I just got a new cuttlefish today and i would like some info on it , im not sure what breed it is and any help with that will be appreciated, also right now all it does is lay around is this normal cuttlefish behavior ( just got it today) and im relly nervious because its my first cleph.

First, :welcome:

Next, if you haven't already, read the articles on cuttlefish at the top o the page.

How big is your cuttle? How long did you acclimatize it? How big is your tank? What else is in your tank? What type of food do you have for your cuttle?

Good luck!

yea i read all of the cuttle articles on this page and many others , i just got mit today but at the store they said minnows is what they feed him, 30 gal. , i dont have anything else in the tank, just posted pics

Cuttlefish eat crustaceans like shrimp and crabs. Feeding them only freshwater fish is not a good idea because fish don't have the same nutritional value as salt water. You can try frozen, defrosted, uncooked (it will be gray instead of pink) shrimp from the grocery store. You will probably have to move it around for the cuttle to take it. Hard to ID the cuttle from the pictures...

Has a strong bandensis look and feel, 'though...

In which case it's an adult, but let's not jump tot conclusions :smile:

:welcome:

During the day Cuttles like to just hang out and chill on the bottom
I got mine used to a twilight set up
where I have two light in the morning the soft yellow one come on. then shortly thereafter a bright blue one come on
after the blue one come on he sort of just plays in the sand and relaxs at night i turn the blue on off and he begins the evening hunt for crabs and shrimp
and when the yellow one goes off he starts playing.
coming to the surface and playing in the water flow.
its also first day so he might be scared
throw in some fiddler crabs to get him thinking about killing instead of being killed.

Thanks for all of the help any other tips would be great . i was relly worrried about it just laying around but as far as what you said thats norrmal for the first day. he isnt in the same spot but is still burried in the sand, does anyone know how long it will ususaly take a cuttle to get used to the tank+ are live clams an acceptible food (got 1 in the tank )

Are there any other animals in the tank with him/her? Can you get any better pictures (especially of her eye/face)?

no hes the only one in the tank + attached more pics

Does the eye on your cuttle look more like this...
http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5838&highlight=bandensis


or this...

yea like exactly, tried to feed him the shelles clam with the feeding stick, seemed intrested for a little while but then got bored and went ontop of a rock and is just hangin out now, i got the tank temp up 2 about 76 Degrrese now but if its an officianalis thats bad

Exactly like which one? the S. officinalis or S. bandensis??? Your cuttle probably wants shrimp or crab, not clams...

honestly i think it looks like the officianalice but im not 100 % sure although the ppl at my lLFS said it grew to be pritty big i couldnt take there word for it ( the store ids usualy on with everything but didnt know the breed so i got nervios) aso i left the temp in the 70 s cause thats what they had it at...... What should i do

If you have S. officinalis, you had better start looking for a bigger tank. They usually grow to about 12 inches in a tank (18 inches in the wild).

i no but that can wait until he grows a little more, but wat should i do about the temp cause honestly both eyes on the both breeds looked alike but the officianalice was the clossest one but i could definatly be wrong( eyes look like a W)

S. bandensis is not exactly a W.

yea i def. looks more like a officianalice as far as the eyes go .... what should i do

Get some shrimp and lower the temperature slowly...

but im not 100% sure if its officionalice and im relly nervious ( sorry about all of the questions and not being sure but its my 1st cleph.:sad: )

Ok, how big is the little guy? You still need to get shrimp for a cuttlefish.

If you can take a clearer picture I can probably distinguish it between a bandensis or an officianalis...

how big is he?

S. bandensis is not exactly a W.
Nice pic! =)
I miss that guy. he passed away at about a month ago.. =(

i would say about 2 to 3 in. , in the merina where i keep my boat the place is swarming wiht crebs and krill but the waters INCREDIBLY poluted so i dun think ill get anything from there ( ill probly end up goin down to the bait shop and getting some fiddler crabs)

be sure to decla the fiddler crabs if they are larger...

