A blog about using and fixing bicycles, and the marine life of North Wales through a marine native aquarium and snorkelling.
Friday, 2 November 2012
Sepia officinalis Common cuttlefish in Native marine aquarium
I was given two small Sepia officinalisby Dr. Nick Jones (http://www.bangor.ac.uk/oceansciences/staff/php/staffdetails1.php?person=0064) at the School of Ocean Sciences which were left
over after experiments they were conducting on egg hatching. I made sure I had some
fine shell gravel in my aquarium before adding them into the tank. They like to
burrow so normal pea gravel would likely be too coarse to allow this. I have
had them almost two months now and both are growing well and seem to be well adjusted
to living in my aquarium. I have no chiller, the seawater is dependent on the
room temperature. I have been feeding them on Crangon crangon brown
shrimp, common prawn P. serratus and the occasional small sand goby. They
need a good source of live food and are really amazing to watch as they stalk
and attack their prey. This hunting is often accompanied by vivid pulses of
colour across the mantle of the cuttlefish. They have been great inhabitants of
my aquarium but as they grow larger I will probably need to find a new home for
them. Here are some pictures and video.
Sepia officinalis Common cuttlefish
Sepia officinalis Common cuttlefish feeding on a prawn
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