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Cuttlefish Eggs!

Many of the ones we buy online come from Fla. Maybe you just have to find the right spot during the right tide.
I am finding baby bent-back mysids in Maine that the hatchlings will take. Seems the more I go collecting and trying different spots at different tides, the more I get. I am also seeing some seasonality in all the different stuff I catch. Baby mummichog are in now... tiny.
A decent net I found (from a recommendation) is a swimming pool leaf net at Walmart - $13 and has about 1/32" mesh. Sporting goods places have "Eel nets" - nice! 18" hoop, 18" deep net, 1/32" mesh and the BIG plus - an extendable handle, I saw from 59" to 104". $25 here. Also, a butterfly net might be good and inexpensive as well.
 
So I went back out to the ICW this evening just as it was getting dark. I figured any small critters would be coming out and luckily I caught a good number of pods in some seaweed clumps. It was barely 5 minutes after I shook a few out into the breeder net that the cuttlefish was eatting!!!! I'm so thrilled!!! Also, as I watched the little guy enjoy his dinner the cluster of eggs started shaking around a bit. So it looks like I'll have another hatchling here shortly!
 
That's great.
I was also pretty excited when seeing my hatchlings eat foods I caught myself.
IME, the more you try collecting, the more you'll learn and find places to collect (and catch). They seem to eat practically anything that wiggles and of appropriate size.
 
Yep. A girl from a local college taking Marine Biology brought me a bucket of mysis yesterday. I threw a few in with the cuttle and he sure seems to prefer the mysis. But you're right, if it moves and he's not scared of it he'll try to eat it.

I seperated some of the eggs today to get a closer look. I can definitely make out the yolk in most and what appears to be a cuttle in at least 1. But I'm a bit worried as the outter shell seems to be sluffing off similar to the first 2 eggs from N.Y. that eventually melted. Time will tell I suppose.

Interesting behaviour out of the lone hatchling. He seems to want to escape the breeder net. He keeps running along one wall like he's looking for a hole. Then he'll burrow into the crevices of the net and just pop in and out like he wants out.

I seem to have plentiful supplies of food so that's not going to be a problem. Now I just need more to hatch!
 
Is there stuff moving that might look like food outside the net? I seem to remember one other cuttle keeper who's little guy "wanted out" but it has not been a commonly reported observation.
 
dwhatley;159638 said:
Is there stuff moving that might look like food outside the net?

Yes, there are ghost shrimp and pods outside of the net. Though I've seen him completely ignore a pod that crawled right in front of his face as he seemed to be searching the wall of the net for escape. I think I'll move the net against the wall of the tank to see if he changes sides when the view changes.
 
My single cuttle continues to do well. I have only witnessed him eating twice, but I put 3-4 mysis in at a time and when I check back later they are gone. There are still a few pods hiding inside the breeder-net so he shouldn't be going hungry.

As for the remaining eggs, I'm starting to think they will not hatch. I'm not sure why. If it's perhaps something I'm doing wrong or if it's just the luck of the draw. The eggs continue to sluff off the outter layer of the 'shell' and I'm thinking that's not a good thing. Has anyone else witnessed this before? The first 2 eggs from NY did it just before melting away and the remaining 11 eggs (I originally miscounted) are exhibiting similar shedding. I can definitely see at least white yolk in all of them but no movement that I can detect.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
 
I can see a definitive white blob - can't get a good enough look to see if it's cuttle-form or still able to be made sunny-side up. It certainly doesn't look like the entire inside of the egg is cloudy, so hopefully we're still good.

Is it normal for there to be a large gap between hatchings? At this point my first little guy is a week old and still no other eggs have hatched.

Thanks for the info!!!!
 
Yeah, most if not all of my other eggs are toast. So for now it's just the one cuttle, but he's doing well and growing fast.

I'm wondering if anyone has noted tank parameters that could cause eggs to bomb like this or did I just luck up and get only 1 out of 12 eggs that were fertile?
 

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