Need more info. about cuddles

[tysonmccrary]

Hi, I am new to the Salt Water tank hobby, but my brother has been into it for years and said he would be willing to help me put together a setup once I found out what type of fish I wanted. I originally wanted to get an octopus, but decided that a cuddlefish would be a better match for me, so here are my questions.

1. How much would a decent setup cost for a cuddle
2. How much does the whole setup cost a month, all together (food, lighting, etc.)
3. I would really like the Flamboyant Cuttlefish, but haven't seen any for sale. S. bandensis is what most people are getting, but do they change there colors often?

[L8 2 RISE]

Set up will run you ~$1000, probably more.

Price per month really depends. Depending on where you live, 200 gallons worth of salt will cost you $30-$70. You could end up doing enough water changes to need a new one every month. If you go with T5 lighting (which I would suggest for a ceph tank), it could run you around $50 a month. For food, start with saying $50 a month and then when you wheen the cuttles onto frozen, it should go down to only 10-15 bucks a month. Flamboyants are hard to come by, and usually at the end of their life span, as well as expensive. For cuttles, your main option is bandensis, otherwise, if you want to go with a pretty big tank, you can go with officinales or pharaonis.

[tysonmccrary]

I was wanting a Flamboyant, but like you said, they are hard to come by so I am thinking I might just settle with s. bandensis, which is said they only need about a 30 gallon tank, but since there life spand is so short, I am thinking about starting with a cuttle or 2 to begin with (my store said he could order in some cuttle eggs for me), then after they've reached there lifespan, I was thinking about changing it into a shark/stingray tank, so my question would be, could I put 2 cuttles in a 120 gallon, so that way when I change the setup I don't have to do any upgrading. I would of course feed them with tweezers until they are large enough to hunt there own prey, but could a 120 gallon be ideal?

[flaherty8153]

It would be hard for them to find food in a tank that big when they were under about 2" . As adults it is fine.

[Thales]

If you haven't already, check out the articles here:

http://www.tonmo.com/index.php?pageid=articles

Specifically, http://www.tonmo.com/cephcare/cuttlefish.php

I also wrote a shorter more updated version in I believe August's Tropical Fish Hobbyist.