• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Sepia Bandensis in Canada

Justine27

Cuttlefish
Registered
Joined
Mar 1, 2017
Messages
21
Location
Canada
Hi everyone!
I'm trying to find out if there's anywhere in Canada I can get Sepia Bandensis. I've looked and looked, but I'm not finding anything. My LFS is going to talk to his Indonesia supplier, and see if they're breeding any, but I'd rather get confirmed captive bred animals.
 
There have been a couple attempts to raise bandensis commercially but they have not been successful for longer than roughly a year. Occasionally a hobbyist will successfully hatch more eggs than he/she can raise and offer the extras for sale but it is very rare to be able to find captive bred cephs of any species.

The most typical way to acquire bandensis has been by purchasing eggs imported from Indonesian suppliers (usually through an online or local fish store) . It is quite costly to raise them from hatchlings as we have never found anything but live food (mysid shrimp have been the only consistently successful food) to get them through their first couple of months.
 
Okay, this is good to know! Live mysis aren't exactly legal here, but I do have them in my main reef tank (came as hitchhikers in some coral somehow). I could probably pull some, and start a breeding culture of them.
I was going to get my LFS to track down another octo for me, after I lost my little one after less than 48 hours, but the cuttlefish seem really interesting, and more personable.
 
Not to be totally discouraging but mysid are difficult to grow in quantity. They are cannibalistic and need constant separation by size/age. So far, none of our members have been able to culture a large enough quantity to sustain a cuttlefish. Are you sure about the illegality?
 
The legality of them seems kind of iffy, and not really enforced. There's no mysis feeder breeders in Canada, besides PE Mysis, but they don't ship live. I had tons in my reef tank, and have for over a year. They did completely deplete my copepod population though. I got a flasher wrasse about a month ago, and he's greatly reduced their population. I may have found a lead on some live mysis, that were raised for testing, but have grown to large. They're supposed to be safe to feed, so I will email the company and see if I can get something sorted out.
Would enriched brine be another possibility?
 

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