Sepia Bandensis - First Round

[MAKOOKAM]

BEASTS!! Nice!

 

[snowmaker]

Cute little devils.
I have my former sps tank (40b) almost ready for them. I took out all (4) propeller pumps and put foam filter over closed loop intake. Will also down size CL pump.
I have stocked with just Tonga branch rock and some fancy soft corals and decorative macro algaes.

 

[snowmaker]

I think this will be the last video of the 5 in a 10 gallon tank. The 40g is about ready.
Can go full screen on YouTube and shows good detail.

 

[MAKOOKAM]

That was very cool. Thanks for making that. Loved the overhead amphipod grab in the middle of the clip.

 

[corpusse]

Great video.

 

[snowmaker]

Thanks guys. More to come. The 5 are in a 40b now and I am seeing all sorts of interesting behavior. I believe I am seeing aggression between males and mating between 2 opposing color / patterned ones.
The largest is 4" and the smallest is 3". Surprisingly, the smallest one is the most feared or respected of the group.
They are all around 3.5 mos. old now. I am still feeding live large (up to 1.5") amphipods that are collected locally. Typically feeding 2x / day - enough so each cuttle gets 2 or 3 of the amphipods 2x / day.

 

[snowmaker]

Mating Video

I have to guess this is mating? I have seen similar but more aggressive and same contrasting coloring and figured that was males fighting.
This clip should look ok full screen as I tried the hq .avi upload:

 

[DWhatley]

Now start looking for where she hid the eggs

The communication at the end is very interesting, I wonder what it means.

 

[snowmaker]

I think that was the male saying, "I'll call."

Any clue as to when I might start to find eggs? These are about 3.5 mos. old now.
I have not come across any information regarding any sort of time line or what actually happens, like "Do the eggs come out of the female's mouth"?

 

[snowmaker]

Males? Color change to aggressive posture. Walking.

 

[DWhatley]

Hopefully Cuttlegirl will see your post but I seem to recall her saying to find the darkest most unreachable part of the aquarium.

 

[cuttlegirl]

I think that was the male saying, "I'll call."

Any clue as to when I might start to find eggs? These are about 3.5 mos. old now.
I have not come across any information regarding any sort of time line or what actually happens, like "Do the eggs come out of the female's mouth"?

Definitely mating. As D said, start looking in the deepest, darkest, most inaccessible part of the aquarium. Sometimes the female will hang out in the rock work near where she has laid the eggs. When I removed eggs, she continued to lay them in the same place. Mine didn't start laying until around 5 months, but I recall Thales saying that they can lay earlier than that. The eggs come out of her siphon and she positions them with her tentacles and covers them with ink. It doesn't take very long for her to lay an egg (I think less than a minute). Somewhere I think I have a video of my female laying eggs, I just have to find it. I don't think I ever posted it to Tonmo though...

 

[DWhatley]

Jenn,
If you dig it up, post it on YouTube (my choice since it is free, easy to use and does not have overly obnoxious pop-up ads) or some other free hosting site and link here using the http address and the little film strip. Our own video system is not integrated into the new VB release.

 

[snowmaker]

Thanks Jenn,

I have an idea then where she might place the eggs. I think she will attach them to the back of a covered Kor. 2 prop pump. I think she hangs out there often. Of course never can tell with these little changelings.

Do you know if there is an approximate time window from egg laying to hatching?

Thanks so much for your answers and comments.

Joe

 

[corpusse]

I wonder if the food you're feeding is why yours are so big. My cuttlefish are still pretty small despite being born in January. I am trying to feed the ghost shrimp right before they are fed to the cuttles in an effort to get them more nutrition.