Largest Sepia officinalis

**thom** · May 13, '05, 11:47am

Breeding season of the common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis (L., 1758), has started again here in the Netherlands. Earlier this week the largest recorded specimen around these parts washed ashore on a beach near The Hague. It’s male, 32cm mantle length and 60cm total excluding feeding tentacles. If anyone is interested, they will be displaying the animal at the national museum of natural history in Leiden (NATURALIS), from May 21-29.

Here’s a link to the article with pictures at the bottom. Mind you, the article is in Dutch :)

Article
Picture 1
Picture 2

Cheers all,
Thomas.

(edit, forgot to say it weighs almost 4 kilos)

**DHyslop** · May 13, '05, 12:41pm

Can I keep one of these in a 29 gallon system?

Dan

**chrono_war01** · May 13, '05, 1:55pm

According to a OLD sea yarn, Japanese in Chinese waters used to catch cuttles that were measured in feet, not cm. Although that sounds werid, for all we know, it COULD be true.

**monty** · May 13, '05, 2:00pm

Originally Posted by chrono_war01

According to a OLD sea yarn, Japanese in Chinese waters used to catch cuttles that were measured in feet, not cm. Although that sounds werid, for all we know, it COULD be true.

Isn't there a species off Australia that gets to around 3'? I saw a documentary on some sort of shockingly big cuttle a few years ago, but I don't remember the name. The diver/narrator claimed she was friendly and liked being touched, I think, and wasn't even agressive to divers when they were looking at her eggs...

**thom** · May 13, '05, 2:18pm

Originally Posted by monty

Isn't their a species off Australia that gets to around 3'? I saw a documentary on some sort of shockingly big cuttle a few years ago, but I don't remember the name. The diver/narrator claimed she was friendly and liked being touched, I think, and wasn't even agressive to divers when they were looking at her eggs...

Yep, thats Sepia apama, it frequently grows up to one meter. But we don't get those here. Just have officinalis and the Sepiola atlantica which is tiny.

**n82rboy** · May 14, '05, 8:38am

Dank u for the article Thom..
-Paul

**erich orser** · May 15, '05, 12:19am

How large a system would somebody (I'm thinking an institution like an aquarium - not a private owner unless they're Bill Gates) need in order to have sepia apama on display? In particular, if they have a small group of them as I've seen done with their smaller cousins.

**Tintenfisch** · May 15, '05, 4:40pm

Always wanted to try my hand at reading Dutch - and it went surprisingly well. Thanks for the cool article, Thom!

**chrono_war01** · May 17, '05, 1:06pm

Just back from Singapore.

I have to say...a real neat article...although..my mom insisted that squid = cuttles and that this cuttle article is complete nonsese since she thinks that squid = cuttles