Spawning, egg development and incubation of cuttlefish (Sepia officinlis L. 1758) in controlled conditions

Abstract

In this study, spawning, egg development and hatching success of cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis L. 1758) caught by jigging were investigated in controlled conditions. The wild female cuttlefish spawned 32 times in 46 days at 17.4 ±1.1°C water temparature. In the embryonic development, first chromatophores on the dorsal mantle were firstly described at stage 23/stage XII (Lemaire, 1970/Naef, 1928). Also, first chromatophores on the ventral surface of the head and the fins and on the lateral surface of the siphon organ were determined at stage 28 (XVIIIXIV) and stage 28+ (XVIII-XIX), respectively. At stage 29 (XIX), all chromatophores on the body surface are active. Furthermore, the ink sac begin fill with ink and activation of ink sac after fill over 50% of were determined at stage 27 (XVII) and stage 28 (XVIII), respectively. The embryonic development period lasted 52 days at 19.6 ±1.7°C water temparature. The incubation time and the hatching of paralarvae (newly hatchlings) lasted 45 days at 21.8 ±1.7°C water temparature. The hatching period of the paralarvae with 5-6 mm of dorsal mantle length lasted 2-4 days. Mean hatching rate success was estimated as x.1 ±6.3.