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Cuttle arriving tomorrow...help!!

oscar

Vampyroteuthis
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Apr 18, 2004
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a year + of preperation and i am still unbelievably nervous about my new arrival! It is an unknow species tropical australian cuttle - i am really hoping to see the tell tale sepia mestus spots but hey - im not complaining no matter what!!

the lfs is holding it for me - i hope

it is 5cm long apparently so for most aussie species that means a month about

i can get freshwater feeder guppies for now but will go to the beack for soldier crabs asap!! actually i may be able to go on sunday - in two days... i know guppies arent great but its all i can get for the arrival

i have 2 damsels 2 chromis a coral beauty and a wrasse ( i will try to catch and return the latter two tonight but im afraid the rest are food!!)

HELP with transportation please!!! 40minute car trip from fish shop...

would several boxes be better so i can let it ink then move it to new water through the ride?

i am doing a water change before he goes in to speed up the nitrate drop i have been getting with denitrator (its down to 30ppm from 120 when i bought the tank seccond hand)

please any advice!!! i am off to read previous threads on this!!!

oh yeah i forgot to mention i am excited :lol:
 
Good luck with him!!! Not sure on cuttles, but when I would pick up Octos from pa, it was a 2 hour ride home and they all managed just fine. I just made sure they were in a cooler and in a stable spot in the car. And I always asked for a bigger bag than they needed.

Carol
 
Whenever i buy a cuttle from my LFS, they wrap the bag with newspaper and put that into another bag. This keeps them dark and makes them calmer, they might attach themselves to the plastic bag if there is alot of movement, so if you see this, don't get too worried. I was wondering what the heck was happening when i first saw that. An obvious one would be to try and keep the ride as smooth as possible. So far I've never had any cephs ink or die in the bags.
 
i have decided to postpone it one day to do a water change and move some rock around...

i am so worried it will just die when i get it - but i keep telling myself if someone else bought it it would have even less chance - probably not the best outlook...
 
awww... what a disaster day - i attempted a 50 % water change for the first time ever and it ended up being an all day and night ordeal where i changed about 80 % of the water!!! oh man what a day - i will be spending most of tomorrow fixing up what i did today

tried to place the protien skimmer on the outflow from the main tank but the resistance was too high so the skimmer wasnt working and the main tank nearly flooded... any ideas? i think ill just put the skimmer back at the end of the sump and put up with it for now...

downstairs is a complete mess and there is water everywhere!!!... not a good day at all... on the bright side i managed to catch most of the fish and am taking them back tomorrow...

on the even darker than the dark side i mentioned before - the cuttle was dead when i got to the store... i guess the capture transfer lights and people and inking were to much for the little 5cm thing - it looked like a papuan cuttle but it is hard to tell when they are dead - but it had the patch above the eyes and the right body shape - ahh well...maybe next time in 7months when the get them in again... sniff sniff
 
Sorry to hear about your awful day and the death of the cuttle.
They seem much less hardy than octos and many of them don't make it beyond the LFS.

As for your skimmer, many of us have the skimmer at the end of the sump.

Hope things turn out better the next time.

Nancy
 
sorry to hear that sad news! i was about to go see a baby octo the other day and the amature guys at the lfs didnt mess the pipe thing and the baby is probably dead in the freezing cold pipes..:frown:
 
sorry to hear about it but it will go to ceph heaven and join Mr.Ink, which died about a week ago. By the way, Mr. Ink was an octo I bought from the market.
 
yes i had to go out and buy some coral to make myself feel better! lol (very nice huge leather and a massive pompom xenia)

however the fuge is still coming along well - got a great deal on substrate today too...(splurge)

the guys there also said they could get cuttles in at 2 - 3 weeks notice and species identified (for all its worth lol) still sounds hopefull and wont have som many people knocking on the glass just to see it ink!! :mad:
 
best bet is to find out when they are coming in and meet the shipment when it arrives in the shop and take the cuttle home in its original bag. keep it dark and YOU acclimatise it to its new tank. That way you are in control and there is only one change in water for the cuttle. I did that with my last couple of octos
 
good idea - ill ask when they are expecting it and meet up with them - thanks - well i suppose i would have expected to have everyone tapping on the glass - im sure they dont know it kills it - though its not hard to figure out - i must admit i was waving at the octopus and it came out of the pvc onto the sand to flash colours at me - i didnt flash back needless to say - but i wouldnt try and scare it - to get a response from any of these animals all you have to do is show you are watching - making signals - even if they are meaningless - seem to get a response!!! like with the cuttles in the huge aquariums which stare at you and flash and hold their arms up and sideways and stuff
 
er... what is LFS?

I am looking to buy a cuttle and it seems they are not readily available right now in the US. Just out of curiousity - what is LFS and do they have cuttles available?
 

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