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Diving back into Cuttles again!

Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
655
Hi Again!

Some of you may remember me from a few years ago. I started here on tonmo when I first started keeping aquariums before finding my local SW aquarium club (WAMAS). Cuttlefish are why I first got into keeping aquariums, but I didn't have a chance to try them until about 2 years later. When I did try, there were issues with shipping and most of the eggs hatched while on the way, inked and died. I managed to keep a couple for 2-3 weeks but they were sickly and never seemed to recover. I decided to step back from cuttles and stick with reefs for a few years but now I'm ready to dive in again!

About what I've been up to (for those who remember me): I'm now a sophomore at Virginia Tech in the Corps of Cadets studying Aerospace Engineering and in Air Force ROTC. It's been 5 and a half years since I started my first aquarium and posted on here. Last Summer I started working for a local (to DC) aquarium maintenance company (Reef eScape) and continue working for them when I'm home for breaks.

Before I left for college I had a 160 reef tank (250 gal total system) that I had to break down when I left. I set up a small 11.4 gallon aquarium with frags of some of my favorite corals (though many of those have died now because they were nice -but touchy- sps) that is pretty easy for my mom to take care of. Current pics are below. She does a great job and the only maintenance the tank receives is a 1g water change per week. There's no filtration and the HOB is for macro. Livestock load is pretty heavy: pair of clowns, goby/shrimp pair, flameback angel, 3 sexy shrimp.

Here at school I have a 5g ecopico that is set up so that it's extremely easy to move back and forth. It has mainly zoas and softies and, up until last week, a very small snowflake moray eel that decided to jump out of the small (1/4") crack between the glass lid and edge of the tank. Old pics of this tank also below.

11.4 gal home aquarium:

The male Sexy:
DSC_01892_zps1572888f.jpg


and one of the females:
DSC_0197-1_zps8e49d69f.jpg


Goby/Shrimp:
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DSC_0353_zpsf4a779e2.jpg


corals:
DSC_01782_zps982cd76f.jpg


DSC_0347_zps81d23c15.jpg


DSC_0338_zpse209140e.jpg


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DSC_0335_zps93744d62.jpg


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DSC_0280-1_zpse2722770.jpg



FTS:
DSC_0292_zpsafca781c.jpg


DSC_0285-1_zps015eefb1.jpg





5g school aquarium:
F1AFA244-ADF7-480B-AABB-DCF7BCC98486-3442-00000449EFB65EB5.jpg
 
My plan for cuttles is that now my snowflake died, I will reaquascape my school 5g with less branchy and smaller rock so that theres less hiding spots and more sand space. I'm going to add a custom net breeder to the side and keep eggs and hatchlings there (shooting for 3-5). After about a month I will release them into the main tank and keep them there until they are too big (from what I've read, around 3 months). At this point I will move them to either a salt water system that we are setting up for Scuba Club here at school or to a larger system I may be setting up at home. Once they hopefully lay eggs I will repeat. How does this sound to everyone?

My primary questions are:
- Can cuttles be kept with zoas?
- Where's the best place to acquire eggs these days? From what I've seen, it seems like nyAquatic.
- Where's the best place to get live mysis? Is Sachs still in business? I can't find them.
 
Hi L8 2 Rise,

I remember you!!! I am concerned about the amount of waste the little guys are going to produce in your 5 gallon tank. Once you release them into the big tank at home, who is going to care for them daily? Nice tanks BTW...
 
Thanks! I'll be watching water chemistry closely and with frequent water changes. The tank has held frogfish and an eel before which are also messy eaters so I'm hoping it should be ok. When they do start getting bigger I'm also worried, but I have carbon and chemipure that I can add. I also modded the tank so it has an overflow and I suppose I could build a diy skimmer to put back there if necessary. Good point, I'll have to think more on it. I may also have to move some of them sooner...

At home they would be taken care of my family/mom (who takes care of my tank at home now- she enjoys looking at the tank so doesn't mind taking care of it (hence her wanting to upgrade) and does a good job. There's actually a few other options as well, depending on the situation when the cuttles reach the right size. We've talked about setting up a display for them at work, so they could go there, or in a system that I'm setting up for the Scuba Club here at Tech, or with another friend who's been keeping aquariums for a while and has room for bigger aquariums than I do.

Does anyone know about keeping cuttlefish with zoa's?
 

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