Cuttlefish!!! - Page 2

cephalopoder · 03/23/2002, 05:49 PM

Mike sorry to hear about your loss.
I was kind of joking about the hooks, (they might work though) You can buy fish traps or try a plastic minnow trap.
I really hope this litte guy pulls through for you.
Were all here if you need help.
chris

schmunkel98 · 03/23/2002, 06:22 PM

Guys,

I took all of the live rock out of the tank and got the damsels. The little guy is out and about now, probably wondering where the rocks went. I'm going to re-setup the aquarium and hope for the best.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

schmunkel98 · 03/23/2002, 11:59 PM

Well, the lone survivor has the run of the tank now with the two starfish and the two sea cucumbers. I took advantage of the rocks being out of there and scraped all the algae that I could in those hard to reach spots. I will offer him some more ghost shrimp tomorrow to see if he will come out to eat them. I'm worried about dead ones piling up in the tank though. I guess I will have to gather them up if I see them dead the day after. I took some pictures with a real camera, so I will scan them and post them when I get them developed this next week. I'm glad I got these guys in, but I have no idea how the companies I got them form shipped them. They might have been barely alive when I got them and stressed to the max. I think it is a minor miracle that any of them survived at all. I'm sure the super-aggressive damsels didn't help any either. I wish someone would tell people not to get those fish for a starter. Yeah, they are hardy, but they are a royal pain after you first get going. I'll keep you guys posted.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

OctoMonkey · 03/25/2002, 07:16 AM

Mike, I have to feed my cuttles twice a day now to keep them "happy". They eat more than an octopus by far. Try feeding the cuttle by tying shrimp to a thread.
I sometimes feed them by hand if one is getting chased from the food area, but they are relaxed with me, its ages since one inked.

If you have adults of a small species, what are the chances that the lone survivor killed the others? They could all be males or a species that is very territorial.

The Sepia o's that i have are only just tolerating each other because they grew up together. Adding two mature animals together is WWIII apparantly.

Just an idea????????

schmunkel98 · 03/25/2002, 10:13 AM

Colin,

I tried putting the shrimp on a thread thing, and the cuttle didn't go for it. He only seems to go for live moving shrimp. I will post the pictures I have of this new guy when I get them developed this week. He blends in very well and is often hard to find cause he looks like a little rock. He has even made his body spiked a little to blend in better! I'm hoping to reach the point where he feels free to roam the tank without any fear. That way I can offer food in the open without having to coax the shrimp in his direction without scaring him in the process. I don't think this guy was an adult cause he is very small. Maybe the others guys stressed out or did have some fighting. I still find it odd that the smallest guy of the bunch is still here. Do you think I should try to order some more cuttles through the local stores again or stick with this one guy? I really like the idea of have at least two in my tank, and mating these guys would be fun too.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

OctoMonkey · 03/26/2002, 04:46 AM

I would stick with just this one for the time being and learn how to care for it. I was kinda overwhelmed for a bit with seven to feed and care for at once! And anyway, if you order more, what are the chances of them even being the same species? or size? and i still reckon from what i know and what Richard told me, that if you put two together that are not used to company you've got a fight.

Make sure you test your water, having three die in the tank will have affected something, maybe that's why it wont feed.

Try not to disturb it too much when feeding, can you get crabs? (obviously i mean the sea dwelling crabs!

) that si by far their favourite!

This cuttle may have survived because it is the smallest. The others, being bigger produced more waste in their bags????

Colin

cephalopoder · 03/26/2002, 09:10 AM

Mike
Just wondering what your temp is?

schmunkel98 · 03/26/2002, 03:59 PM

Chris,

My temp is at 72 during the day. It drops down to about 71 or 70 during the night though.

