Cuttle egg adventure

[lilalancarey]

Hey Deepblue, sorry to hear about your cuttles. Hope to hear better luck ans non-crazy cuttles in this batch. I think it would be a good idea to keep all the information in one place but its really your choice.

Dont have much time right now but i still have 3 cuttles left and they are doing well, not sure how many mysid i have left though, its hard to tell in my 40g breeder i have them in.

I wish you the best of luck deepblue! Now to put 3-4 mysids in with my cuttles and go to my Grandmothers 80th birthday party. Partayyyyyy... lol

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Here is a few pictures of the set-up I established the past few days.


I put the overflow box on the front, simply for time sake. I already had 13 cuttle eggs ready to be added to the tank, so I just set it up as quick and easy as possible. If I really wanted to, I could change it later, during less crazy times.

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Just had one hatch from the new batch!

 

[DWhatley]

DBW, You don't need to explain convenience or trial and error over aesthetics for hatchilings, Here is a photo of my counter top when trying to raise octopus hatchlings, note the footbath

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

DBW, You don't need to explain convenience or trial and error over aesthetics for hatchilings, Here is a photo of my counter top when trying to raise octopus hatchlings, note the footbath

Haha. That looks beautiful!

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Just found hatchling 2 floating in the net breeder, unresponsive. Safe to say he is dead.

 

[lilalancarey]

I just found one of my hatchlings dead floating as well, and i found it safe to say he was pretty dead. And then there were 2. More mysid coming tomorrow morning hopefully since i dont think there are any left in my tank. I should have ordered them earlier but it seems there were less than i thought =/ Hope your cuttles are doing well deepblue.

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Sorry about your loss...
Hatchling 4 (my only cuttle) seems to be eating. I put 2 mysid in the net breeder in the morning, and the next day they are gone. I've gone through about 6 mysid this way. The cuttle hides under the eggs during the day, but comes out at night. Last night I grabbed a cool picture of him sitting on top of the eggs. I'm not near a computer right now, so can't post it. I wish you could post pictures through a mobile device...

 

[CaptFish]

I wish you could post pictures through a mobile device...

post them to photobuket first, or any image hosting site that works from your phone. Then post the links to the picture. When I see you have posted the links I will make it so everyone can see the picture.

 

[DWhatley]

For some sites (but not all) you can host them like CaptFish mentions but then use the picture icon and choose URL as the source instead of your computer. I have found this works for most sites but not my own A small advantage seems to be that you are not limited to 4 pictures if you host them somewhere else. Unfortunately, if they ever move or you close your account they are gone from the journal.

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

I don't mind doing it from my computer, its more permanent that way. I guess I just needed SOMETHING to complain about this morning lol.
Ok so the strangest thing just happened. I decided to clean the net breeders, as they were getting full of algae and such. I removed the one cuttle by easing him into a shot glass, and then eased the eggs into a tuberware container. After I removed the eggs, I took the one egg that the cuttle hatched from out of the tuberware container. It was clearly deflated to 1/4 the size of the mature non-hatched eggs. I thought I would investigate what the cuttle leaves behind in the egg when it hatches, why doesn't the eggs just disappear. I carefully cut a small hole, and gently squeezed the clear gel out of the tiny egg, when suddenly, out popped a cuttlefish! I am pretty certain that Hatchling 4 came from this egg. I guess I have twins (two cuttles from the same egg)??? How did this happen? I put Hatchling 5 (C-section 1) into a tuberware container with tank water.
I am completely left dumb-founded by what just happened.

Has anyone ever had this happen to them???

 

[DWhatley]

I suspect you just got the wrong egg. An empty egg sack will be wide open at the end so there would be no need to cut into it. Often people report the eggs deflating some before hatching. Hopefully, its yolk sack has been consumed and you won't have mucked with Mother Nature too much but errors in assumptions are often how science progresses to a new level.

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

There was no yolk in the egg, and this hatchling is larger than any of the ones that actually hatched, so it appears full size and healthy.
There is no other deflated eggs. Where did the egg that the 4th cuttle hatched from go?
And, this egg was VERY deflated...

 

[DWhatley]

I've never hatched cuttles (tried several late ones from Baby A - CuttleGirl - several years ago but they did not hatch) but the spent sack from octopuses are very thin and flimsy so the material may have gone completely unnoticed if it was loose in the net. If you think about it a little the cuttle has to exit the egg (which is more like a membrane than a chicken's egg). To get out, the egg has to be "popped" and will be emptied of its contents, including the cuttle. The membrane will then collapse or float free. You would likely be able to see this if you happened to be there when it hatched but it would be very hard to identify much after that. Here is a series of pictures I took on a small cluster of octopus eggs that had been left unattended. You can see how the membrane is very thin and these never had viable young inside. You can see more from the photo than I could with the naked eye and I recommend taking pictures of eggs every week and then every day or so. You are likely to see more and have a journal of the development if you keep one or two from each photo session. Additionally, trying to get a decent picture beats watching paint dry while you wait for hatching.

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Very interesting, and very true about watching paint dry!
I do believe my theory of "twins" is now far-fetched and no longer the case...but for information (and curiosity), is this possible to occur?