With the dismal failure to produce fertile eggs with my recent batch of bandensis, I have just received two clusters of about 10 eggs each of wild caught eggs to give it another go. My hope is to post some pics and some info on progress at least once a week. :grin:

The eggs arrived this morning and are acclimating now. Several hatchlings were sans egg, and swimming around. I have collected some amphipods to give to them, and 500 mysids will be arriving in the morning.

Here are a couple of acclimating shots:

:fingerscrossed:

:fingerscrossed:

:shock:

One cluster had 3 hatchlings and 5 full eggs, while the other had 5 hatchlings and 6 full eggs.

:baby::baby::baby::baby:
:baby::baby::baby::baby:
Ah... the late night feedings, burpings and diaper changes, how well I remember... oh wait, that's me... :bonk: you only have late night feedings and water changes. :grin:

Ok, so maybe every two weeks! Damn, I hate ordering mysids!

There are 22 babies:

Ohhhh, your babies are so cute!

Not as cute as yours!

Wow.

Nice pics!
What's the size of the little ones when they've just hatched?

Nancy

They are around 1/4 inch.

They are around 1/4 inch.

About the size of a small pea...

My mom says they look like orange seeds.

1/4 inch or so when hatched. About 1/2 inch now (below). Did I mention I love flashes and a macro lens?

Everytime I swear I am not spending more money on a camera, you take shots like this and I blow an interesting event! I took an hour of flash photos and my autofocus wouldn't. My Mercs mated for a second time (not likely to have a second hatching but interesting all the same)and I would dearly love to have had at least one decent photo of the event:mrgreen: <- envy.

Awww. :smile:

I would guess you were also trying to shoot in minimal light, not so easy with any camera!

Not only minimal but red light. The view finder only shows pixilated red and black with absolutely no definition, I have to manually point the camera (by aiming the lens not using the view finder or LCD screen then find a rough landmark in the blur). I do occassionally get a focused picture but last night it just would not cooperate!

Saw that picture on the BAR site...That macro is insane. It looks like a mature bandensis!

It takes me 1000 pictures to get one decent one!

It takes me 1000 pictures to get one decent one!

Glad I'm not the only one!

And just to note I do not like flash. It messes the colors up!

That cuttle does look like a mature bandensis! Pretty neat I think. I'll try to get a shot of it from a distance for comparison sake. :smile:

One of the secrets to quality in aquarium photography is quantity! Just the way it is. :grin:
Flashes bring their own host of issues, one of the most important is white balance. Sadly, with many all in one cameras, your ability to tweak those settings is limited and you end up with not so great results. FWIW, I use a remote flash so I get yummy, dramatic, non reflective results and I can also move the flash further away to change the intensity. I adjust white balance with a nifty thing called an expodisc. Basically, you take a picture through the expodisc (its like a lens filter) and then set white balance to that picture. The bestest advantage to a DSLR IMO is the ability to shoot in RAW. RAW allows easy tweaks to things like exposure and shadow quality - really pretty amazing.
Well, that was blathering! It just nice to ramble at a non sick little girl (guess what I have been doing the last two days!)

My new camera has raw, I need to find a good program to edit the images though.

Little off topic, but do your adults still have the injuries on the front tentacles? The adult in my tank still has this an actually it looks like its spreading.

Yep - on the front arms :smile: . The ones that had it still have it. I am pretty sure its a rubbing injury, and since they are 'old' they don't heal like they used to.

Sill going stong with 15 cuttles. I separated 4 runts, so they should catch up soon.

Here is a shot with the tentacles shooting for a mysid (not the best shot) and a shot of a baby with a large shrimp.

Nice!

How old are these guys? If the age difference is not that great, perhaps when they are older, we can swap some to ensure a good female ratio mix. Not that I know the sexes of my current batch...Yet..

They were born the beginning of december and are happily eating shore shrimp at this time.

Nice pics!

Rich, are you using only one remote flash and with the camera flash turned off? Is the remote flash to the side or on top?

Nancy

Thanks!

One remote flash that is triggered by the onboard flash in what is called 'commander' mode. I believe the onboard doesn't actually light the subject. The remote flash moves around depending on where I need it - camera in one hard flash in the other. Did you get my mail btw?

They were born the beginning of december and are happily eating shore shrimp at this time.



Some of mine are past 2 inches and Im thinking of putting them in the Display soon, even though the adult bandensis is in there. Ive mixed batches before without problems. Im hoping that wasnt a fluke.

Thales have you tried any frozen foods yet?

I haven't tried frozen foods yet, as they aren't even an inch. Usually I wait till they are on bait shrimp to move to frozen because small frozen food, the right size, is hard to come by.

These guys will be moving to an 18 gallon high soon because I am getting more eggs this week. I plan to raise them for a month or so and then sell them.

I got a shipment of eggs, so I moved these guys to a different tank and fed them live shore shrimp for a few days. Then I was feeding their neighbors the bangaiis PE mysids and decided to throw a few in with the cuttles. Bang! They ate them. :grin: I got just about all of them to take them, but I did have to blow some around with a baster to get them to strike. Yay!

Mine LOVE the PE mysis. I was feeding H2O's Mini mysis before but the very first day I threw in the PE instead my cuttles went wild. How many new eggs do you have?

I have about 70 eggs right now. The plan will be to either sell the 14 I have when the eggs hatch, or raise the eggs for a month or so and then sell them.

What size tank do you need for the little buggers?I was thinking about getting one(or two) for my wife.She likes the octos but I think she would enjoy cuttles alittle more.

Seventy eggs is quite a bit! I would go broke buying mysids for so many cuttles.