Colin,

My last cuttle has been eating every day. I have only had success putting live food near him though. He has yet to come out of the rocks and hunt for food. I basically end up dumping a bag of about 10 live ghost shrimp in his direction and he eats a few of them right away. Sometimes I have to coax them in his direction again if he misses on the first shot. I went ahead and ordered two more from the closest pet store. In the meantime I will keep fattening up this guy. I'm still waiting on the pictures from the real camera, but I will try to take some digital ones tonight. They won't be as good of quality though. I need to get a camera that has a manual focus.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

cephalopoder · 03/26/2002, 06:27 PM

You might want to try bumping the temp up a little. With the exception of Sepia.O most cuttles come from tropical waters. Their normal temp would be between 78-84. My mimic tank is kept at 82. A lot of tropical species are also nocturnal so you might want to try dimming bright light if you have any on.

schmunkel98 · 03/27/2002, 08:20 AM

Chris,

I'll try bumping it up to about 74 or so. I'll take off the DIY Chiller and that should do it. If this little guy is a Sepia officinalis, is the warmer temp going to hurt him? I wouldn't think so. Anyway, I watched him eat 6 ghost shrimp yesterday that were about 1/2 inch long each. I would put one near him, let him chew on it a while, then drop another near him. He should grow pretty fast if he keeps eating like this!

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

OctoMonkey · 03/27/2002, 08:26 AM

Mike,

I think getting another two will be a bad idea! I have read that cuttles will fight and Richard told me the same about S o's he had too.

A rigid piece of airline cut into a point is good for spearing food and waggling it in their faces! That worked for me!

I'll check for your pics tonight
C

schmunkel98 · 03/27/2002, 06:46 PM

Here is the first of two good close up pictures of my cuttle. He has made himself dark and bumpy to blend in with my live rock. It makes him very hard to spot.

schmunkel98 · 03/27/2002, 06:52 PM

Here is the second shot showing a side view of the cuttlefish.

cephalopoder · 03/27/2002, 07:55 PM

What do you think Colin... Sepia.bandensis ...the stumpy spined cuttlefish?

schmunkel98 · 03/27/2002, 09:16 PM

I'm not sure how else to identify this guy. I'm unlikely to get a good analysis of the suckers on the tentacles. If the spikes are a temporary blending disguise, then would this rule it out as a Sepia bandensis? I will post more pictures as I get better scans.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

OctoMonkey · 03/28/2002, 05:35 AM

Not sure either..... I have had a scan over norman's book again but there are no real clues here. Bandensis may be the most likely but i suppose time will tell
bandensis apparantly doesnt swim much and has a pair of flaps under its body for walking.....??????? and doesnt always have those spikes evident.

The more pics you can post the better, Mike.

The best way for identifying it may be to remove its cuttlebone, but mike probably wouldnt like us to do that! lol

Time will tell is suppose, you never know, we might end up with Sepia scmunklensis or something?????

schmunkel98 · 04/01/2002, 04:19 PM

Here is one of four new cuttle pics I took with my web cam close up.

schmunkel98 · 04/01/2002, 04:21 PM

Number 2.

schmunkel98 · 04/01/2002, 04:23 PM

Number 3.

schmunkel98 · 04/01/2002, 04:24 PM

Number 4.

OctoMonkey · 04/01/2002, 04:44 PM

whatdayathink now chris??????

i met mike on msn messenger tonight and watched him feed the cuttlefish on the web cam. it is really spikey, a lot like a stumpy-spined cuttlefish i think, but Mike says it swims not walks.

The most obvious feature apart from the skin is its huge eyes..... any other ideas?

look at the pic on top of page 90 in CAWG. it did that pose! Do you think he may have gotten one of them??? It did look quite similar!

