• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

1st Time Raising Sepia Bandensis

Mike Bauer;174561 said:
Is mysid shrimp to large for newly hatched cuttlefish? How old are they before they start eating mysids? Mine can eat copepods but shrimp seem to be to large for them yet. I am hatching brine shrimp mixed with rotifere and using that along with the copepods.

Mysis are perfect for any hatchling cuttle I have ever kept. Sometimes newly hatched bandensis wont eat for the first week, and then may not be seen to eat for a week or so after that. Copepods have shown to be too small a food to be hunted by hatchling cuttles, and brine in all its forms has been shown over and over again to not be a suitable food for cephs.
 
average success rate

I have a question? What is the success rate of getting the smaller type of cuttlefish to live from egg to adult? Say out of 25 cuttlefish hatchlings, in ideal conditions, how many make it past the third week.
 
Cool that is what I have been trying to find out. Mine are 2 weeks old some are larger than other, the smaller 2 are the ones that died. I tried putting in the enriched live brine and they were to large but the half size seem to be small enough and they seem to love the pods as well. What I did was set up a small tank with rotifers, pods and brine shrimp. That way the shrimp and pods ate the rotifers and I hoped make them more healthy food. I did not think they would be able to eat the mysis because they were to big.

Thanks for the info.
 
Mike Bauer;174625 said:
I have a question? What is the success rate of getting the smaller type of cuttlefish to live from egg to adult? Say out of 25 cuttlefish hatchlings, in ideal conditions, how many make it past the third week.

For me, upwards of 90%
 
Mike Bauer;174626 said:
Cool that is what I have been trying to find out. Mine are 2 weeks old some are larger than other, the smaller 2 are the ones that died. I tried putting in the enriched live brine and they were to large but the half size seem to be small enough and they seem to love the pods as well. What I did was set up a small tank with rotifers, pods and brine shrimp. That way the shrimp and pods ate the rotifers and I hoped make them more healthy food. I did not think they would be able to eat the mysis because they were to big.

Thanks for the info.


Feeds for bandensis are covered in my articles and Danile Pons article.
Brine is not an acceptable food.
Are you feeding amphipods or copepods?
 
They are eating the copepods and the brine shrimp were to large for the to eat. That is why I was questioning the mysin shrimp as food. Keeping in mind I am feeding the brine pod and rotifer so they should be fairly good for them. How many mysin do you feed them and how do you keep the mysin alive between feedings?

Thanks again for the help and information.
 
Even enriched brine has shown to be not an adequate food to raise cuttles. Really. The experiment of using brine to raise bandensis has been done so many times, and failed resulting in dead animals, that I see no reason for anyone (besides for a rigorous study) doing it again.

What do you mean by copepod? Copepods like tigger pods are tiny. Do you mean amphipods?

Mysis have shown over and over again to be the best choice for hatchling cuttles, even though their size can be comparable to the cuttles.


I have rased bandensis on 2-4 mysis a day, but the growth was slow. I prefer to feed them 1-2 mysis 4 times a day, ramping that up as they get older. You can keep mysis in their own tank or you can plumb a tank into your system taking care to screen the overflow so you don't end up with no mysis.

From Cephalopod Care

Feeding

Net breeders are also great because they keep hatchling cuttlefish in close proximity to their food. For at least the first 2 of weeks after hatching, Sepia bandensis will need some sort of live food, and keeping the food closer to the hatchlings makes it more likely they will be able to find it to eat it. The more they eat, the faster they will grow, and the sooner you can release them in to their permanent home.

By far, the most successful food for hatchling Sepia bandensis is live mysis shrimp. Mysis are highly nutritious and relatively easy for the hatchlings to catch. The drawback to this food is the expense and the effort. Collecting wild mysis and captive culturing mysis are both extremely labor intensive, so they can cost more than one hundred dollars for 200. I prefer cultured mysis to wild mysis, because in my experience they have better survival rates, but plenty of other cephalopod keepers have had great success with wild mysis.

It is important to note that live brine shrimp, though readily available and inexpensive, are widely considered terrible food for cephalopods. Cephalopods raised on live brine, even enriched live brine, have low survival rates and short lives.

Keeping any live food alive can be challenging, and the challenge is compounded with mysis because they can be cannibalistic. To reduce this potential issue, avoid overcrowding, and be sure to feed rotifers or other suitable food regularly. Net breeders can be utilized, or another small tank can be set up to keep the mysis until they are ready to be fed to the cuttlefish. Its also important to get a feel for how many mysis you need per week, and be able to order them before you run out so your cuttlefish don't go starve or eat each other!

If you are lucky enough to live near the ocean, you may be able to collect your own hatchling cuttle food in the form of small amphipods. Make sure to collect from waters that are as unpolluted as possible, and make sure to check with local regulations regarding collection before beginning. Amphipods can be much more robust than mysis and they can escape from hatchling cuttlefish more easily. I recommend that you start with mysis for the first week or so, allowing your baby cuttlefish to learn hunting skills with the easier prey.

