Egg Hatching - Sepioteuthis sepioidea (Caribbean Reef Squid)

DWhatley

Kraken
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I have an association with K&P Aquatics (formerly Sea Life Inc) and benefit when they come across an octopus. Last week they found a "cuttlefish" and asked if it was something I wanted to raise. I explained that we have no cuttles in this hemisphere (the P is for Philipp, a native of Germany so he is somewhat familiar with cuttlefish) but there is one squid that is named "cuttlefish like" that is native to the Keys. I also explained that this animal will not survive shipping but I would be interested in trying eggs if they could find some and described what to look for.

They found eggs close to where the little squid was swimming and I will journal my experience trying to hatch them. Later in the week they found additional eggs that were further along and could clearly see the squid. As they watched the squid started hatching. They collected some of the hatching eggs to photograph then released them after they freed themselves from their casings.

This is part of the email I received with the photos:

After today I am a 100% positive that we got the right eggs. I saw exactly the same eggs but instead of eggs I saw little squids in the bubbles. I called Kara over to look at it and they started spawning. Amazing! They squeezed out of their bubble and swam away. They already had ink right after they spawned! I hope the eggs will develop and you will see those little guys. I will send you a couple of pictures tomorrow and you will see a couple of half an hour olds squids. We let them go. It was a great experience.



 

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I have the eggs but not sure about viability so I am holding off starting a post for a week. They are over a week old with no obvious signs of developement.

Jean, from what I can find, they are cannibalistics but more aggressively so as they grow older if food is not plentiful. First stages should be OK and I only have a few eggs so over crowding should not be an issue. I will order mysis when I know they are viable and have crabs with eggs waiting to ship. I am excited but concerned that these eggs may not be viable. I will likely try again if they locate others should these not start to develop.
 
Don't mean to be discouraging, but we only had a few hatch and they munched on each other! Of course it could be a species difference!
Good luck though, will be most interested to read your journal, fingers crossed that the eggs are viable!
 
I see changes in the eggs but I don't know if they are rotting or growing :roll:. According to Philipp, the casings were white when collected and turned clear before they shipped. One encased egg came in opaque white and I think it is not viable. After almost a week I see opaque spots on the still clear eggs inside the clear casings. I am taking photos every other day to compare them but I don't have a good macro lens. The white opaque spots are growing and a couple of the eggs have split the casings but this still could be deterioration as I can't identify anything within the eggs. At least one clear egg now has a second lump that is almost triangular and you could envision it being the posterior with the mouth attached to the yolk except both lumps are clear.
 
I have not started an official thread yet Tony because I still don't know if any of the eggs are viable. I am taking pictures every couple of days and watching for signs of life. I see expansion of the egg sacks but can't tell if the eggs are doing anything at all. The tank I am using is not needed for anything else so I will leave the eggs in there until they disintegrate (which might be a long time gauging by LittleBit's infertile eggs that still look pretty much the same as from when I pulled them from the tank a month ago). If they are not viable, I have told Philipp I would still like to try others if he finds them so I have not given up on the idea but it may be awhile before I have something to journal.
 

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