I just got a new digital camera...so bare with me while I figure it all out.

My 30 gallon cuttle tank.
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This is a story of "Bill" my S.Bandensis cuttlefish. I had bought 2, Bill and Bob (named by my kids), but Bill ate Bob shortly after they hatched due to a shortage of pods.

At that point I decided that I was having lousy luck with cuttles and that maybe I wasn't up to the task. So I let Bill go out of his breeder net and into the big 30 gallon. He hid in the live rock and I bought tons of pods on a bi-weekly basis for the spotted mandarin and gave up on ever finding his corpse.

Months went by and I was staring at the tank one morning when the lights just went on and spotted him. I didn't recognize him - he was so big! He is about 1 inch mantle length, not including tentacles.
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Bill is doing well. He hides most of the time and scoots around in all the caves and tunnels I had made in the live rock column.

I'm sure you will see more of him now with the new camera.

What a happy ending to your story! And a big welcome to Bill!

Looking forward to more pics, now that you have the new camera.

Nancy

:welcome: Bill!

:welcome: Bill, sorry you had to eat your brother :yuck:. When (and where) did you get your cuttles? Congratulations on keeping him well fed!

I got them at Aquatropics in Gainesville, FL. I got them the same time Righty had his WC eggs. Probably from the same importer.
Bill is eating ghost shrimp now, so I have to keep his tank heavily stocked.

What a story! Congratulations on Bill's resurrection!

Wow!! I cant believe you never saw him for months in such a small tank!!

Congratulations!

Unbelievable! But Bill's there, so it must be true. That's just great.:welcome: to Bill.

Wow!! I cant believe you never saw him for months in such a small tank!!

Congratulations!

I barely see him now. I built the live rock to have crevices everywhere for hiding - and it really works. I had to get a new camera just to focus on him. Those photos were taken at night when he was about 2" away from the glass. If he goes any farther away I can't see him. I uploaded some additional photos that are waiting for Tony's approval of him hiding.
Below is a photo showing the hole where I can just see him. Notice the blue Ricordia that is in the lower left of the Bill photos.
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Better Bill shots!

These are from around the back of the aquarium, I can't even get my head back there.

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This is why I can't find Bill- He matches the live rock during the day. I can only get these shots at night when he is darker and not matching exactly.
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yep dem cuttle fish are camo experts
HI BILL!!
Survival of the fittest i guess :)

Zoomed in photo of Bill. Sorry everyone, but GOD this camera is fun. Never been able to take shots of my aquarium before.
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That's a really great shot! You can see hiim so well - fine looking little cuttle!

What kind of camera did you get? It's a good one!

Nancy

That's a really great shot! You can see hiim so well - fine looking little cuttle!

What kind of camera did you get? It's a good one!

Nancy

Thanks Nancy!

It's a Nikon S6 - just a little compact, but it has great macro features!

You can play with your new camera all you want, as far as I'm concerned. After all, this isn't like looking at a gazillion pictures of someone's grandkids,:indiffer:, we're talking about cephs, here, so keep those pictures coming!

I love the blue shimmer of the translucent skin on the edges where the chromatophores aren't seen. Looks like a force field :grin:
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Someone had mentioned the cool cuttle eyes so I wanted to see what Bill's were like. (I gotta work on the focus, but not bad for hand held.)
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Excellent photo! Chubbs spent most of yesterday sitting in the corner of the tank. I likewise spent most of the day sitting on a bucket with a hand lens looking at his eye!

Dan

Such good photos - very appealing little cuttle! They do have interesting eyes, don't they?

Nancy