• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

should I get a cuttlefish?

Thanks for all of the advise (I'm sure my parents are breathing easier- my sister wants to get a horse and me a ceph! lol). Now are cuttlefish as picky as octo of what they eat because I was reading past posts of giving a whole variety of foods to the ceph when it was first eating.
Some people in my lab are biologists, but they probably won't go for things eating other live things, go figure! lol.
Actually, now that I think about it, the tank that has all of the algae is the one with a little too much fish.
OK I think I'll stick with the cuttle idea. Now would a BIG hermit crab hurt it? It could possibly step on it when the cuttle was burrowed, huh? guess not...I know that hermits are good bottom feeders and they keep the gravel clean really well (I know this because the ones with them are the cleanest! lol)
I'm probably writing way too much in these things...
thanks again!
 
Its me again
I've been looking all over the web for where to buy the silver sand that colin suggested and I can't find one source that sells it!
Anyone have any suggestions?
Also, what size of cuttlefish would be optimal for my 50 Gal. tanks? I was looking at the 20-60 mm sizes.
Hope everyone's ceph is healthy and happy!
 
lotus101 said:
my sister wants to get a horse and me a ceph! lol).
umm that's weird, how old is your sister then, my little sister would like a pony too ya know, but she's 8 year's old lol.

lotus101 said:
Now are cuttlefish as picky as octo of what they eat because I was reading past posts of giving a whole variety of foods to the ceph when it was first eating.
they are both cephalopod's so it's logical that they share some feeding habit's lol.

lotus101 said:
Now would a BIG hermit crab hurt it? It could possibly step on it when the cuttle was burrowed, huh?
well you certainly want to avoid any potential hazard's, how big is this hermit anyway's, you'll be surprised once your cuttle/octo eat's the hermit lol. :smile:
hope this help's.
 
Actually, my sister's 13 and a very serious rider, so it's very understanding she wants one
The hermit's shell is acutally a good sized conch shell that's about 2 inches wide on the smaller side, so it's a huge hermit, so I guess not.
OK, now what would you suggest to start feeding it? Is a 30mm cuttle ok? what would you feed him? little shrimp probably, or frozen krill?
Thanks for replying!
 
lotus101 said:
Actually, my sister's 13 and a very serious rider, so it's very understanding she wants one
The hermit's shell is acutally a good sized conch shell that's about 2 inches wide on the smaller side, so it's a huge hermit, so I guess not.
OK, now what would you suggest to start feeding it? Is a 30mm cuttle ok? what would you feed him? little shrimp probably, or frozen krill?
Thanks for replying!

Oh so she's a rider, that's interesting lol.
You don't really need to worry about the cuttle being killed, worry about the hermit lol, i've woke up many times and seen pieces of crab all over the tank cause of my octo being in the mood of having a midnight snack, but then again it's my o.vulagris and he is not one that takes meal's lightly, he shreds them to pieces, he's about 24 inches go figure.
Well I know that nancy has a checklist thread so you can check it out for any more info you might need, anyway's I would start feeding it krill if I can't locate a fish supermarket, otherwise any seafood like squid might be good.A 30mm cuttle is okay and it's a fair size, i've seen begginer's handle 5mm ceph's which is kinda of a hard task, it's very fragile but also very active.Personally I would feed him krill if I had no choice but I dislike LFS choice of food very much, bloodsucker's ahhh!! :goofysca:
I would feed him squid/shrimp if he's okay with it, at the local fish supermarket they sell squid/shrimp by pound's very very cheap so no prob there.
As posted above krill is fine.
 
So a 20 mm would be ok too? I think it seems kinda small, but hey it'll live longer.
I'll leave the future hermit food out of the tank lol.
that's good that I can feed it the krill and squid because we have enough of that! I live in RI right near the ocean so if I wanted to I might be able to collect some shrimp or smaller crabs. We actually have an invasive spicies of crab called the Japaneese crab who is very vicious (he actually started following the mantis shrimp when it didn't eat him). could I feed him that? not till he's bigger i guess.
Now do you know where I could get the silver sand? I can find everything else just fine but that for some reason.
thanks for all of your help! I do greatly appreciate it!
 
yes, it would be ok to go and collect your own food. I live in California so thats what i do.

Cephs love crustaceans so as long as hes big enough to take it on feeding it the crab would be fine

However, i have a question of my own. When we say that cephs can be fed shrimp are we talking about the shrimp that u like dip in cocktail sauce and eat at parties or something else??
 
Rockthis11 said:
However, i have a question of my own. When we say that cephs can be fed shrimp are we talking about the shrimp that u like dip in cocktail sauce and eat at parties or something else??
it depend's on what shrimp you're talking about lol.
 
lotus, silver sand is also known as smelt whiting, they sell it but they rarely have it alive, very few fish stores will stock them, it's can be found everywhere in asia, especially chin, hong kong, japan etc.
you can feed you're critter anything from crab's to shrimp, look into buying octopus, prawns, squid, crab, sea urchin, horse mackeral, mackeral, lobster etc. many choices lol.
 
Would it be safe to stay with the aragonite then? I was looking at Colin's answers to that and he's saying that he mixes aragonite with the silver sand 50/50, but I have a feeling I won't be able to find this silver sand (I did a quick search on google of smelt whiting but there wasn't really anything on sale).
Oh well, at least I know what I'm up against now.
see yah later
 
Hey, that's a good idea (stupid me stupid me... :roll: )
the fish store that i have in my neighborhood is actually mainly fresh water, but I'll look anyway.
 
Silver sand is just a fairly fine clean silica sand, usually sharp (not rounded) in the UK. Used as childrens play sand.
Small cuttlefish need live food, shrimp shorter than themselves are ideal.
Apparently cuttlefish need to learn how to catch crabs without getting nipped, so I would avoid large/vicious types until you know they can handle easy ones. (I have never fed live crabs to cuttlefish, but did get mine to accept dead shrimp and fish eventually.)
 

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