Tropical Fish Hobbyist

in the tank, not only can hatchling Sepia bandensis stop seeing them as prey items, but such abundance can make the hatchlings harder to wean onto non-living food.

Jennifer Saitz

One-month-old S. bandensis; until it grows to a size where you can see it in the main tank and ensure it is feeding, the juvenile cuttlefish should be kept separate, as in this small refugium within the main display tank.

don’t get caught up in the extra netting at the seams. Hang-on tank refugiums can also be used, as well as small nursery aquariums plumbed into the system—although you must take precautions to ensure the hatchlings won’t be washed out of the container by water returning to the tank, such as using a foam filter sponge over the outflow.

I like net breeders because they are simple, inexpensive, and incredibly easy to set up. The net breeders hang on the inside of the aquarium and allow water to flow freely through the net, so no extra filtration or plumbing is needed. You can easily look through the top to keep track of the health and growth of the cuttles. I have successfully kept four hatchling Sepia bandensis in net breeders for the first two to three months of their lives, and once they grow to about an inch in length, they can be let loose in the larger tank.

Feeding Young Cuttles

Net breeders are also great because they keep hatchling cuttlefish in close proximity to their food. For at least the first two weeks after hatching, Sepia bandensis will need some sort of live food, and keeping the food closer to the hatchlings makes it more likely they will be able to find and eat it. The more they eat, the faster they will grow, and the sooner you can release them into their permanent home.

By far, the most successful food for hatchling Sepia bandensis is live mysis shrimp. Mysis are highly nutritious and relatively easy for the hatchlings to catch. I prefer cultured mysis to wild mysis because, in my experience, they

have better survival rates, but plenty of other cephalopod keepers have had great success with wild mysis.

It is important to note that live brine shrimp, though readily available and inexpensive, are widely considered terrible food for cephalopods. Cephalopods raised on live brine, even enriched live brine, have low survival rates and short lives.

Keeping any live food alive can be challenging, and the challenge is compounded with mysis because they can be cannibalistic. To reduce this potential issue, avoid overcrowding and be sure to feed rotifers or other suitable foods regularly. Net breeders can be utilized, or another small tank can be set up to keep the mysis until they are ready to be fed to the cuttlefish. It’s also important to get a feel for how many mysis you need per week and order them before you run out, so your cuttlefish don’t starve or eat each other!

If you are lucky enough to live near the ocean, you may be able to collect your own hatchling cuttle food in the form of small amphipods. Make sure to collect from waters that are as unpolluted as possible, and make sure to check with local regulations regarding collection before beginning. Amphipods can be much more robust than mysis and escape from hatchling cuttlefish more easily. I recommend you start with mysis for the first week or so, allowing your baby cuttlefish to learn hunting skills with the easier prey.

Hatchlings should be fed several times a day and only as much as they catch in a few minutes. I recommend avoiding flood-feeding of live food; with so many food organisms

Weaning Cuttlefish

Since live food can be expensive, it’s great to wean your cuttlefish onto thawed frozen food as soon as possible—frozen mysis are a good choice for size and nutrition. Since cuttlefish rely on their eyesight to hunt, often the non-living food items may need to be moving to get the cuttlefish to strike. Start by introducing thawed mysis with your live food. The hatchlings, conditioned to strike when live food is dropped into their breeder net, will usually snap up the dead mysis as well. Sometimes you will have to make the non-living prey look alive by gently blowing it around, just barely moving it, with a small pipette or turkey baster. Weaning onto non-living foods may not work until the hatchlings have moved off small prey and onto larger prey, and determining when your hatchlings are able to move off smaller food is a judgment call.

When your cuttlefish are a month old and have had time to hone their hunting skill on weaker, smaller food, you can try feeding them larger food—even up to foods the same size as the cuttlefish. Shore shrimp or marine janitors can be ordered online in various different sizes, and they make a great food for cuttlefish. Just like mysis, they need to be kept alive until fed to the cuttlefish, so be prepared. Once the cuttlefish are taking larger prey, the weaning process described above works quickly and effectively, but instead of using non-living mysis, you need to use non-living, freshly killed, or thawed frozen shrimp.

Another weaning method that cephalopod enthusiasts have been experimenting with is some kind of shrimp hanger or feeding station. Glue or tie a small rock to a piece of fishing line as a sinker. Tie the other end, or secure the other end, above the tank so the sinker will be a couple of inches above the bottom of the tank. In the middle of the line, tie or glue a plastic toothpick and skewer a dead shrimp onto it. When you place this device into the tank, the current should make the shrimp on the toothpick move around, which will help attract the cuttlefish to feed. If you have multiple cuttlefish, add more toothpicks to the line for more shrimp.

Weaned or not, as the cuttlefish get bigger you will need to get them larger food items. Again, if you live near the ocean, you can collect local crabs or shrimp as needed. You