Day 1: Received the new cuttle - he (she)'s a Sepia O. about 3 inches in length. Got it from fishsupply.com.

Only inked 6 times during acklimation (anytime I got near the bag). Good news: the ink is not as 'fluid' as i thought - it's actually heavy enough to be skimmed right out of the tank with a fine-weave fish net.

He's already eaten with a few hours of arrival (good sign) and has managed to evade me after he dropped to the tank floor and blended seemlessly with the sandbed.

I'm kind of nervious - as I performed a 30% water change last night to prepare for the new arrival and the Ammonia levels shot up to .5 ppm. Not to menition my phosphate levels are very high.

Hmmm... not too sure about the water parameters, if you sort it out quickly your cuttle should be fine.

Im amazed it ate so quickly! good sign! :)

Either that or your cuttle is a gutz. :lol:

Good luck! and be sure to post pictures of your tank if you havent already.

Glad to hear all went well :) Looking forward to some nice pics :heee:

Congrats on the cuttle...and a lesson for all of us...no water changes right before acclimation !!! Glad to hear he is doing well...fantastic!
greg

Well played! If I had a cuttle and it inked the tank I would have done somthing stupid like put cofee filters in the filter! Like I did that one time when my octo inked the tank.... lol :roll:

Have you got a cuttle update for us yet?

First 2 day pics of the new cuttle. It's a camera-phone so appoligize for the fact that they kind of suck.

Playing by the bubbly protien skimmer:
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3532


Immitating a nudibranch:
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3533


Inspecting the new home:
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3531

FOr some reason i couldnt upload more then 3 on a post

More playing on the tank floor:
http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3535

And now for my close up...:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=3534

I've noticed my new cuttle becoming a little less skiddish on day 3. He wont immediatly skatter to behind a rock when i enter the room. I can hold my finger up to the front of the tank and he'll inch up toward it then jet back when he gets close - then inch up toward it again.. etc...etc.

Also note: Starfish make great roommates. I added 2 brittle stars. One of them is lazy and useless. The other is my cleanup crew - he knows when the cuttle is getting fed, scurried over to the cuttle's spot in the tank and patiently waits for fish heads and other crumbs to be dropped by the cuttle, quickly cleaning up the mess for me.

Yep, theres a 3 attachment limit when posting. Your cuttle looks great and its adorable!!! I must let you know i'm terribly envious... :mrgreen:

He's become quite the little ninja - blending seemlessly with his environment. I just found him in the tank after much searching. He's managed to completely copy the sand floor color, patter and texture. He's even immited the random black pebbles with 2 black dots on his back. If it weren't for his eyes, I'd never have found him. He's got skillz.

Oh BTW - after noticing him 'challenging' his reflection on several occasions, I've decided it's a 'He' being all territorial and all.

Wow, now i cant wait even more to get my cuttles

my LFS has agreed to get some in for me!!!! yay

they are even guaranteeing they will provide one of the 4 suitable local species i have listed !!! YAY again even more so!

I cant wait! They had a cuttle in last week the guy there told me but i missed it!!!!!! It might have been a latimanus which grow to 60cm ML though!

they aregetting me them for only 15 aussie dollars per cuttle!!!

Great to hear your searching has paid off oscar! Let us know how everything goes.

Know what you mean mwexler, I've had some trouble finding mine when he was right in front of my nose!

Congrats on the nice cuttle...amazing little cephs, aren't they?

He's soooo cute!!!! I wish I had a large enough tank.....

Carol

thanks for all the reply's and info folks. He's still skiddish when I enter the room, but eventually calms down to study me if i sit silently near the tank for a while. Here's another pic.

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/files/42524692997_869.jpg

Any updates on your cuttle, how he's doing and so forth?

Nancy

So far so good - he's grown to a whoppnig 3 1/2 inches. He wont eat any frozen food but is content with live fresh water fish - which I keep in a small plastic fish bowl with a cheap filter next to the tank so I can keep a 2 week supply on hand. I started with rosey reds and upgraded to small goldfish (about 1/4 to 1/3 his size) - 1 fish, 2 times a day. He's a sloppy eater chewing out the meaty mortions then dropping the rest to the group - which is soon swept up by one of his two brittle star-fish roommates. He has become much less skiddish - actually hanging around the front of the tank watching me when I'm in the room. If I move slow enough I can put my hand up on the tank near him and he'll hover checking my hand and me out. Though my cat still scares the heck out of him.

I have noticed his color-changing limited to the tank items (sand, liverock, algea, etc. ) which is pretty boring. I'm going to start adding some corals and other colorful items to see if I can coax him into some more brilliant color immitations.

I just fed him a couple minutes ago - and he does like to hide while he is in in the process of consuming his prey. I'll try to get a picture later when he comes out again.

BTW - tank setup: I have about 8 liverocks aranged on top of each other and a man-made fish cave big enough for him to hide in. I think when he wants to hide he's more apt to just settling tot he ground in plane sight and blending with the sand floor - so he can still see his environment.

OH - and I did just order a dozen fiddler crabs as a special treat for him. My local pet store usually sells them for $2 each and only carries a couple at a time - but I struck a deal for $1 each if I buy more then 10 at a time.

Things are looking pretty good, just be careful when feeding them feeder fish, they might have been previously treated with copper based medicines and as you know, cephs are very sensitive to copper.

what size tank do you have?

i just ordered one and the guy from octopets told me to avoid feeding things such as goldfish