Cephs in the UK

[John Parkinson]

Hi,


I've been successfully keeping a reef aquarium for about 2 years now and am interested in setting up another tank for an octopus or cuttlefish. I've been reading the posts on here and also looking at sites on the web such as James Wood's ceph page. One question is how easy are octopus such as the bimac to get in the uk and does anyone know of any reliable sources?

What would be best for my first ceph? I'm thinking of either a bimac or Sepia officinalis. How much should i expect to pay for one?

The sort of setup i'm considering would be either 3' or 4' x18"x18" with live rock and a skimmer for filtration and a couple of flourescent tubes for lighting.

Sorry for all the questions.

John

[OctoMonkey]

hi John

To the bst of my knowledge I am the only regular poster here from the UK who has cephs. I am North of the Border though.

However, I can get you octopus and cuttlefish when you are ready for them without too much of a problem. I have access to the importers and can offer good prices compared to shops.

A small octopus in the UK (shop prices!) is about £45 on average.
Sepia o starts at about £20 to £???? depending on size.
Plus there would be delivery charges on that too depending where you are? Malvern? Near sort of Portsmouth area?

John feel free to contact me with more questions if you want. I am eager to get in contact with someone closer to me than the USA with a similar interest.

Colin

[John Parkinson]

Hi Colin,

Yep i'm in malvern it's just southwest of birmingham near cheltenham. It's about 2 hours away from portsmouth. My parents live in lancashire so i'm also up there quite often. I don't have a problem travelling though as i'm also a keen scuba diver and get down to the south coast quite regularly and occasionally up to the west coast of scotland.

I'm definately interested, it's just a case of putting another tank in the house somewhere. Do you think that my current reef tank would be suitable for a cuttlefish assuming i take the other fish out or would it be too warm? With the lights on it's about 27C. The tank is 4'x18"x18" with 2x250W MH.

Cheers

John

[OctoMonkey]

Hi John

You would need to take out any shrimps and crabs you wanted to keep too.

27 is too hot, I reduced the temp to about 20 in my tank for the cuttles, the corals and anemones are okay but just grow slower.

a 48x18x18 would probably be on the small side for cuttles too afetr a few months...

An octopus is an easier way to start in ceph keeping, cuttles can be trickier.

I got the extras of my cuttles re-housed today, so that's me down to a pair. I always had this in mind when i got them and at approx 6 months old its the right time. The males were all posturing to each other and attacking!

You may be better squeezing in another tank if you can.......

there are some pics on a site of my cuttles in my reef tank if you want to see them, click the icon above....

Colin