Do you have your little vulgies yet?

I ordered them today, so probably Thursday...

I might keep them in the separate bins and just do beaucoup water changes to the bin that's not flow through. I'm looking for a little tiny powerhead, but its hard to find out which have ceramic shafts online :(

Dan

I am out of live mysids and my next order is due tomorrow, so the little guys HAVE to eat frozen. Here is what I discovered with my cuttles. If the mysids still have the eyes attached, the cuttles are much more likely to go after the frozen shrimp.

Hi Dan - nice talking to you!

Indeed! I was quite surprised. I hadn't heard back from Steve since paying on Tuesday and I was about to PM you to see if you knew anything the order.

I can't wait for my little babies!

Dan

:)

HOOWAH
Im having trouble getting myself to get involved :(
Stupid Emtions
I havent done tank maintenece since Zim Died
:(

HOOWAH
Im having trouble getting myself to get involved :(
Stupid Emtions
I havent done tank maintenece since Zim Died
:(

Go watch the videos on Righty's site a few times--that'll get you motivated again! Do a few water changes and get back in the game...you're not replacing Zim, you're complementing him.

Dan

It's really hard to lose a favorite octo or cuttle. But the best thing to do is to go on and get another. It won't be quite the same but it will remind you of Zim -- and have new and interesting behavior.

I recently put together a photo book of my bimac Ollie (that's like a scrapbook, the all the photos are printed on the page with text, like a real book) - I'd recommend this to everyone who has had a favorite ceph. Now I can leaf through the pages and look at all the photos.

Nancy

still have any available? Im thinking 4-5 as well. Ive got about 3000gal of system water so ill just do some mysis hunting under rocks and corals each day.

i may be in the mood for more babies righty if you have any more availiable, lazarus is getting big almost 3" and he is aproaching his 5 month birthday so i think it may be time to restart the cuttle factory.

-Will

I don' think there are any more right now. I gotta keep some myself.

I know someone was supposed to be ordering 5 for next week.

It does look like I can get some more eggs. This way to sell them, me raising/keeping them and a store that does internet sales/shipping, is working out very well.

:smile:

Ya that was me that called about getting 5 next week. Does that mean I will get them or will not?

i was suppose to get an email for paypal request, PM me if you need anything from me to make it happen.

All business is done through the store, so I don't know if it was you or someone else. You should contact them for updates or info or order questions. Its the only way I can keep myself sane! :smile:

Hey
I got 5 baby cuttles yesterday and they are doing ok but 2 have already died they didnt look to good to begin with. and the tigger pods i bought to feed them were gone in an hour. Way too small. I ordered mysids but they wont be here till saturday so Im kind of worried now. the other 3 are great but im guessing they are hungry. any suggestions or just ride it out till saturday.
oh and i bought frozen mysids today and no takers.
what am i gonna do?
joe

Try frozen mysids with the heads on... be patient, blow the mysid gently around about 1 cm in front of the cuttle with an eyedropper filled with water. Good luck!

Remember to let the mysids thaw all the way through, too. I fill a small container with tank water and put about a half a square in to thaw with a few drops of Selco. That way I can choose the most whole-looking shrimp.

Not that any of this convinces mine to eat them, I think they're too afraid of the eyedropper!

Dan

Joenewbe,

Try feeding them at night 8-10 pm or later, mine seem to be more active and hungry then. Other than that, they just hang out on the bottom of the net breeder.

If Righty is out of cuttles, I do know that Aquatropics in Gainesville, FL has some hatchlings right now. I just saw them yesterday when I bought some coral. I drive an hour to get my livestock from them.

If you call - tell them Mike from Ocala mentioned them. I don't get any kickbacks or anything - I would just like the brownie points. :grin:

I know you can get thier number from a google search or in the TONMO archives.

