Help urgently loosing suckers :(

[KWAquaculture]

G'day all have been visiting for a while but never got around to joining .. glad to be aboard

I need some urgent help

I have inherited a Grandpa aged giant Cuttle Sepia apama

he is absolutly awesome and i make sure to take plenty of time out of the day to entertain him (although i dont know who is more entertained :P )


My question is in relation to his suckers

about a month ago it was noted he was "coughing" up a pile of white rings that we determined where his suckers

he has come good since and was feeding well

but today he has coughed up another huge cloud of suckers

my question is does any one know what is causing this or what it is a sign of

in lu of an answer could any one refer me to some reading that might help answer this

water quality is good , salinity is a bit low ( about 32 -33 ppt ) there is no identifiyable ammonia or nitrites , unfortanatualy our supply water is also showing trace Nitrate levels but he recieves a 50% change daily on his system to ensure these are as low as possible


His diet consists of Squid (pen left in) and deep water fish fillets at a max of 50g per day and misses 2 feeds a week


any help woul;d be greatly appreciated thanks in advance

i will make ssure to get some pics up soon of him :P)

 

[cuttlegirl]

What a cool cuttlefish to have! Chances are, it is just shedding the outer layer of its suction cups, so you are fine . When can we see pictures??? I need a drooling, green with envy smiley...

 

[KWAquaculture]

phew thankyou for the quick responnce

was hoping it was a sheeding sorta thing being a calicum structure , and it is only the outer ring so that makes sence

will post up a thread this arvo when i get home with some pics i have taken over the last few weeks now if only he would do his big old man jaw thing wiht his lower tenticles :P only time he does it is when i dont have my camera in my pocket :P

thanks again for putting my mind at ease

 

[cuttlegirl]

Thanks for posting those pictures. I love the arms on your ceph...

 

[Thales]

Very cool! Can you tell us more about the setup it is in?

 

[KWAquaculture]

he is awesome hey his arms are like that cos he has just been feed think its a cleaning thing or even when he is chewing on his 50g lump of squid
i hope i catch him doing his old man jaw thing he does that looks really cool

Thales the system he is in is in is very simple

2,000L sump
1,000L tank (900x900x1200mm)
and there is another tank connected to this sump containing 5 spider crabs measuring over 45cm from the tips of oppisite legs that is another 1000L tank
the sum contains a protein skimmer and only about 20L of bioballs and an otto power head filter

i have recently made up some lime stone reactors (white pvc filled with ehime limestone media, an airstone, wrapped in fiberglass fly screen and cable tied like xmas bonbons)
this was in response to local winter conditions causing a nutrient influx in our uptake water and a drop in salinity and even after treatment (pumped 10M below the surface over 3 hours stretching high tide then passed through sand filter then filtered down to 0.02um and passed through UV then recirc'd and airrated between 2 holding tanks until required ) is still quite green :S


His tank has the rubberized rock wall around the sides and has airstones running behind them to stop it going anoxic
river stones on the bottom and a plastic plant and the system receives between 2000 and 3000L change a day

i have earmarked a 2500 L tank ( 2500x 1200x 900) on a 3000L sump (containing over 1000L of fully cycled bio balls) for the next generation hopefully i can keep a couple in there or maybe one and a southern rock lobster

should be able to get next gen up closer to natural maximum size (said to be a cuttle bone of over a 1M) next time i head back to SA to catch up with the rellies i really should try to time it for when they sporn in Whayalla SA

ill update some more pics of him as they come to hand (hopefuly i get a propper camera soon :P )