CLC / CAPSTONE RESEARCH LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Research Review
APA citation of article:
Hanley, J. S., Shashar, N., Smolowitz, R., Mebane, W., & https://https://www.jstor.org/stable/1542623
Hanlon, R. T. (1999). Soft-Sided Tanks Improve Long-Term
Health of Cultured Cuttlefish. Biological Bulletin, 197(2), 237–
238. https://doi.org/10.2307/1542623
Boal, J. G., Hylton, R. A., Gonzalez, S. A., & Hanlon, R. T.
(1999). Effects of Crowding on the Social Behavior of Cuttlefish
(Sepia officinalis). Contemporary topics in laboratory animal
science / American Association for Laboratory Animal Science,
38(1), 49-55. https://doi.org/12086452
Perrin, A., Le Bihan, E., & Kouéta, N. (2004). Experimental
study of enriched frozen diet on digestive enzymes and growth
of juvenile cuttlefish Sepia officinalis L. (Mollusca
Cephalopoda). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and
Ecology, 331(2), 267-285.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2004.05.012
Retrieved from (website address):
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12086452/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
abs/pii/S002209810400317X#!
Notes from article (summarized in YOUR OWN WORDS):
● Cuttlefish tend to collide into their tanks' walls when startled or
moving away from something, causing damage.
● Repetitive collision causes long-term damage, specifically to their
mantle bone can cause PMTD to develop and in severe cases
leads to death.
● PMTD is dermatitis on the posterior of the mantle tip and
decreases the well-being and health of affected cuttlefish
● Even when the cuttlefish were relatively calm, with no real stimulus
they collided with walls.
● A “bumper system” was installed along the walls of tanks to reduce
damage caused by collisions.
● After a couple of trials, it was found that no cuttlefish in the
cushioned tank showed signs of PMTD, increasing longevity.
● The behaviour of captive-bred cuttlefish was observed for 1 month
in 2 separate tanks.
● One group had a larger tank and one had a much smaller tank.
● In both tanks each cuttlefish spaced itself out to avoid other
cuttlefish.
● In the smaller tank each cuttlefish was noticeably more agitated,
displaying colour patterns associated with stress, ate less, and
acted aggressively towards other cuttlefish more often.
● Overall the study concluded that Sepia officinalis most likely
behaved in a semi-solitary way in a natural environment
● over 30 days hatchling cuttlefish were fed frozen shrimp, oil-
enriched frozen shrimp, and live shrimp.
● The animals fed frozen shrimp had better survival rates than those
fed live shrimp.
● Live shrimp was found to be generally detrimental to the growth of
the cuttlefish

Noussithé, K., & Boucaud-Camou, E. (2001). Basic growth
relations in experimental rearing of early juvenile cuttlefish
Sepia officinalis L. (Mollusca: Cephalopoda). Journal of
Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 265(1), 75-87.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-0981(01)00319-7
Schnell, A. K., Boeckle, M., Rivera, M., Clayton, N. S., &
Hanlon, R. T. (2021). Cuttlefish exert self-control in a delay of
gratification task. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY
B. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.3161
Schnell, A. K., Jozet-Alves, C., Clayton, N. S., & Hanlon, R. T.
(2021). Episodic-like memory is preserved with age in
cuttlefish. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B,
288(1957). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1052
CLC / CAPSTONE RESEARCH LITERATURE REVIEW
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
abs/pii/S0022098101003197#preview-section-
abstract
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/
rspb.2020.3161
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/
rspb.2021.1052
● By the time the cuttlefish gained their adult digestive tract,
changes in growth were observed between each group
● Juvenile cuttlefish can adjust their digestive enzyme activities
according to their diets to some degree.
● Overall this experiment showed how difficult it is to produce an
optimal diet for cuttlefish.
● Growth relations of rearing juvenile cuttlefish were observed over
40 days
● Eleven different rations of food were offered to establish the early
rations of each animal
● The smaller rations body weight percentage decreased with age
● The body weight percentage of each ration gradually decreased
● The data collected is extremely useful in determining food
adjustment periods for rearing cuttlefish and can prevent wasting
food or over-feeding.
● Cuttlefish were presented with a delayed maintenance task, to
measure their ability to forego immediate gratification in favour of a
delayed greater reward.
● Cuttlefish were able to wait 50s-130s to receive a greater reward.
● Tested using a reversal-learning task that created associations
between rewards and stimuli
● Concluded that cuttlefish can tolerate delays to obtain higher
quality rewards comparable to that of self-control in some large-
brained vertebrates.
● Cuttlefish may have developed this for separate reasons, such as
waiting to make sure it’s safe before moving in for food.
● Tested both semantic and episodic memory in adult and sub-
adult cuttlefish.
● The test for semantic memory was to see if they could learn
that the location of food was dependent on the time of day.
Results were comparable across all age groups.
● In the episodic memory test cuttlefish had to solve a foraging
CLC / CAPSTONE RESEARCH LITERATURE REVIEW

task by obtaining information on past events with unique

spatio-temporal features. Again the results were comparable
across all age groups, however, adult cuttlefish were able to
succeed significantly quicker than sub-adults.
● This study reaches the conclusion that contrary to other
animals, episodic memory in cuttlefish doesn’t deteriorate
with age, and may even improve over time. This may be due
to evolutionary pressures that created the need for
resistance against memory deterioration.