Well,
My live mysids came a day early, 100 count, so Im lucky there. 2 of my cuttles were hungry. Ate at least 5 mysids each and look really good, the other one looks sluggish and wont eat. Ill continue trying the frozen along with the live ones to train them. i think Ill try the shore shrimp next becuse these mysids im sure will go quick. the cost is getting up there. DO you guys know what would be too big in terms of shore shrimp? my cuttles are the size of this icon------>:cuttle: or are mysids just the right size. thanks for the imput!
joe

For now, don't order shore shrimp without mysids until you know they're willing to eat the shore shrimp as a staple. The problem with them is most of them are > 1/2" or so, its hard for Sach's to find small ones.

The nice thing about the shore shrimp is you can keep them long term on flake food without heavy attrition. I have a 4 gallon plastic bin from Home Depot on a shelf next to my tank. A small siphon tube supplies fresh water from my overflow to the shrimp bin. I have a 3/4" bulkhead in the bin and the effluent tube goes right into my biofilter. A zig-zag shape made out of unglued PVC has a piece of foam at the end and serves as the overflow. I can change the water level by rotating it up or down at the bulkhead.

Dan

Once i saw how small the mysids are and how their cannibalistic, i think i should almost order food today so ill be prepared for next week. I just want the most food for the least price and of corse food they will consume . Maybe I will buy both pods from floridapets.com and some shoreshrimp from sachs. I wonder at what age i can feed them pieces shrimp from the grocery store? About how big is your largest baby cuttle?

Ordering more food now is a great idea. You're smarter than I was last week when mine came!

I put my seven of my largest shore shrimp in the fish tank. The others are in a large cooler with about 3 gallons of sea water and a heater. I change 100% of the water every day. Since I have a large surface area for oxygen exchange, the shrimp are doing fine. I feed flake food. I had little success with mysids so I am relieved that my cuttles are eating shore shrimp. My cuttles could sit on top of a dime with room to spare. They are eating shore shrimp about twice their size.

ok cuttle girl
thanks I ordered shore shrimp and pods so I should be set . I will still try to feed them frozen mysids along with the live ones untill i get the new shrimp. I think we must have similar size cuttles. The big ones lived and the little ones died so myabe theres a reason for that. But I think things will go soothly from now on.
:cuttle: :cuttle:
joe

I will be separating my two co-habitating cuttles... Last night I put two shore shrimp in at the same time and Baby A went for the first shrimp she saw. Well, Cuddly saw the same shrimp and decided that she wanted it, so she grabbed it AFTER it was in the firm grasp of Baby A. It was quite a fight, but being stubborn siblings, neither one would let go. I couldn't tell if they were biting each other or the shrimp. I can't see any injuries today, but I think it would be better to keep them apart from now on (at least at feeding time!).

How big are your babies now? I swear mine have nearly doubled in length since arriving (They probably have doubled in mass). The two big ones are eating shore shrimp, but the little fella is still a bit shy. He won't take frozen shrimp immediately, but if its in front of him for a little while he'll get curious and eat it. Given that he is eating and gaining weight I'm still a little bit worried because he's not a natural-born hunter.

Dan

Originally posted by DHyslop
Given that he is eating and gaining weight I'm still a little bit worried because he's not a natural-born hunter.


I wouldn't worry too much as long as he/she is eating, he may just be a cautious cuttlefish...

Hi Cuttlegirl,

its par for the course that cuttles will 'acidently' grab each other from time to time while feeding. I dont think I would seperate them as it will make re-introductions so much trickier at a later date. Just try and add more food at once or like when I had the officinalis, I used to make sure the biggest one got fed first and that stopped him grabbing the others.

I would frequently see squabbles over food with the bandensis too but nothing serious, they really are not as aggressive.

Dan, I think, that to double in mass a cuttlefish has to grow 25% longer, so they really do grow quickly!!!

I just realized that I have had my cuttles for a month (since May 19th). They are definitely bigger, Scrunchy has grown the most (she is the most aggressive eater, willing to eat prey 2x bigger than she). I can almost see their little eyes. They are displaying more complex color changes and texture changes.

