinalis together and public aquariums do it all the time.

 

[invert.junkie]

They dont exactly get along, they just seem to become aware of each others presence and keep a distance. If they get too big there is another 120 system i can add one of them to.