Im betting its an officianalis, but a clear picture would be good to be sure...

i got some clearer ones i juss gotta find the cable 4 my camera .... while i look could you tell me if his/her behvior is normal ( 2nd day i got it) he basicly just lounges around

Originally posted (and photographed) by Paradox
Nice pic! =)
I miss that guy. he passed away at about a month ago.. =(


He sure was cute... It's a great photo of a S. bandensis eye :grin:

One of my little ones (really hard to see...) makes that same posture. Can't wait 'til the babies get big enough to see without a microscope :smile:

Heres some new pics

are the pics showing up cause i cnt see them

no...are you attaching them under the manage attachments button?

The pics aren't displaying -- make sure they upload successfully before you post your note. If it failed, an error message will tell you what happened...

no the pics are 2 big its sayin ill try again but while i was doing that the cuttle just jumped off of his rock and started to like walk aroud flashing his tenticles

You'll need to make the pictures smaller before they will upload.

k ill do that but right now it mlooks like hes begging should i give him some frozen krill ( its old and has freezer burn ) or just wait till 2 morrow and get some live food

i dun no how to shrink them, does anyone no how???

if your on an xp machine, there should be a default Paint program under ...Start--programs---accessories

I believe you can use the stretch/skew command under the edit menu to change the images size..

k hld on i think i got it

can anyone i.d. it from that pic ( working on more)

Thanks for the clearer pictures, but I am still having trouble seeing the eye. I am pretty sure that S. bandensis does more "walking" on its tentacles than S. officinalis.

The pictures are still a little hard to see, but its actually looking more like a bandensis. 2-3 inches would make it near a year old though, so you might not have too much more then a few months if that.

However, it could be a different species all together. Does it usually have a rough skin appearance or smooth. An officianalis will mostly be smooth skinned when resting.

Fat little thing

he does alot of walking + just fed him now a killie from my local bait shop, he attacked it but the killie got out so he inked a little bit ( enough for the filter to handle) but is it a problem as far as if it only inks a little ( and i dont do a water change) as far as to the cuttlefishes health ( better pics are on the way)

If you can suck it out with a eye-dropper or turkey baster, it would be better.

I am thinking you have a S. bandensis. They "walk" more than S. officinalis and are more prone to inking...

Would love to get a better picture of its eye though...

hld on here are some new ones

were those any better

Yeah, it definatly looks like bandensis...the eye looks right, at least.

whats the difference in eyes

the differance in eyes, if I'm correct is that while Sepia Officinalis has just w-shaped pupils, the pupils of S. Bandensis look like a w with a bar across the top, like this:

. . . . . . . . .
. . . .
. . . .

sorry for my pitiful attempt at a quick drawing....hope it helps.

i got some good eye pics hld on while i update them

whoops...that failed, horribly....anyway, even if the attempted diagram wasn't usefull (which it probably wasn't...), I hope the rest did...

Ok,

Like cuttlfsh said...top one is S. bandensis, bottom is S. officinalis
Originally posted by cuttlfsh
sorry for my pitiful attempt at a quick drawing

Me too (as in my own pitiful attempt...).

Looks like a Bandensis to me....

is there any other way to tell the difference besides eyes

certainly by the size. a full-grown, adult bandensis will be 2-4 inches *I think*, whereas officinalis may get up to 18 inches. Also, although this may just be me, the connection between the mantle and head appears more abrupt in bandensis. there are also probably behaviour differances that I wouldn't know about, as I haven't had the good fortune to keep either.

the problem with that is is that mines about 2-3 in. ( the whole thing from mantle to tenticles) so i cnt tell but everyones pretty sure its a bandisis so if you have any good info on bandesis care or any tips at all please dont hesitate to post it ( p.s. thanks for all the help given so far:smile:)

I have never heard the idea about telling species from the pupil shape. Anyone have a link or a reference?

Hey,

How's the new cuttle adjusting?

actualy hes doin pritty good, he is very social and eats killes from my local bait store ( about 2 a day) whenever i turn the light on he sees his reflection and goes after it which entertains him for a good amount of time. im still not 100% sure of the breed

also i dont got a storage tank so i got about 7 killies in the tank with him

Is she/he getting any shrimp or crab? Their main food source in the wild are shrimp, so it is a good idea to make sure your cuttle gets some crustaceans in their diet.

i on but the bait store dun hget any crab in until late summer early fall and the water in my where i would get the shrimp is FILTHY

any ideas on what i should do????

Try frozen, uncooked shrimp from the fish market or grocery store. Or you could buy them from https://www.shrimpstuff.com/:grin:

thnx