Colin,

I did keep the two "fighters" together. It was a pretty big squabble, they both held onto the shrimp for about 10 minutes and probably were aggressively fighting each other for 1 minute or so. More aggression than they show when they capture a shrimp (but then, the shrimp succumbs to the poison...). In any case, there haven't been anymore fights, and I am watching them more closely when I feed. I may set up a temporary divider in their breeder net, then when they each have a shrimp, remove it.

Its good to hear yours are doing well despite the occasional squabble.

My two big guys seem to grow right in front of our eyes, but I'm starting to get more worried about the little one. I haven't observed him eat in more than a few days, and he's very obviously not growing as fast.

Dan

I separated all of the cuttles today. I was getting worried about Baby A, she wasn't eating at all. I put her in her own net breeder and left her with a shore shrimp... a few hours later, I noticed a shrimp head :grin: If she continues to do well, I will put her back with her sister. They seem to get along, but at feeding time, Baby A just refused to even try to catch a shrimp.

Mine are off pods now. Yesterday they all ate shrimp. :D

Righty,

Are your cuttles younger than mine? Mine have been exclusively eating shore shrimp for a couple of weeks... but I never tried pods, maybe your's just preferred pods.

On a related note, I just noticed how BIG my cuttles have grown in the past couple of days, must be all that shore shrimp.

They were all born within a couple weeks of each other. I would guess they are the same size, its just in the last few days, pods looked really small - but they were eating them. Pods are free for me, and easy to catch in bulk. Honestly, they are the reason I even continue with baby cuttles of any kind. Before I found a reliable way to collect the pods, I was spending like 1000 a month on cuttle food. That was silly. :smile:
The grow fast. Somewhere I read, but I cannot find the reference, that young cuttles can convert 30% of what is eaten directly to body mass.

Here's a picture of Scrunchy. She is the biggest and is about 1 inch long. The other two were camera shy today...

Glad to hear yours are doing well. I just spent an hour watching mine.

They're so great to watch. I put two shrimp in. You can tell they're thinking about it because they'll yaw a few degrees to keep them in sight--but they don't strike. Then, the instant I turn off the light they go into hunting mode, changing colors, sticking out their top two arms like radar antennae and leaping into the pelagic realm. In his pursuit, one followed the shrimp up; pitching upward so far when he fired he was upside down! My little cuttlefish did an Immelman!

My other cuttle spent about a half hour stalking and lunged twice, but both were a bit weak. I already fed them once today and this was an experiment to see if they'll eat two shrimp a day. I interpret his behavior as he's not hungry, but he can't pass up the chase!

They're about 3/4" of an inch now. I can tell the two apart because one of them has an acute triangular tail pointing backward from the tip of his mantle. When I first noticed it I was worried because I thought it might be his cuttlebone protruding, but I don't think its consistent with its shape.

Dan

Glad to hear yours are doing well. I just spent an hour watching mine.

My little cuttlefish did an Immelman!


Dan

Ya got me on that one, Dan. I had to look up Immelman. Score 1 for you. :notworth:

Is it necessary to have LR? I mean, the cuttles seem to really like macro, so couldn't you just keep cuttles in a planted tank without any...or very little LR?
So mysis are the only first baby-food, or could amphipods be used?
I think I have been bitten by the cuttle bug...:bugout:

I am assuming that a 37 gallon would be big enough for 2...or is that still too small for a group?

IMO live rock is the cornerstone of a healthy tank.

Dan

I have to agree with Dan about the live rock, I don't think I would have attempted raising these little guys without it. In my past experiences with Sepia officinalis, I had fresh flowing sea water and I didn't have to worry about filtration issues... So now that I am land-bound, I need to be extra careful about water quality.

Well, aren't we already running filters? Also, the LR provide filtration because of the surface area, and in a planted tank the surface area would be provided by the plants leaves. Plus extra nitrogen export would be carried out by the plants.
Just thoughts....