Hatchlings should be fed several times a day, and only as much as they catch in a few minutes. I recommend avoiding 'flood feeding', feeding a lot of live food at once, because not only can hatchling Sepia bandensis stop seeing them as prey items, but flood feeding can make the hatchlings harder to wean onto dead food.

Since live food can be expensive, its great to wean your cuttlefish onto thawed frozen food as soon as possible - frozen mysis are a good choice for size and nutrition. Since cuttlefish rely on their eyesight to hunt, often the dead prey may need to be moving to get the cuttlefish to strike. Start by introducing thawed mysis with your live food. The hatchlings, conditioned to striking when live food is dropped into their breeder net, will usually snap up the dead mysis as well. Sometimes you will have to make the dead prey look alive by gently blowing it around, just barely moving it, with a small pipette or turkey baster. Weaning onto dead prey may not work until the hatchlings have moved off small prey and onto larger prey and determining when your hatchlings are able to move off smaller food is a judgment call.

When your cuttlefish are a month old, and have had time to hone their hunting skill on weaker, smaller food, you can try feeding them larger food…even up to foods the same size as the cuttlefish. "Shore shrimp" or "marine janitors" can be ordered on line in various different sizes, and they make a great food for cuttlefish. Just like mysis, they need to be kept alive until fed to the cuttlefish, so be prepared. Once the cuttlefish are taking larger prey, the weaning process as described above works quickly and well, just instead of using dead myisis, you need to use dead, freshly killed or thawed frozen shrimp.

Another weaning method that cephalopod enthusiasts have been experimenting with is some kind of shrimp hanger or feeding station. Glue or tie a small rock to a piece of fishing line as a sinker. Tie the other end, or secure the other end, above the tank so the sinker will be a couple of inches below the bottom of the tank. In the middle of the line, tie or glue a plastic toothpick, and skewer a dead shrimp onto the toothpick. When you place this device into the tank, the current should make the shrimp on the toothpick move around, which will help attract the cuttlefish to feed. If you have multiple cuttlefish, add more toothpicks to the line for more shrimp.

Weaned or not, as the cuttlefish get bigger you will need to get them larger food items. Again, if you live near the ocean, you can collect local crabs or shrimp as needed. You can also check with local bait shops, which may have live shrimp ready to sell. If you live away from the ocean, you can order live fiddler crabs or appropriately sized shrimp from online vendors. If you have weaned your cuttles onto thawed frozen food, any live food, bought or collected, can be obtained in bulk and frozen to use when needed. Frozen bait shrimp or prawns can also be bought or ordered, and even raw, unshelled and unflavored shrimp from the grocery store can be used.

It is important to note that freshwater feeder fish are not a suitable food source for cuttlefish. Not only do they lack fatty acids of saltwater animals, but they are often treated with copper, and copper is deadly to cephalopods. There is no real consensus among cephalopod enthusiasts regarding the suitability of using freshwater crustaceans as food for saltwater animals like ghost shrimp, so I would suggest limiting their use as cuttlefish food.
 
Kerrick, I have been super busy with school and work, and i dont have a super great camera to update with pics and such. I have been in the hobby for 8 years now, ive always been interested in octopus and cuttlefish. All 5 are still alive and getting bigger! I will do my best to see about getting some pics of them :smile: Thanks for the interest
Kerrick;174558 said:
Hey I'm new but have been following your thread... Any updates/pics?

Also, how long have you had your tank established Cephdoc?
 
Thales;174618 said:
How old were they and how large when they went in?

They were about 3 months, and alittle over and inch. They are still hiding alot. But there are 2 damsels with them and 5 peppermint shrimp and the coral banded in with them, and 2 emerald crabs. All of which dont pay any attention to them which is good but i didnt know if this had anything to do with that? They are truly amazing animals, i love watching them interact with each other and just do their own things!
 
My 5 are doing really well. I just made a feeding device the other day! Its a plastic pick wrapped in some of that puddy used to hold rocks together, on a fishing line. Im going to start trying to feed them frozen.... Any advice on this to make it a success? Also is there anything i can do to help my cuttlefish show themselves more during the day? They dont seem very active like ive seen in past videos of other members raising them. They dont swim around the tank very often and explore. They kinda just have there favorite places to just chill. Then when i feed them they come out and go right back to where they were? Is something wrong?
 
Cephdoc,
Have you noticed any sexual behaviour? Do you know how many males and females you have? Noticed any fighting? Pics at this age would be cool too! :smile:
 
Yes i have noticed some sexual behavior, not fighting but there is definately a pecking order you could say.. Im not the best at sxeing, but id say probably 2 males and 3 females. I could be completely wrong though. I will try to get picks, i just hand fed my 1st time when i woke up before work it was the coolest experience. The sexual behavior i hav noticed is im guessing courting. They are showing off to one another!
 

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