Feeding Cuttlefish

[Riverwatch-Mick]

I now have five but they are in fine condition and have taken well to frozen mysis. I've also managed to find enough small shore crabs to give them some live food. I'm no longer going to keep cuttles in a small, seperate, quarantine tank. I lost the two with buttburn and believe by isolating them in the smaller tank I did them no favours. Lesson learned much to the detriment of two cuttles.

 

[Thales]

Its difficult to give you info like you need to order X amount of crabs/shrimp for x amount of cuttles because lots depends on the size of the cuttle and the size of the food item - and worse, keeping live food alive can be problematic. I like to feed S. bandensis twice a day both for nutrition and to keep them busy, especially if they are mating or laying eggs. You can get them onto frozen foods which can be cheaper and easier. Sourcing food, and keeping it stocked is one of the hardest parts of cuttle husbandry. Freshwater ghost shrimp work well and are often easier to get than saltwater prey items.

Growing your own food in enough numbers to keep cuttles healthy seems like a daunting task. 4 cuttles eating twice a day is 56 food items per week.

Nice to see Europeans here posting about S. officinalis - we generally don't have them in the US because there is not much of a market for them because of their size and because they are just hard to get.

 

[Cephdoc]

Thanks Thales! I appreciate the input! Another question? As long as they arent treated with copper as a live food source will Guppies work to feed to them whne big enough? Because arent guppies really easy to breed and raise? So i guess my ultimate question is, is that since saltwater crabs and shrimps are more expensive and harder to get than freshwater prey items. Can that be a substitute in the long run when they get old enough? Not a perminant replacement, but just to cut costs?

 

[Thales]

Thanks Thales! I appreciate the input! Another question? As long as they arent treated with copper as a live food source will Guppies work to feed to them whne big enough? Because arent guppies really easy to breed and raise? So i guess my ultimate question is, is that since saltwater crabs and shrimps are more expensive and harder to get than freshwater prey items. Can that be a substitute in the long run when they get old enough? Not a perminant replacement, but just to cut costs?

Thats iffy. Freshwater fish have a very different nutritional profile than saltwater fish, so as a long term food they are not so good. As treats or something to get you through a week until you have better food. I wouldn't use them as a regular food, even though guppies can be acclimated to saltwater.
Sailfin mollies could work, but raising any fish as food yourself is not that easy. The rule of thumb is that you need 4 times the gallonage of your display to raise food, but I think that is optimistic. You need enough food of the right size when you need it and it takes time for the little fish to grow.

 

[DWhatley]

We need a "chicken of the sea". Something that grows quickly and has high food value in both egg and adult form.

 

[Riverwatch-Mick]

I have no problem finding large shore crabs but difficulty finding small ones the right size for the cuttles I have. They are quite young and can just about manage crabs their own size (1 - 2 inch). I was considering crushing up a large crab and putting it in to the tank for two of the smaller cuttles to get a feed. I've been psyching myself up to do it for the last two hours. I hate killing anything but don't wan't to see the two smaller ones miss out on the benefits of a good feed.

I'm aware of this fiendish plan not working and a poor shore crab's sacrifice being for nothing.

 

[DWhatley]

You could freeze the crab first. I do this with hermits that I want to feed out of the shell. Freezing is possibly a less tramatic death than smashing and is a bit easier for the human psyche. Freezing also allows you to try putting it in there whole to see if they will attack it, then you can try smashing it if they don't

 

[Cephdoc]

I was at Menards today with my father. I went to the storage section and was looking at their heavy duty storage totes... I have this idea of keeping fiddler crabs in one of those totes. Supplying water and food for them with a sandy bed. Is this a good idea? Instead of ordering them every week, actually having them on hand. Has anyone ever had success with this? Lot of 10 are $15 and 20 are $25 from Sachs.. Ive read they eat strawberries and or bannanas? Also Sachs says to keep them in water and change the water daily? If i go the sand route would maintinence be greater or less than just keeping them in water? Also i have questions on Amphipods and Mysids? I have a 20 gallon glass tank, could these be housed in there as food for the babies with an airstone and some food? More the Amphipods than the Mysids... I know the Mysids are cannibals!! HA, but will the baby cuttles prefer the mysids over the Amphipods? I am just worried about running out of food and i would like to have them on hand to net out and put in there when i feed.. trying to keep away from ordering all the time of possible.