For one, its about redundancy. If your power goes out while you're away for the weekend you could find your biofilter dead and your cuttles living in what becomes an un-cycled tank. Live rock will buffer that. Anything you can do to reduce your dependence on your filter is a tremendously good thing.

Your tank will cycle a LOT faster with live rock, too.

Its also the habitat. With live rock comes pods, Stomatella, brittle stars and tubeworms that are going to help clean detritus and filter the water. Its also a great alga source for your feeders to graze on if they have to wait to be eaten.

Using macroalgae in ceph tanks is more for the enjoyment of the cephs than filtration. The magnitude of nitrogen being generated in your ceph tank is much greater than in a reef. If you depend on macroalgae for nitrate export in a ceph tank, you'll probably have problems. In fact, I'll go so far as to say its wise to limit the amount of macro in your main tank because it increases the amplitude of the daily pH swing--this is why many reefers keep their macro in a refugium with an opposite day/night cycle.

I can't think of a compelling reason not to use live rock. The cost is truly negligible compared to the cost of actually keeping cuttles. You'll pay more for your first three weeks of food than you will for your live rock.

Dan

live rock FTW

Thanks everyone! I guess this will be my first mostly LR tank, I usually just have macro-algae and plants, and a lil bit of LR for the corals to live on.

As for food, it seems that breeding amphipods is easier than mysis, so couldn't you all feed baby amphipods to the babies, or are babie amphipods still to big for them to eat?

Thank you much!

Amphipods and mysids will both breed readily in tanks. The problem is they don't breed enough to be sustainable food! Even if they did, you would still need to ensure that each cuttlefish gets fed. Most of us order or catch feeders, then keep the baby cuttles in hang-on net-breeders. Then we can introduce food into the nets and keep very close tabs on what and when they're eating.

The other thing you might want to consider is it may be too late to find baby cuttles this year.

Dan

Yep, I was thinking it was too late, but it never hurts to ask questions early, and get the tank running soon.

Ok, sooo, my tank will be this:
37 gallon
corals (zoas and shrooms)
lots of LR
little macro (transferring the macro I have now to the mantis tank)

How do you find as balance between enough flow in the tank for the corals, and little enough flow so that the cuttles don't get sucked up?
I suppose you could just have several smaller pumps, right?

Here are the latest baby pictures! Baby A, Cuddly and Scrunchy...

Too cute!:smile:

Baby A is contemplating eating the cleaner shrimp... Soon, they will be released to the wilds of my 30 gallon (as soon as I set up the 55 gallon and move the two fish and two expensive shrimp...).

They're looking good! How big are they now? Mine are about an inch total length.

Sometime in the next few weeks mine will be too big for the net but too small for the 75. I think I'm going to wrap some nylon around a piece of egg-crate to use as a divider in the big tank.

Dan

Cool pics!

I have another question. I was reading the article (again LOL) by Righty, and it said that S. bandensis are born 4mm (4/25ths of an inch), but that you all feed mysis, which seems to be 1/4th of an inch at the biggest(from the two places I saw that y'all order from). How is that possible?

Thanks for all your help!

We got ours from Righty when they were already large enough to eat mysids. If you look at Righty's website you'll see pictures of his hatchlings eating amphipods.

Dan

One of my cuttles (Scrunchy) will eat shrimp that are bigger than her. Mysids are also not very aggressive (at least to cuttlefish...) and skinny...

I thought amphipods were bigger than mysis? So hatchling food can be amphipods?

Originally posted by Celacanthr So hatchling food can be amphipods?

Yes, I think Righty uses pods because he can collect them from a local beach. Since DHyslop and I are landlocked, we have to buy live mysids and shrimp

Yes, I think Righty uses pods because he can collect them from a local beach. Since DHyslop and I are landlocked, we have to buy live mysids and shrimp
Ahhh! Very cool! Floridapets.com sells pods cheap, adn gives free shipping on orders over 50$, so I should be ok when it comes to food for the baby cuttles...I hope!

