I remember reading an article on the congregation of giant cuttlefish that said they were only giant in comparison to other cuttlefish that can be as small as 1cm. Was that 1cm number in reference to juvenile cuttles or adults? If it was adults I would think that they would make great additions to reef tanks with large refugiums because at that size they would be eating little pods rather than threatening fish.

There are little ones, they are almost never available in the trade. I have only seen them on lists once from Japan (the list that is). I wouldn't put them in a reef because I would imagine they would get eaten by fish, shrimp or even coral, and I think they would get lost in a fuge.
I would also worry about the capacity for a reef tank or a fuge to keep up with the feeding of a ceph.
As you can tell, I am a fan of species only tanks for cephs.

Can you tell me the species so I can do a little research on my own?

The thing is that with the right kind of reef fish and avoid the hungry LPS (I passed up a great hiliofungia plate because I was afraid of it eating my Bandensis when I get them) but I wouldn't be afraid of them getting lost, I that they would go well in a big system that generated enough pods to have a breeding population of the cuttle fish in it.I wouldn't be afraid of losing them in a big system either, so long as they are still alive and breed, I would consider them like pods or worms with in the system, not a specimen but another bit of biodiversity.

Norman's book lists bandensis as the smallest named species, and "Sepia sp. 1" (unofficially the Crinoid Cuttlefish) is around 4cm, unless I missed a smaller one (the book isn't organized by size, and many entries don't give a size at all, particularly for the rare animals.)

Oops, I was thinking of Idiosepius paradoxus, which is often called a pigmy cuttlefish, but is really a squid.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21910566-5006339,00.html

thats the article, I'm sure they go on common names rather than taxonomy.

Oops, I was thinking of Idiosepius paradoxus, which is often called a pigmy cuttlefish, but is really a squid.

What a cool name!

Cephalopods of the World (Roper et al) lists a rare species, Sepia dubia with 17mm ML. If you really want to be hardcore in cuttlefish research, the recently revised volume 1 of the "Cephalopods of the World" (Nautilus and Sepia) is available for free download, as is the old version of vol 3-- vol 2 seems to be unavailable (if anyone knows where to download it, please let me know):

http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0150e/a0150e00.htm
http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/ac479e/ac479e00.htm

What a cool name!

How do you like Sepia confusa? I noticed that in Cephs of the World...

I also just found a link to a list of all the known modern ceph species:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/cephs/newclass.pdf

Really just names and locations, no details, but maybe a good quick reference...

I don't know Paradox... I don't think I would like Idio as part of my name reference ...

I like the idea of thousands of tiny cuttlefish wandering around a reef tan. They would need to be tropical, but they would be interesting, probably breed relatively easy, and all you said. And for a species only tank you could even feed a diet of BBS like for dwarf seahorses. neat!

Dan

And for a species only tank you could even feed a diet of BBS like for dwarf seahorses. neat!
Dan

You will catch the rath of heir O'Shea for that comment for sure!

Yes, that was posted with less thought to the subject than I should have given it. Dwarf seahorses can survive on a diet of BBS mostly because they barely digest their food with no stomach so a BBS with the egg sack still attached provides as much nutrition as they can pull out of them. A tiny cuttlefish, however, would most likely starve on a diet of BBS. I'm sorry, I posted without thinking much there.

Dan

(PS the thousands of cuttles in a big tank would still be really neat :D )

I bought some Cyclop-eeze freeze dried and on the side of the container they mentioned cycts/eggs as a poduct, it wasn't on their web site and they haven't replied to my email, but if they do sell the eggs it would be really great for feeding small animals I would imagine.

Opcn,
I make heavy use of the frozen (but don't like any freeze dried products) and that may be what they are referring to. If you find out that there is actually a live or hatchable product available please POST as I would be very interested in trying it.

http://photos-701.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sctm/v97/195/46/65500701/n65500701_30324665_1329.jpg

I don't think the eggs are available anymore, and when they were they were dried.

Many cycsts can handle being dried. Brine shrimp cycsts come dried don't they.

Yep. I have no idea if copepod eggs can be dried. The don't live in an area where the eggs would dry out naturally like artemia.