i'd like to keep cuttle fish and i'm not really near a beach, so from what i understand i'll have to raise mysid and other crustaceans in order to feed cuttles. i plan to start a 75 gallon soon and i'm hoping that can house 4-5 cuttles? I could really use some help and insight from those who've established such things.

Welcome to TONMO!

Have you done a search on TONMO or checked out the articles? Those would be the best places to start!

:grin:

i read the article which i believe you wrote. and i googled some more stuff. i guess i gotta hit the forums some more.

Theres a lot of newish info on how we have been feeding bandensis. All can be found in this forum.

-Live mysids is necessary for the first 0-1.5 months. You dont necessarily need to breed them, just keep them alive long enough to be consumed by your cuttles.
-At around 1 month, I would suggest trying to train them to eat frozen mysid.
-At 1.5 months or so, its a good idea to move up to shore shrimp. Some of your cuttles may have learned to eat frozen already, but continue with mixing live shore shrimp with some frozen ones until all seem to readily take frozen.
-After this, I would suggest looking at bait shops or other areas for 1-3 inch size frozen shrimp. In the SF bay area, our bait shops have grass shrimp, which are perfect, but may not be available in other states.

+1

Raising your own mysis is a giant pain and takes much time and space.

it's difficult finding fresh shore shrimp because i havent seen any at lfs, also i am conviently located in grand prairie tx. lol. I don't have any ceph's at the moment, but i'm devising a set up for cephs. I'm debating between a bimac or a couple of s. bandensis. I'd like to set up a 75 gal with a sump(between 20-30 gal); a remora pro,a hob filter, 40-50lb of LR and some base rock. would a heater even be neccessary since they require temp. in the 70's? Is there anything i'm missing(besides sand and powerheads ect.)?

LFS aren't going to be all that helpful in finding food for cuttles because of the markup the need vs the amounts of food you need. Perhaps Daniel and I will start selling cheap frozen shrimp to TONMO'ers. :grin:
Your best bets on food is to have them shipped to your door from someplace like www.aquaculturestore.com or www.livebrineshrimp.com (marine janitors).
I would do a heater with cuttles.

cool cool. Man the metasepia you had sure was cool. I'll check out the sites you posted. When i get a ceph you should sell cheap frozen shrimp to TONMO'ers.:)

Rich - That would be very helpful to me as well. I am going to go around to a couple of bait shops nearby tonight, but if I don't find anything it would be great if you could ship some to me. They would definitely be cheaper than shore shrimp!

I think the issue with frozen is keeping it cold while in transit, which usually means fast transit, which usually means expensive. If you guys have andy ideas about it, I would be happy to give it a shot.

I think the issue with frozen is keeping it cold while in transit, which usually means fast transit, which usually means expensive. If you guys have andy ideas about it, I would be happy to give it a shot.


This was my thoughts as well.I thought of shipping them out to tonmo'ers, since ive recently found a place that sold them in frozen packs. Unlike when we buy them by the lb live, every shrimp in these packages are the large sized ones. These are easy for me to get, but shipping them is a different story.

I would think they would be fine in styros with an ice pack or two 2nd day air. If it is cheaper than $43 a week, and my cuttles will eat it I am up for it.

dry ice would be a bit more expensive, but might last better. I don't know if the extreme cold would damage them, though.

Dry ice is a good idea, I believe that's how the frozen food companies do it.

Thales,
If you can find convenient dry ice and a well sealed styrofoam cooler, you can do priory mail (2 day) but not with frozen water. :oops: Just went to page two and saw my suggestion was not timely. I have gotten frozen foods this way without problem. Drs. Foster & Smith used to say they used dry ice but only use a ton of ice packs (more water weight than the Cyclop-eeze). This works pretty well now but originally they tried just covering the product and it did not ship well. The dry ice, well insulated, does keep things actually frozen and not just cold.

i love styrofoam, i've used it as an insulator in chem labs and it works pretty well, despite the fact that the statue of liberty will decompose before it... any way, great scott i think we're onto something