C

cephalopoder · 04/01/2002, 05:38 PM

Hmmmmmmm well this could for we know be a species not even in CAWG. And if it is a baby Sepia.apama... mikes going to need a bigger tank lol. Mike do you have yahoo messenger? I would love to see it in feeding some time.I still think it looks like Sepia.bandensis(the pic on page 58) But the no crawling thing? It is nocturnal though mike said. Any ones guess at this point.

schmunkel98 · 04/02/2002, 08:36 AM

Hey Chris,

My last cuttlefish live broadcast did not go as planned. I couldn't get the little guy to eat, and I think I freaked him out. He actually inked a little for the first time yesterday when I was putting a rock formation back together and he got scared. I am on yahoo messenger with schmunkel98@yahoo.com as my e-mail. I can not run this one at work, but I can run microsift messenger. My e-mail for messenger is schmunkel98@hotmail.com if you want to get that program. I would be more than happy to host another cuttlefish session to try and identify what I have in my tank. I'm kinda worried about him right now. I don't think he has eaten for two days. He let the shrimp I tried to feed him even walk over him yesterday. Hopefully he has been getting them at night. I hope we can figure out what I have in my tank one of these days!

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

davelin315 · 04/07/2002, 11:08 AM

Sorry to join in late, no experience with cuttlefish, but limited octopus experience. I think the death may have been caused by either fighting or more likely, the high nitrites. If I remember correctly, they are sensitive to water quality, and nitrites can have a bad affect on them. My guess is the smallest survived because the smaller they are, the better they tend to ship. The larger ones were "roughed up" by shipping and weren't able to battle back from the water quality. Just a guess, though.

Iwantacephalopod · 04/08/2002, 05:57 PM

ok what in the HEK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? NOTHING DIED DUDE.

03/23/2002, 05:49 PM	#26
cephalopoder Premium Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: NH Posts: 898	Mike sorry to hear about your loss. I was kind of joking about the hooks, (they might work though) You can buy fish traps or try a plastic minnow trap. I really hope this litte guy pulls through for you. Were all here if you need help. chris __________________ Master the food chain and you can rear anything.

03/25/2002, 07:16 AM	#29
OctoMonkey Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Larkhall, Scotland Posts: 694	Mike, I have to feed my cuttles twice a day now to keep them "happy". They eat more than an octopus by far. Try feeding the cuttle by tying shrimp to a thread. I sometimes feed them by hand if one is getting chased from the food area, but they are relaxed with me, its ages since one inked. If you have adults of a small species, what are the chances that the lone survivor killed the others? They could all be males or a species that is very territorial. The Sepia o's that i have are only just tolerating each other because they grew up together. Adding two mature animals together is WWIII apparantly. Just an idea???????? __________________ ...and the Earth died screaming, while I lay dreaming.

03/26/2002, 04:46 AM	#31
OctoMonkey Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Larkhall, Scotland Posts: 694	I would stick with just this one for the time being and learn how to care for it. I was kinda overwhelmed for a bit with seven to feed and care for at once! And anyway, if you order more, what are the chances of them even being the same species? or size? and i still reckon from what i know and what Richard told me, that if you put two together that are not used to company you've got a fight. Make sure you test your water, having three die in the tank will have affected something, maybe that's why it wont feed. Try not to disturb it too much when feeding, can you get crabs? (obviously i mean the sea dwelling crabs! ) that si by far their favourite! This cuttle may have survived because it is the smallest. The others, being bigger produced more waste in their bags???? Colin __________________ ...and the Earth died screaming, while I lay dreaming.

03/26/2002, 09:10 AM	#32
cephalopoder Premium Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: NH Posts: 898	Mike Just wondering what your temp is? __________________ Master the food chain and you can rear anything.

03/26/2002, 06:27 PM	#34
cephalopoder Premium Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: NH Posts: 898	You might want to try bumping the temp up a little. With the exception of Sepia.O most cuttles come from tropical waters. Their normal temp would be between 78-84. My mimic tank is kept at 82. A lot of tropical species are also nocturnal so you might want to try dimming bright light if you have any on. __________________ Master the food chain and you can rear anything.