Thank y'all so very much!:notworth:

Ahh... until they get too big for pods... Feeding cuttles is expensive... I was ordering 200-250 mysids every 5-7 days for a few weeks until they moved to shore shrimp. Right now, mine are about 2 months old and are eating 1 inch shore shrimp.

I was ordering 100 mysids every 5-7 days for a few weeks until they moved to shore shrimp.
O_O
Hmm, How big were the mysis you fed? about 1/4th an inch? Did you ever get them on frozen mysis?

If you read through this whole thread, I document feeding them frozen mysids... Also, I was ordering 200-250 every 5-7 days... I was able to get all three cuttles to eat frozen mysids although not everyone has been successful convincing their cuttles to eat frozen food this early. Mine still prefer live food. I have offered frozen krill, and they pushed it away. I may try again tonight before offering live food, they look extra hungry tonight.

Ok, thank you!
So the feeding is:
"pods" for hatchling till they get big enough to eat frozen,
then mysis, and then
shore shrimp

I have seen shore shrimp offered for sale at "1/4th inch or less" could we use these small ones to replace the mysis, or are those shore shrimp still to small?

I would say (and Righty and Paradox know better than me...) that the sequence is:
pods
mysids
small shore shrimp

offer frozen but don't expect them to eat frozen...

Thank you!

Awesome site! :grin:

My usual feeding curriculum is pods to shore shrimp to shore caught crabs.

Depending on the season, the shore shrimp (If purchased from livebrineshrimp.com) can be very small. in fact, I had a batch of babies that started eating them within the first week!! Talk about huge growth spurts!

Really? How small were the shore shrimp?

I know I have said it alot, but....
thank you, thank you, thank you, and THANK YOU!:grin:

Ok, thank you!
So the feeding is:
"pods" for hatchling till they get big enough to eat frozen,
then mysis, and then
shore shrimp

Yes, except pods and mysis are essentially the same. There are 'Tigger-Pods' from www.reefnutrition.com that I was using for the first few days after hatching, but they are quite small.

BTW, I have about 8 left that I am keeping for myself. :smile:

I am trying them on fw ghost shrimp because it is said they can be acclimated to sw (though I haven't had any success in that) and the reading I have done that says fw crustaceans are almost right for sw animals and because I can get them readily and to see what happens.
When they get big enough, I will supplement their diet with local caught crabs.

Out of Laziness and the desire to save money, Ive been feeding nothing but shore crabs after they get to 3-4 months old..

I did this with my last batch that lived to 11 months or so.. Im still not sure what the exact reason for thier premature deaths was.

My main suspicions is food or sustained water temps at 77-80

My main suspicions is food or sustained water temps at 77-80

Do you prefer to keep them a little cooler?

Dan

When should we release the little guys out of the breeder tanks? Scrunch y is starting to look a little crowded in her tank, but I am worried about making sure that all three eat... (although they all seem to have voracious appetites). I have had them almost 2 months.

I can't believe that I have had my cuttles for three months! Scrunchy is getting soo big. They are going to have to move to their new 55 gallon sooner than I thought (or it could be that food-induced growth spurt when I threw 30 shrimp in their tank while I went away for a few days... there was not one shrimp left when I got home this afternoon - the cat ate all of her food too and was begging for more tonight even though she was given enough for an extra day...). I wisely thought to feed the cat since she would wake us up at 5:30 am meowing...

:smile:

Mine are doing real well, too.

Yesterday Chubbs had a few more white spots on him. This is the first time its happened again. Even after a day they're already starting to heal.

They remind me of cats. Sometimes they're territorial and will chase one another away if they the other comes too close; sometimes they won't mind being near eachother.

Both of them will happily eat shrimp from our hands. At first they would strike at the shrimp but let go when we didn't let go in time. But now they will strike and reel themselves in to grapple it while its still in our fingers.

Sometime this week I'm going to move the divider over to give them another 20 gallons or so of tank space. I'm also going to stop by a local bait shop and see if they have anything.

