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cuttlefish questions

L8 2 RISE;114864 said:
They pretty much do what they feel like doing, You could try to get them to show an "interesting" coor by placing some different colored things in the tank.


IME, that doesn't really do much at all.
 
My Bandensis will go from white to a dark brown, and everything in between those two shades, but no reds, greens, or blues. Sometimes they will be a maroon color. Aside from the iridophores on their skirt, white/yellow/brown is pretty much all I get, aside from the occasional maroon. Other species are capable of different colors.

Letting them explore naturally without bothering them is the best way to get the most activity out of them, IME. Sticking stuff in front of them all the time and bugging them will make them want to hide more and increase their already-nocturnal activity.
 
okay so I want to start looking into tanks, where does everyone get their tanks? I really like how glasscages.com is set-up, you can customize your tank and see the price, but I have heard a few complaints of their tanks getting leaks?
 
When I said they prefer some height, I meant I wouldn't get something like a 33 L, that is very lacking in the height department. I think that the cuttle would be plenty comfortable in any tank with a decent water volume and some room to move around, but if you put them in a tank with little open space they will be less active and harder to find. Nautilus need a long tank so that they don't slam into the sides - which is the same reason they need a tank with some width to it as well. Height in an aquarium is really the least important for a Nautilus because in a shallow tank they do not have any greater risk of running into anything except for a pile of live rock. However, in the wild Nautilus endure incredible changes in depth during the night (when they 'surface'), and I'm sure they wouldn't mind having some room to make use of their gas chambers. A standard 75 gallon (48Lx18Wx20H) is the minimum tank recommendation for a Nautilus.

Let's not get off topic though :smile:.
 
shipposhack;115032 said:
When I said they prefer some height, I meant I wouldn't get something like a 33 L, that is very lacking in the height department. I think that the cuttle would be plenty comfortable in any tank with a decent water volume and some room to move around, but if you put them in a tank with little open space they will be less active and harder to find. Nautilus need a long tank so that they don't slam into the sides - which is the same reason they need a tank with some width to it as well. Height in an aquarium is really the least important for a Nautilus because in a shallow tank they do not have any greater risk of running into anything except for a pile of live rock. However, in the wild Nautilus endure incredible changes in depth during the night (when they 'surface'), and I'm sure they wouldn't mind having some room to make use of their gas chambers. A standard 75 gallon (48Lx18Wx20H) is the minimum tank recommendation for a Nautilus.

Let's not get off topic though :smile:.

I've read that it's been shown that nautilus actually does its daily migrations by jetting rather than by changing the gas pressure, and the gas/liquid balance can only be changed over a longer time, like weeks or months. But that's not a disagreement; if they're likely to jet vertically, that's even more reason for a taller tank.

With cuttles, it seems like they enjoy both the bottom of the tank and taking advantage of vertical space. The apparently do pretty well in large cylindrical tanks...
 
That's interesting Monty.

The thing I don't like about cylindrical or curved glass tanks is that taking good photographs is virtually impossible. I bet there is probably a piece of equipment you can get to make up for the distortion but I would rather not mess with it if it wasn't necessary.
 
It also depends on the cuttle species, IMO, and we should be careful making generalizations. For instance, bandensis rarely get butt burn, I think I know of one case and that seemed to be from injury not striking the walls of the tank, so I don't think the round tank idea really needs to apply to them. In the wild, bandensis also seem to hug to the reef and hide in it, so the idea they 'need' open space may be off a bit as well. The idea that they 'like' a taller water column also came from the officinalis information.

FWIW the 4 nautilus at the Steinhart are in a tank that is taller than it is long, prolly 30 or 36 inches tall.
 
Okay so a basic 75g tank should be fine? another question.... I have heard that cuttlefish are technically reef safe towards corals, but I have heard that a lot of light can damage their eye sight?
 
no one really knows for sure, but from what I have read here on tonmo, cephs dont like bright light that much, so just to play it safe, if you are going to get corals, get ones that dont need any special lighting.
 

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