03/23/2002, 06:22 PM	#27
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Guys, I took all of the live rock out of the tank and got the damsels. The little guy is out and about now, probably wondering where the rocks went. I'm going to re-setup the aquarium and hope for the best. Mike www.schmunkel.0catch.com

03/23/2002, 11:59 PM	#28
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Well, the lone survivor has the run of the tank now with the two starfish and the two sea cucumbers. I took advantage of the rocks being out of there and scraped all the algae that I could in those hard to reach spots. I will offer him some more ghost shrimp tomorrow to see if he will come out to eat them. I'm worried about dead ones piling up in the tank though. I guess I will have to gather them up if I see them dead the day after. I took some pictures with a real camera, so I will scan them and post them when I get them developed this next week. I'm glad I got these guys in, but I have no idea how the companies I got them form shipped them. They might have been barely alive when I got them and stressed to the max. I think it is a minor miracle that any of them survived at all. I'm sure the super-aggressive damsels didn't help any either. I wish someone would tell people not to get those fish for a starter. Yeah, they are hardy, but they are a royal pain after you first get going. I'll keep you guys posted. Mike www.schmunkel.0catch.com

03/25/2002, 10:13 AM	#30
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Colin, I tried putting the shrimp on a thread thing, and the cuttle didn't go for it. He only seems to go for live moving shrimp. I will post the pictures I have of this new guy when I get them developed this week. He blends in very well and is often hard to find cause he looks like a little rock. He has even made his body spiked a little to blend in better! I'm hoping to reach the point where he feels free to roam the tank without any fear. That way I can offer food in the open without having to coax the shrimp in his direction without scaring him in the process. I don't think this guy was an adult cause he is very small. Maybe the others guys stressed out or did have some fighting. I still find it odd that the smallest guy of the bunch is still here. Do you think I should try to order some more cuttles through the local stores again or stick with this one guy? I really like the idea of have at least two in my tank, and mating these guys would be fun too. Mike www.schmunkel.0catch.com

03/26/2002, 03:59 PM	#33
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Chris, My temp is at 72 during the day. It drops down to about 71 or 70 during the night though. Colin, My last cuttle has been eating every day. I have only had success putting live food near him though. He has yet to come out of the rocks and hunt for food. I basically end up dumping a bag of about 10 live ghost shrimp in his direction and he eats a few of them right away. Sometimes I have to coax them in his direction again if he misses on the first shot. I went ahead and ordered two more from the closest pet store. In the meantime I will keep fattening up this guy. I'm still waiting on the pictures from the real camera, but I will try to take some digital ones tonight. They won't be as good of quality though. I need to get a camera that has a manual focus. Mike www.schmunkel.0catch.com

03/27/2002, 08:20 AM	#35
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Chris, I'll try bumping it up to about 74 or so. I'll take off the DIY Chiller and that should do it. If this little guy is a Sepia officinalis, is the warmer temp going to hurt him? I wouldn't think so. Anyway, I watched him eat 6 ghost shrimp yesterday that were about 1/2 inch long each. I would put one near him, let him chew on it a while, then drop another near him. He should grow pretty fast if he keeps eating like this! Mike www.schmunkel.0catch.com

03/27/2002, 08:26 AM	#36
OctoMonkey Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Larkhall, Scotland Posts: 694	Mike, I think getting another two will be a bad idea! I have read that cuttles will fight and Richard told me the same about S o's he had too. A rigid piece of airline cut into a point is good for spearing food and waggling it in their faces! That worked for me! I'll check for your pics tonight C __________________ ...and the Earth died screaming, while I lay dreaming.

03/27/2002, 06:46 PM	#37
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Here is the first of two good close up pictures of my cuttle. He has made himself dark and bumpy to blend in with my live rock. It makes him very hard to spot.

03/27/2002, 06:52 PM	#38
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Here is the second shot showing a side view of the cuttlefish.

03/27/2002, 07:55 PM	#39
cephalopoder Premium Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: NH Posts: 898	What do you think Colin... Sepia.bandensis ...the stumpy spined cuttlefish? __________________ Master the food chain and you can rear anything.

