I got my first batch of eggs! They are, of course, in a horrible place and almost completely unphotographable. I'll try later. :smile:

I noticed when I was feeding on of the cuttles was dragging around an egg.

Now, I have to decide how long to leave them there. For a week at least to see what the parent does.
:smile:

You are having a better day than I am. I just tried to mate our last pair of H. lunulata and the pounced on the male and killed him before I was sure they weren't mating. She ate almost the entire corpse.

Roy

wow...I need to start looking closely at mine for my guys must be having eggs soon to..

How exciting!

Wow Roy! Sorry to hear that! BTW, the reports of your talk to the club were shiny. Everyone loved it. Thanks!

Daniel - I was shocked to find the eggs. The are so in the most inaccessible place. :smile: Luckily, the rocks the are on will be easy to remove.

Good news! Keep us updated and try to get pics once you move them! Can you see around how many there are?
Alyssa

do you know if any of you will have shippable eggs, or babies in mid to late january? i may not get an oficiallias due to the temp requirement, and instead, think of breeding bandies.

There looks to be 15 -20, but don't trust me I am on benedryl (sp?) and I am sick today! I feel asleep in my car before collecting crabs!

Don't know about shippable eggs or eggs for sale at all. First priority will be for me and paradox to continue breeding. :smile:

As quoted by Righty First priority will be for me and paradox to continue breeding.. Which one of you will be expecting???:baby: :heee:

i understand. if either one of you do have extras then i would be game. also i know you were able to recieve wild caught eggs in the past, do you still have that capibility? Btw if i do decided not to get an officialis which is what im leaning to at the moment. about how many adult bandies would feel comfortable in a 155. ohh any righty try a product called zycam if you do infact have a cold or flu its a mericle worker.

As quoted by Righty . Which one of you will be expecting???:baby: :heee:


Hah!! Leave it up to a man on Benedryl :bonk: to make wild accusations! hehehe

I have four 5 month old bandensis in my main tank and seven 1.5 month olds in a seperate area.. It only seems two are sexing it up lately. The other two were runts, so perhaps they are still not mature enough yet, or they are both males. Im still unsure of how many eggs Ill get, so of course my priority is to ahem breed with Righty.. :roll:

My webpage is coming along though, so hopefully ill be able to share some of my setup and experiences shortly.

:smile: breed away, but if there are any extras .... they could easily find a home in texas.

Righty does it again!

Nice to see that when I check back in you're still flying the flag.

Been away too long, so expect to see more of me again!!!

Nice work Rich, keep it up :smile:

Excellent! Here's to Righty for helping to take the pressure off the wild cephs!

Congrats Righty!! hope you're feeling better... keep us posted!

It looks as if two cuttles are keeping watch over the eggs, but it could be they just like the hiding spot. I am thinking of moving the eggs so I can document their growth, but (ooohh mating going on right now!) I kind of want to see if the cuttles stay with the eggs. I am torn because where the eggs are right now they are almost impossible to photograph.

That said, attached is a pic of the eggs.

Another cuttle just came over to the two that were 'guarding' the eggs, flashed 'zebra', the male of the pair flashed 'zebra' and they fought for a split second. Then they faced off around the tank for a few minutes. No one seems hurt. Gonna keep the camera set up on the tripod all the time from now on. Also gonna feed right now.

Doh - I'll also have to keep the glass clean all the time! :smile:

Would you say they are showing definite parental care or is the male protecting his female partner?
very interesting

In my group, I would have said parental care, after watching the individuals move off, but return the the same spot time over.

Interesting watching this one pan out.

How about if they have chosen an area of the tank that suits their eggs and they are defending that rather than the actual eggs?

EG is there a preferable type of current, lighting or other parameter which defines where they want to lay. In an open reef there would be a limitless supply of such places but in the tank there are only a couple of prime areas?

Quite a few species of fish and herptile I have bred will only lay eggs in places that suit the egg and not just scatter them like some species.

any thoughts Rich? Are the places they are choosing remarkable in any way?

All those thoughts are right on Colin. Observation is further compounded by the fact that they aren't always near the eggs and the fact that there is no way to tell if they are actually the parents. Oy!

Righty, how long after they started having sex do you estimate eggs appeared? Mine began a little over a week ago. I do not actually see eggs yet, but theres one spot in my tank that I suspect may be some. So far it looks like I only have 1 couple. The larger two of a group of four. I suspect that this area of rocks has become a nest and possible has eggs.

With the sex begining about a week and a half ago, do you think she should have laid eggs yet? Ive also began witnessing more (zebra) patterns as well. Mainly I think from the male being protective of the female. How long should I wait until I investigate the rocks?

Daniel,

Don't recall off hand, but I did update the progress section of my site, so it should give you an idea. I did also get your email - just haven't had any time to respond.

I opened the last section of the 'condo' to give more room because it looks like there has been some fighting.

There is another clutch of eggs, right next to the first clutch, and there definitely is a cuttlefish hanging out in the 'cave' with the eggs. Actually one hang out in the cave and another hangs out near its entrance. Freaking weird. Trying to get some photos/video, but its just such a bad spot!

I would like to move the eggs to watch their development, but I am also interested in the guarding behavior. Not sure what to do!

I think that some species ( could be all I have no idea) can store the sperm packets transfered to them from the male. I've kept officinalis in solitude before and they have laid eggs weeks to months after comming in and those have then gone on to be fertile. I think there must be something climatic which tells them to mate and then 9something else which tells them to release the eggs. In captivity you usually find t he temp was slightly higher so maybe that had something to do with it... we shall have to see!

Good job on the eggs though!

~Andy

More eggs and stuff. I started a blog because posting here and the website was annoying so I didn't do it much.

Cuttle blog (http://www.stickycricket.com/cuttle/blog)

I like the idea of a blog to record your cuttle raising experiences. The pics are interesting, too.

Nancy

Grrr. It seems NONE of the 50+ eggs that have been laid are fertile - and the blog experiment is not working out well. I guess a remodel that you are doing part of takes up a good chunk of you mind.

Sad Righty.

if you are looking for some new eggs, the suplier i recieved mine from has a boat load, and apparently they seem to have a constant flow at the moment. email me if you want the info, also the price was killer :)

Sorry Righty :sad:
Originally posted by Righty Grrr. It seems NONE of the 50+ eggs that have been laid are fertile How do you know they are infertile?

They don't develop. Grr.

Even worse news, my adult cuttles are dropping like flies. I have 4 left - had 5 last night.

Daniel, how are yours doing?

Sorry for the delay..Just got back from a snow trip...

PMed you..
On intial glance, they seem fine..

Really sorry to hear the bad news..

Just an update. All mine are gone. Sad me.

Though it looks like I will be getting some eggs at the beginning of april.

Sorry to hear about your eggs, Righty.

Seems to be a tough time for our tank bred cephs :sad:

Nancy