 

[DWhatley]

The problem is not so much the storage but the quantity they consume. The mysis seem to either die or be eaten and ordering larger quantities seems only to cost more money without going any further than about two weeks (sometimes less). Once they can eat fiddlers, you will not need the smaller live foods and should be able to train them to frozen mysis even before they can eat the crabs.

The crabs will keep as Paul suggests for about a month. I use brackish water and two rocks in an old salt pail (Paul also says or when the water smells and I change the water weekly or "when the water smells" with only a few losses.) If I remember to check the habitat and catch one about to die (not moving much) or dead without smell, I freeze it and thaw and feed when I am out of live food. However, I keep octopuses and I don't know if anyone has tried thawed fiddlers with the bendensis.

 

[Cephdoc]

Fiddlers will only keep for a month .. darn. I was hoping longer I might not want to set up all this then. I was hoping to get 20-40 and keep for a good amount of time when the time came.

 

[Reef Geek]

I don't know if anyone has tried thawed fiddlers with the bendensis.

I have not tried a thawed fiddler, but I did have success getting my bandensis to eat a dead fiddler that had just died. He still doesn't like to grab things that don't move, so I was just moving it a bit with my glass scraper and he went for it. Seems he's used to my tools for working on the tank and isn't afraid of them at all.

But overall, I keep live fiddlers and live shrimp (from the local bait shop) in a 40g breeder in my garage. I have no problem keeping the fiddlers for a month or more but the shrimp don't seem to make it as long. Not sure why yet, so they get the first dates with Mr. Cuttles.

I've tried keeping fiddlers in just a few inches of water with rocks to get out on, but I've had just as much success with a full tank and no way out of the water. Got that tip from the bait shop and it works! I also use the same salinity as my cuttle tank.

I have fiddlers and large shrimp in abundance so I'll try the frozen/thawed crab idea next and see what I get.

 

[DWhatley]

I have had long term success (unintentional) with keeping them in a full aquarium set up but they did have access to the overflow box or other items in the tank to get above the water (usually they stayed below). This had made me wonder if crowding may be more of an issue than the tank itself. Nancy had some that lived over a year in a sand environment outside. However, I never count on more than a month, month and a half when I buy them.

Females with eggs seem to die the most easily. For a long time I would experiment to see if the eggs would hatch but never had any luck and the females died. Now I feed berried crabs so the octopuses get the benefit of the eggs.

 

[Cephdoc]

Reef Geek.. You only have one Cuttle? I plan on eventually keeping 5 in my 75. Hopefully with success i can keep 5 alive after at least 5 hatch from a batch of eggs. So yes i need some sort of food source all the time.

 

[Reef Geek]

Yes, unfortunately my batch of eggs didn't fare so well and only 1 has survived. I think the refugium I kept the eggs in was too warm as it ran with my reef tank. My next batch I plan to use a cooler environment for the eggs and see if I get better results. I have a 110g L-shaped tank that I'd love to have multiple cuttles in.

Fortunately for me, living in Florida has been a big help with regards to cuttle food. I caught my own mysis for the hatchlings and either caught or found larger food at bait shops when the need arose.

The 40g breeder is working out great for keeping live food on hand. I just use an OTB filter and an air stone for circulation, thin sand-bed and maybe 20lbs of LR scattered over the bottom. I don't even do water changes, just top it off as needed. It's just for food, so no special lighting. This has worked for about 6 months now with great results.

 

[Cephdoc]

Where did you get your eggs? I am going to keep my eggs in a clear fish holder in the top of the tank. Do you think that should be fine. I am currently running the tank at about 77 degrees. Im not too sure what the temp should be after reading alot of different things.