03/27/2002, 09:16 PM	#40
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	I'm not sure how else to identify this guy. I'm unlikely to get a good analysis of the suckers on the tentacles. If the spikes are a temporary blending disguise, then would this rule it out as a Sepia bandensis? I will post more pictures as I get better scans. Mike www.schmunkel.0catch.com

03/28/2002, 05:35 AM	#41
OctoMonkey Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Larkhall, Scotland Posts: 694	Not sure either..... I have had a scan over norman's book again but there are no real clues here. Bandensis may be the most likely but i suppose time will tell bandensis apparantly doesnt swim much and has a pair of flaps under its body for walking.....??????? and doesnt always have those spikes evident. The more pics you can post the better, Mike. The best way for identifying it may be to remove its cuttlebone, but mike probably wouldnt like us to do that! lol Time will tell is suppose, you never know, we might end up with Sepia scmunklensis or something????? __________________ ...and the Earth died screaming, while I lay dreaming.

04/01/2002, 04:19 PM	#42
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Here is one of four new cuttle pics I took with my web cam close up.

04/01/2002, 04:21 PM	#43
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Number 2.

04/01/2002, 04:23 PM	#44
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Number 3.

04/01/2002, 04:24 PM	#45
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Number 4.

04/01/2002, 04:44 PM	#46
OctoMonkey Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Larkhall, Scotland Posts: 694	whatdayathink now chris?????? i met mike on msn messenger tonight and watched him feed the cuttlefish on the web cam. it is really spikey, a lot like a stumpy-spined cuttlefish i think, but Mike says it swims not walks. The most obvious feature apart from the skin is its huge eyes..... any other ideas? look at the pic on top of page 90 in CAWG. it did that pose! Do you think he may have gotten one of them??? It did look quite similar! C __________________ ...and the Earth died screaming, while I lay dreaming.

04/01/2002, 05:38 PM	#47
cephalopoder Premium Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: NH Posts: 898	Hmmmmmmm well this could for we know be a species not even in CAWG. And if it is a baby Sepia.apama... mikes going to need a bigger tank lol. Mike do you have yahoo messenger? I would love to see it in feeding some time.I still think it looks like Sepia.bandensis(the pic on page 58) But the no crawling thing? It is nocturnal though mike said. Any ones guess at this point. __________________ Master the food chain and you can rear anything.

04/02/2002, 08:36 AM	#48
schmunkel98 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: The Colony, TX Posts: 254	Hey Chris, My last cuttlefish live broadcast did not go as planned. I couldn't get the little guy to eat, and I think I freaked him out. He actually inked a little for the first time yesterday when I was putting a rock formation back together and he got scared. I am on yahoo messenger with schmunkel98@yahoo.com as my e-mail. I can not run this one at work, but I can run microsift messenger. My e-mail for messenger is schmunkel98@hotmail.com if you want to get that program. I would be more than happy to host another cuttlefish session to try and identify what I have in my tank. I'm kinda worried about him right now. I don't think he has eaten for two days. He let the shrimp I tried to feed him even walk over him yesterday. Hopefully he has been getting them at night. I hope we can figure out what I have in my tank one of these days! Mike www.schmunkel.0catch.com

04/07/2002, 11:08 AM	#49
davelin315 10 & Over Club Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Herndon, Virginia Posts: 800	Sorry to join in late, no experience with cuttlefish, but limited octopus experience. I think the death may have been caused by either fighting or more likely, the high nitrites. If I remember correctly, they are sensitive to water quality, and nitrites can have a bad affect on them. My guess is the smallest survived because the smaller they are, the better they tend to ship. The larger ones were "roughed up" by shipping and weren't able to battle back from the water quality. Just a guess, though. __________________ 300 Gallon Display - SPS and Fish - Visit my Build Thread on WAMAS - http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=9017 Maintain multiple tanks at Floris Elementary School where I teach 5th grade (FOWLR and Mantis Tank in my room, various FOWLR and mixed reefs in the school). Vice President for the Washington, DC Area Marine Aquarist Society (WAMAS) Current Tank Info: 650+ gallon home system, multiple school tanks ranging from 15 gallons up to 75 gallons

04/08/2002, 05:57 PM	#50
Iwantacephalopod Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 37	ok what in the HEK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? NOTHING DIED DUDE. __________________ " Go Bannana"