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Cuttlefish Availablity

cuttlegirl;83966 said:
Well, they don't have too much else to do in the tank besides eat shrimp - guess they were just trying to keep themselves occupied :wink: while they wait for food...

LMAO... sounds like the hurricane victims in Florida a few years back. 9 months later there was a boom in childbirth.
 
Hahahaha!

Try giving them some toys or something lol. or, (on a serious note) you could use opaque dividers so they can't get to each other, but that may seem cruel in some people's point of view.
 
I am not going to separate them at this point, they have been together all of their lives. At least one of the males and Baby A snuggle together in a cave when they rest. I can't imagine that she is going to lay many more eggs - she is already almost 7 months old and she has been laying eggs for two months... and so far (except for these last 4) I have found good homes for all of the eggs. I have a few weeks until they hatch to find a good home.
 
Am I just ignorant about S. bandensis or isn't it very abnormal for any ceph to keep eating and living after laying eggs? I thought it was pretty much universal that reproduction was the end of life, but from your reports, Baby A and her dudes aren't showing any signs of slowing down... are bandensis or cuttles in general an exception to the rule? I know apama die around when their eggs hatch, and I know most, if not all, octopods do too... not sure if anyone knows about vampyrotethis, and I don't know about nautilus (but I have a few books that probably do).

So, am I the only one perplexed by this?
 
monty;83994 said:
Am I just ignorant about S. bandensis or isn't it very abnormal for any ceph to keep eating and living after laying eggs? I thought it was pretty much universal that reproduction was the end of life, but from your reports, Baby A and her dudes aren't showing any signs of slowing down... are bandensis or cuttles in general an exception to the rule? I know apama die around when their eggs hatch, and I know most, if not all, octopods do too... not sure if anyone knows about vampyrotethis, and I don't know about nautilus (but I have a few books that probably do).

So, am I the only one perplexed by this?

I think that Sepia produce eggs over a period of time. The NRCC probably knows more about it than me. Nautilus produce their eggs over a period of years - but only a few at a time - their eggs look really weird, kind of like a chinese dumpling. The eggs are white, opaque and kind of hard (it feels like flexible plastic). You cannot see the embryo developing inside, you have to open the egg to see development. When a young Nautilus is about to hatch, you can see the shell peeking through the top of the egg.

Some things I am surprised about my cuttles are:

1. They are continuing to mate (maybe they can't store sperm like octopus?).

2. Maternal care - I have seen the female blow water over the eggs.

3. Paternal guarding while the female is laying eggs - I have observed this several times.
 
Brock Fluharty;84004 said:
And the enormous amount of eggs they are producing. I'm very surprised they haven't all died from exhaustion. What are you feeding the adults?

Actually, I don't think 100 eggs is actually that many - Nautilus is probably the only living cephalopod that produces less. Granted cuttlefish eggs are bigger and cost more energy to produce than octopus eggs, but octopus can have thousands of eggs.

I feed the adults live shore shrimp and occassionally frozen krill. Yesterday (for fun) I offered raw shrimp from the grocery store - it was hilarious, the shrimp were twice the mantle length and Scrunchy decided to attack and eat it - I videotaped it and as soon as I figure out how to transfer it to my computer, I will post the video.
 

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