• 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.

bandensis in a reef tank!?

kinetic

Blue Ring
Registered
Joined
Apr 28, 2006
Messages
30
I have a slightly sub 100 gallon display tank I will be setting up to join into a 110 gallon system. It's almost done setup for a reef tank, but I was looking around and noticed these cuttlefish that are only up to 4" long that can be kept in 78-80 degree waters. I was hoping that perhaps I can keep cuttlefish in this reef tank.

The tank is 36" x 25" x 25" and will only have small hermits and a bunch of snails as tankmates. It will also be primarily SPS dominated tank.

Equipment include:
ASM G3 Skimmer
K2R Ca Reactor Setup
Phosphate Reactor
Remote Deep Sand Bed
30G Refugium (mostly chaeto)
50G Sump
30G Propagation Tank
250watt HQI + 2x24watt T5 lighting system
About 35x turnover flow.
50-60lbs of live rock in the display
BB or 1/2" aragonite sand

The total system water volume will be near 210 gallons.


So here are my questions:
1. Can I keep bandensis in my disiplay tank happily?
2. How many can I keep comfortably? 2? 3?
3. Where can I find them Captive Bred?
4. What do you feed your bandensis? I know what's recommended, but just wanted to see what people do to feed them.

Thanks!
 
Normally you'd have a lot of replies, but our big TONMO.com outage occured and disrupted traffic for a few days. Just getting back to normal.

Nancy
 
Yes, you can keep them in a reef. Your lighting may be a little high for them though. With too much lighting, bandesis will be less active from my experiences. Flow might be a little much for them to. Ensure any intankes with high rate of suction are generously shielded for Ive had losses from a powerhead and its supplied strainer.

Also, too many stining aggressive corals may be bad for them as well.


You can view my experiences here.
http://thetentacleparadox.com/CuttleFarmArmy-About.htm

You can even keep them with other inhabitants ive found. I have a yellow tank and my GFs seahorse in the same tank, no problems.

In a 100 gallons, I would personally do 6-8 or so bandensis. Of course if you have 4 mated pairs, that would be optimal. However, you wont know the sex until around 5 months.


I feed mine mostly shore caught crabs, but Im suspecting there may be a problem with this food source causing bandensis to die early at around 8-10 months of age. Marine shrimp are probably the best, but can be very $$$
 
Paradox said:
Yes, you can keep them in a reef. Your lighting may be a little high for them though. With too much lighting, bandesis will be less active from my experiences. Flow might be a little much for them to. Ensure any intankes with high rate of suction are generously shielded for Ive had losses from a powerhead and its supplied strainer.

Also, too many stining aggressive corals may be bad for them as well.


You can view my experiences here.
http://thetentacleparadox.com/CuttleFarmArmy-About.htm

You can even keep them with other inhabitants ive found. I have a yellow tank and my GFs seahorse in the same tank, no problems.

In a 100 gallons, I would personally do 6-8 or so bandensis. Of course if you have 4 mated pairs, that would be optimal. However, you wont know the sex until around 5 months.


I feed mine mostly shore caught crabs, but Im suspecting there may be a problem with this food source causing bandensis to die early at around 8-10 months of age. Marine shrimp are probably the best, but can be very $$$


Awesome! thanks for the help.

They never tried to eat the yellow tang or seahorses? That's pretty cool.

I also live in the SF Bay Area, and you said you feed them crabs off the shores? Where do you collect them? I know the bay is pretty darn polluted... perhaps on the pacific side of the penninsula it may be better.

The only corals I will have will be SPS, some softies like xenia and maybe zoanthids. I am pretty sure these aren't corals that sting too much, but just wanted to double check. I probably won't keep any euphilia types of corals nor any anemones.

Thanks!
 
Nancy said:
Normally you'd have a lot of replies, but our big TONMO.com outage occured and disrupted traffic for a few days. Just getting back to normal.

Nancy

Ah that is true. I'll wait awhile for things to pickup =)

The day or two after I joined the site completely went down. I almost gave up hope on such a great resource. Glad it's back.
 
They never tried to eat the yellow tang and seahorse. What I did was put the tang or seahorse in a clear breeder divider and hung it inside the main tank for a while. The Cuttles showed absolutely no interest, so I slowly let them out. They have coexisted with absolutely no problems for 2-3 months now...

Ill PM you about my secret crab place!!

If you find a local source for live marine shrimp that are small, that would be the best. Ive tried and researched grass shrimp from bait shops and found them to be too big. 2-3 inches. However, i might try them again for 4+ month old bandensis. I have a feeling that 2-3 bandensis will take one of those shrimps down and share it. These live shrimps cost 2-3 dolalrs for a 1/4 lb!!!

Where in the bay area are you?
 
thanks for the secret crab place! It's a bit further from me, but I goto the airport often and could probably stop by on my way home.

I'm in Berkeley.

I'll look around my area too, but I"m pretty sure it's even more polluted on this side of the bay.

I was thinking of heading up to stinsen beach since it's so nice now, and scope out some areas.

Problem is, it's still so far =P
 
Beaches dont seem to be the best places. Go inland and follow the bay. Look for shores with a lot of rocks. Typically the shore will be made of crushed shells and pebbles...

The place that I go to has so many crabs, that I collect a large amount every 2-3 weeks to feed 5 bandensis.

heres a tip to keeping the crabs alive....

Get a container thats not really deep, but has a lot of surface area. I use these tupperwear like drawers. you can see them on my website. Fill the bottom with an inch or so of the shells and pebles found on the shore. Make one side higher, creating a slope. Put some of the ocean water in, only to cover the shallow end of the container. Place a rick in there for them to hide under.

Then throw all your crabs in!
 
yea I saw your setup. I have almost the exact same sort of tupperware shelf system as you do.

I have an extra 30G glass tank that I was going to use as a QT tank, but since I won't have any fish I might as well just use it to house crabs :wink:
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top