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A few Questions

Goannaman

Hatchling
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Jul 19, 2010
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So, these may have obvious answers, but I can't seem to find them.

I have been keeping a nano reef for a while now, and I am considering setting up a larger tank for cuttles.

My plan is to have a 55 gallon display tank for three S. Bandensis. I am taking the long approach to setting this up, and I don't really expect I will be buying cuttles/ eggs in the near future, but none the less I have questions.

Is there any sort of expected mortality rates that you keep in mind when starting from eggs? For example if I wanted a group of three, how many eggs should I buy?

Would it be best to shoot for more than three, and then off load any surplus cuttles?

When it comes to feeding, general consensus mysis of appropriate size for youngsters, twice a day. When they are older seems they will eat pretty much anything. My only real question about adult feeding is going away for a few days. If I go out of town Monday, and come home on Friday, is it okay to throw enough (live) food in there on Monday to last until I can feed them Friday, or do I need to have them fed in the meantime?

Thanks in advance.
 
Good questions. I can only relate my experiences.
Had 10 eggs 12/09 and ended up with 6 hatchlings, 1 of which died. 1 female died, possibly from injuries by her "mate".
Now at 7 mos. 4 are still alive.
The first bunch of (my) eggs laid were low hatch rate, and it seems as though subsequent bunches of eggs had better and better hatch rates.

I do not know about going for 4 days w/ out food. When they're really growing - say from about 6 weeks to 4 months old they seem pretty hungry.
 
snowmaker;159278 said:
I do not know about going for 4 days w/ out food. When they're really growing - say from about 6 weeks to 4 months old they seem pretty hungry.

Thanks. To clarify, I don't particularly mean four days with out food. I mean, is it possible to provide extra rations one day, so that said rations may be snacked on at will. Or will they just gorge themselves the first day and then be hungry the rest?

I was just curious as I like to make things as simple as possible for my friend who keeps an eye on my place when I'm out. Checking to make sure every thing is ok, is fine, but If I could get away without explaining how to feed, I prefer that one.
 
The friend or family member not going on the trip route is what most of us choose. Too much can go wrong with trying to stock a tank with live food and hope for the best. Over a weeks time you will want to top off the tank as well (unless you have an automatic system and then there can be problems if not looked in on) to keep your water levels and salinity in check.
 
Thanks.

I've got the pet sitter thing covered (as I have other animals that need looking in on), but with my nano reef the danger of it being overfed was more than not feeding it for a few days. I suppose I will have to do a thorough job of explaining everything.

Thanks for the link as well. I read that thread, sad story, but that is certainly why I would always have someone come by to check even if things didn't need feeding.
 
That is my favorite all time thread so I am glad you looked at it. I happened to be following it as the story progressed so the whole thing was quite amazing.

One of the things LMecher did with her son on this last trip was to set up proper amounts (in her case water) for her son to use daily. I liked the idea when she mentioned it and will do this next time we leave. The same idea should work well for food by making daily feeding packages to eliminate the guess work.
 

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