Dan

Both of them will happily eat shrimp from our hands. At first they would strike at the shrimp but let go when we didn't let go in time. But now they will strike and reel themselves in to grapple it while its still in our fingers.


Bill won't do that at all! :sad: I am so jealous.

11th Commandment - Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's cuttlefish.

Here are the latest baby pictures. Scrunchy is striking at a shrimp (although she already is holding at least two in her arms). Cuddly and then shy Baby A.

Scrunchy and Cuddly spend much of their time hanging out together. Tonight a shrimp landed on top of Scrunchy and just crawled on top of her mantle, there wasn't anything she could do. She did make her mantle really smooth. I thought for sure that Cuddly would strike and get the shrimp, but the shrimp eventually swam off and was eaten by Scrunchy. For a brief moment the shrimp was safe...

Yours don't seem to fight like mine do :)

Maybe because I have three of them. Maybe you have two boys and you know boys, always fighting, causing trouble... :grin: I hope I have at least one male, otherwise I may be driving some cuttlefish to your house for a weekend tryst :sly:

Maybe because I have three of them. Maybe you have two boys and you know boys, always fighting, causing trouble... :grin: I hope I have at least one male, otherwise I may be driving some cuttlefish to your house for a weekend tryst :sly:

Would that be the ultimate play date?

Definately an option. Pittsburgh is a solid day's drive, though. However we might be passing through the state on the way to Wisconsin come the holiday season. In that case we could take a detour down to Pitt and drop our boys off for a week-long sex romp.

:bugout: Wouldn't that be fun to explain to my 8 and 4 year old??? Mommy, why are they hugging??? It would be fun though (probably more fun for the cuttles...).

Update on my three cuttles. Scrunchy likes to play peek-a-boo with my kids. She peeks out from the rocks, they see her, she goes to a different part of the rock, they find her, she goes back to the first rock. All three of my cuttles are in the open for most of the day. They seem very comfortable being visible. Unless of course, a new person is staring at them and then they change all sorts of colors.

Well, after leaving this post about cuttlefish dates, I caught Baby A and Cuddly, er um "cuddling". I definitely have two boys (Cuddly and Scrunchy) and one girl. She seems to prefer Cuddly at the moment. I will post pictures tonight after my kids are asleep. It seems a little soon for them to be mating (they are about 3 months old), but maybe they are just practicing. Scrunchy had his beak out trying to bite Cuddly... they looked like they were serious...

Nice.
My group is still going strong. I have seen some man on man action, but no mating as of yet. Granted I haven't had all that much time to watch them.
BTW, they are still being fed on FW ghost shrimp. I am going to have to switch to crabs because the shrimp are too small.

Some photos...

Baby A and Cuddly cuddling...

Afterward...

Baby A being cute

All three cuttles. Scrunchy and Cuddly are facing off and Baby A is watching from left hand side of photo.

Scrunchy and Cuddly

Cuddly with a shrimp on his back (this has happened before).

Here two cuttles are going after the same shrimp. Both of them already have a shrimp in their tentacles (and the other shrimp is safely atop Cuddly).

Currently drip acclimating the cuttles to the 55 gallon. Boy are they going to have fun in there. That's where I have been storing the shrimp with eggs (in hopes of starting my own breeding colony). Oh well... they will be having a feast tonight. Right now they are all in a 5 gallon bucket and Cuddly is standing guard over Baby A, so that Scrunchy can't get any alone time with her...

Good luck with the transfer! My divider has been in the center of the 75 for about a month now, and I imagine it will be a while longer until it gets taken out or pushed further back.

Have you noticed any shrimp fry? I saw something in the tank about the size of a small amphipod that didn't look familiar. I don't know if its a little CSS or just another friendly crustacean.

Dan

Dang you all...now i've fallen for cuttles again...:D

Hard not to... they are soo cute. :grin: They seem to have successfully made the transfer to the bigger tank. They each have their own rock they like to hang out under. Baby A seems to like touching the mushroom corals, we always find her with her tentacles near one. They ate all the shrimp that were in the tank probably about 50 :shock: in one night. Will take some pictures once I clean all the algae off the front of the glass.