Here is one of this group striking:

Got them all to take frozen shrimp by using an old school feeding stick - rigid airline tubing with a stiff fishing line.

Some of the eggs have started to hatch. :grin:

A couple more striking pics.

Here is a pic of a cuttle in the egg, and a pic of an egg cluster with babies clearly visible.

Very nice shots.

Thanks!

Here is a pic of a cuttle with a shrimp in its skirt just after striking, and a pic of the first signs of male display (the male is on the bottom)

Better pic of the moment after the grab:

Great pictures as always. I am excited for when I get to see my cuttles from the side instead of top down all of the time.

Great photos! I love the picture of the baby inside the egg...it looks like a screen shot out of the movie the abyss or aliens hahah!

Thanks guys!

People don't seem to realize how small hatchling bandensis actually are, so I took this pic to help illustrate their super smallness:

Heh did you put one in a cup and put it over a dime?

I was looking at a video I made of hatchlings and I forget how small they start out also. They really grow noticeably daily.

My other cuttles have been laying eggs all day and night. I wish I have a super fancy camera like yours. But I guess I would also need to possess the knowledge of its use as well!

Thanks Daniel!

Yep, Deli container with a dime on top under a plastic tray with water. Very quick.

It took me a long time to break down and get a fancy camera. I really didn't want to do it - its a whole 'nother hobby!

I'd love to come by your place sometime and take some pics if that sounds like something you'd be interested in. :grin:

Thanks Daniel!

It took me a long time to break down and get a fancy camera. I really didn't want to do it - its a whole 'nother hobby!

I'd love to come by your place sometime and take some pics if that sounds like something you'd be interested in. :grin:

Whole 'nother' Hobby is exactly my thoughts. As if I dont have enough expensive hobbies!

Id love to have you over. Anytime thats convenient for you. I work from home, so Im here ALL the time heh. Just PM me your schedule. Also, on another note, it looks like theres no Humboldt squid out lately, so catching them might not be possible until next month.

adds new meaning to "it can turn on a dime".... great shot, and yeah, gives me camera envy...

It took me a long time to break down and get a fancy camera. I really didn't want to do it - its a whole 'nother hobby!
Yeah i finally broke down and bought a nice dslr...You know you are addicted to this hobby when you take up an even more expensive or equally expensive hobby just to take pics of your other hobby (your tanks and livestock)!!

Yeah i finally broke down and bought a nice dslr...You know you are addicted to this hobby when you take up an even more expensive or equally expensive hobby just to take pics of your other hobby (your tanks and livestock)!!


Im getting close to take the dive myself.

Go for it! Then I can watch you agonize over which way too expensive lens' to get!

So, these cuttles are next to a tank with my baby bangaii cardinals. Most of the cuttles will group up against the glass and follow the baby bangaiis up, down, and across the tank. Very entertaining!

So these guys are three months old, and grubbing on thawed, rinsed PE mysis. Grubbing I tell you! I am going to switch to two feedings a day, one live one frozen. I think it might be neat to be able to regularly feed them mysis.

Do you think they will get too big for mysis? How many do each 3 month old eat a day?

I think they will get too big, but they sure will make a good snack for a while.

I have some captive raised S. bandensis hatchlings and three month olds for sale. The hatchlings (hatched and eating mysis and prolly amphipods) are currently $40 each, plus shipping and boxing, the 3 month olds (eating frozen shore/bait shrimp and frozen mysis) are $75 each plus shipping and boxing. Payment accepted through paypal only. If you are interested please email me at babies@daisyhillcuttlefarm.org

You can see pics of these guys in this thread:
http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11718

General info on the species available here:
http://www.tonmo.com/cephcare/cuttlefish.php

Some nitty gritties:

Please, serious/informed buyers only. It often happens in sales of captive raised cephs that people say "I want them, will you hold them for me". Then, after a dozen or so emails, they decide that these animals aren't for them (this actually happened this week :smile: ). So, please, serious/informed inquiries only.
I am happy to hold animals for a week or two with prepayment, with 50% refundable if you decide to back out.

:grin:

Thanks guys!

No more three monthers available. Thanks!

The 11 I have left are eating like pigs.

I modified Daniel's feeding chain idea and modified it slightly. From a piece of plastic rod, I tied short lengths of fishing line. To the bottom of each line, I glued a small piece of live rock rubble with superglue. Then, in the middle of the lines, I glued some plastic toothpics. Once it all cured, I put bait shrimp on the toothpicks and hung the plastic rod over the top of the tank. BAM all the cuttles struck almost right away. They tugged and pulled to get the shrimp off the toothpics, but I secured them too well. The second time, shrimp much more loosely stuck, the cuttles knew what to expect and it was much more orderly.

I very much like this method because I can count off the shrimp for the number of cuttles, the shrimp don't hit the floor of the tank to decompose, and the cuttles seem less likely to both strike the same shrimp. Double added benefit - both the current and the cuttles striking other shrimp on the line make the shrimp not yet taken jump around as if alive.

The contraption does look like some sort of mobile a serial killer would make though. :grin:

I am working on one for mysis for hatchlings.

The contraption does look like some sort of mobile a serial killer would make though. :grin:


Somehow, this doesn't surprise me given the co-inventors


I am working on one for mysis for hatchlings.

and then are you going to transcribe the entire TONMO journals on the head of a pin?

I modified Daniel's feeding chain idea and modified it slightly. .

Glad to hear! The first version I made had wooden toothpicks which eventually gets chewed up! At first, I was careful to make the shrimps skewered loosely, but after a while I didnt bother. If it was too tight, the cuttle will bring it to a rock and sit and have shrimp on the stick!

I have one male from this batch still alive.