At what age can you feed them frozen shrimp?

Well, the cuttlefish kind of make that decision... If you read through this entire thread (starting on about page 5), I document attempting to feed frozen food to the cuttles. At about 3 weeks old, I was able to feed mine frozen mysids for awhile but that was not a sure thing. When they got bigger (probably about 3 months old), I started offering them frozen krill. If hungry enough, they will eat the krill, but they always prefer the live. I figure in a month or so, I will start offering tiny frozen shrimp (raw) from the grocery store, but I will probably always supplement with live. It is just too much fun to watch them catch their food. :grin:

Lol, I know, I watched the "Amazing Cuttle Videos". I'm trying to find someone close to the east coast shore to collect me some mysids, or amphipods. Are amphipods easy to breed? Could I just keep a 5.5 gallon tank under the cuttle tank, with an airline, and some chaeto, and seed it with some amphipods, and expect them to breed, or is it more than that?

There is a big question as to weather frozen foods will sustain S bandensis over time. I have talked to some ceph researchers who tell me they have fed cephs frozen foods, which they ate, but they didn't survive while the ones fed live foods did. They may be fine, just no one has bothered to take the risk with bandensis yet.

Brock,

Breeding amphipods and mysids is a nightmare and you will substantially more space and time to breed them than you will to keep the cuttles. Baby cuttles eat MASSIVE amounts of food, so you are looking at more like 200 or more gallons to breed a constant food source. :D

Thales, do you have any adults/juvies for sale now, or will you in the near future? I was just looking at aquaculturestore, and the price for 100 mysids is only $19.95, including shipping. I think that seems very cheap, even if they do eat a lot. I was thinking of getting about 4 cuttles as eggs, and keeping them in a net breeder inside a 20 high. I want to raise 2 of them to adulthood. Not sure if a 20 high is big enough for 2 adult S. bandensis though, but all of my larger tanks are not RO water. The 20 high is. The 20 high has a door on the stand too, so I could keep mysids under it. The 75 gallon has no doors, and is already setup as a reef, with a blue tang, YWG, blue chromis, mandarin, etc. Would a 20 high be ok for a pair?

100 mysids might last you four or five days :) It doesn't matter how much the cuttles eat because the mysids eat eachother.

Plan on spending $20-80 per week on live food (depending on how many cuttles you have...). I have three and am currently spending $80 for 200 shore shrimp every 7-10 days...

Thales, do you have any adults/juvies for sale now, or will you in the near future? I was just looking at aquaculturestore, and the price for 100 mysids is only $19.95, including shipping. I think that seems very cheap, even if they do eat a lot. I was thinking of getting about 4 cuttles as eggs, and keeping them in a net breeder inside a 20 high. I want to raise 2 of them to adulthood. Not sure if a 20 high is big enough for 2 adult S. bandensis though, but all of my larger tanks are not RO water. The 20 high is. The 20 high has a door on the stand too, so I could keep mysids under it. The 75 gallon has no doors, and is already setup as a reef, with a blue tang, YWG, blue chromis, mandarin, etc. Would a 20 high be ok for a pair?

I think a 20 is too small for 2.

Plan on spending $20-80 per week on live food (depending on how many cuttles you have...). I have three and am currently spending $80 for 200 shore shrimp every 7-10 days...


Stop the presses! My instantaneous consumption rate is about 200 shrimp/month. Each cuttle will eat a couple for breakfast and then have their fill of frozen krill for dinner. Do you think I'm under-feeding? On the other hand if you're feeding all live food that doubles the consumption, plus 50% more because you have three then your 600 shrimp/month sounds a little more consistent with my feeding habits.

Also, on the note about frozen shrimp: do you two think that thawing the krill in a nutritional supplement like Zoe or Selcon might be worthwhile? Perhaps I should phase out the krill altogether?

Dan