Eggs Arrived Today

[SueAndHerZoo]

So today my one cuttlefish (only two have hatched and one died soon after hatching) is one week old. I see no signs of him eating and it doesn't seem as if anything that I put in there is missing, but he's still alive. Might he be eating something when I'm not watching or could he survive on his yolk sac for a full week?

The other eggs have all deflated..... not floating, but deflated. I have no idea if that should excite me or depress me but it's a sad sight.

Sue

 

[cuttlegirl]

Have you seen the little guy move? Does he/she change colors? Is he/she still on the bottom? It is really hard to see them eat at first. Hang in there - this is a rough time for a cuttle-keeper...

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

He moves, he changes colors, and he's on the bottom and flits around in and on the macroalgae. But the mysis shrimp that are in there are still alive and well (rather than eaten). Maybe he's eating the tigger pods I put in there?

Sue

 

[cuttlegirl]

It's entirely possible that he/she is eating the tigger pods. It's a good sign that it is flitting around in the macroalgae.

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

Is there a point at which we should give up on unhatched eggs and possibly open it to see what, if anything, is inside? I can see what is probably a cuttle in several of the eggs (and have since I received them 11 days ago) but the "thing" never gets any bigger nor does it move. Now several of these "things" seem to be very close to the inside surface of the deflated egg but no sign of life and really too small (from what I can see) to be a full developed cuttle.

I guess my question is, is there any chance that I could possibly save one of them if it's alive but too weak to get out? I know, grasping at straws here.

Sue

 

[Thales]

Ugh, this live mysid challenge is ridiculous. I went to the shore for a few hours to flip rocks and try to catch critters and when I got home a few hours later, all the live mysid that arrived this morning were dead. EXCEPT for the 5 that I put in the breeder net with the two cuttles.... they are alive and well. So is the secret to keeping the mysid alive to put them in a breeder net in one of my tanks? I was going to set them up their own tank but since I caught so many neat things at the beach I'm going to set up a tank for that and I'm afraid the mysid would get eaten in there by the ghost shrimp.
Sue

Sorry if I missed this, but did you put the shipping water in with the mysids?

 

[Thales]

I haven't actually seen hatchlings take tigger pods, not sure that anyone has. People tend to recommend them in case the cuttle might eat them. There may be other pods that the hatchling is snacking on.
The learning to eat through the egg paper is interesting. On the other hand, prey items that are in with cuttles for a time often become ignored by the the cuttle. Its weird, but that is why I don't generally recommend flood feeding or keeping live food in with the cuttles.

Back to mysids - I usually plumb a sweater box or trash can into my main system with a foam block on the outflow to stop the mysids from leaving the holding tank. Keeps water quality up. If you have been using the shipping water, I suspect that is the cause of the low survival as ammonia builds up in that bag, and when the bag is opened the pH goes up and the ammonia becomes more toxic. Are you feeding the mysids? You can keep mysids in a 5 gallon bucked and pour them into a fine net when its time for water changes. I could blather on, but I'll wait for some more info so the blathering is germaine.

Good luck!

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

Sorry if I missed this, but did you put the shipping water in with the mysids?

Yes and no. I put a tiny pin hole in the shipping bag and let most of the water drip out into the sink while I took some of my pre-mixed saltwater and diluted it to a lower salinity with unsalted RO/DI water. I'd say the final water they went into was probably 40% bag water and 60% fresh water.

This new batch that arrived Wednesday is doing pretty good. I put them in (ready for this?) a plastic wallpaper wetting bin with an airstone and some macroalgae. So far so good.... just a shame I don't have any any cuttles interested in them.

Sue

 

[DWhatley]

Creative way to get surface and swimming area and save space. I will try to remember to try this if I use them again.

 

[Thales]

I think the 40% shipping water was your problem.
Do your hatchling cuttles have visible yolk sacs?

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

UPDATE: Still only have one cuttle hatchling.... he will be two weeks old tomorrow. All the other eggs are still in there with him but they are deflated and I doubt there's anything alive in any of them. i'M Still tempted to open one but I will wait a few more days... maybe, just maybe, there's still hope.

I have not seen the cuttle eat anything but he MUST BE eating if he's still alive at 2 weeks, right? (no, there was no visible yolk sac on him when he hatched) I keep several live mysis in there with him and there might be a couple less than when I started but I don't know if the cuttle ate them or if the mysis ate each other. The bad news is my order from Paul Sachs came in today with 200 live mysis in it and I would say there were probably only about 10 that were alive, if that. I tried to get the live ones right in with the cuttle and the rest I netted, rinsed, and fed to my fish.

Here's the real issue: I am going away for a few days and I was hoping to load up the cuttle with live mysis to live on while I'm gone. Since I'm not going to be here and since I couldn't get another order in before the weekend anyway, I'm thinking I may have to go get some live brine tonight and give some to the cuttle. I hate to do that, but I need to leave SOMETHING live in there while I'm away, right?

Sue

 

[DWhatley]

Rhetorical question. We have all probably been a similar situation and the outcome is rarely clear. At this point I suspect experimentation and reporting back will accomplish the most good. Unfortunately if he dies you will never know if it is because he is already not eating well or if what he does eat did not fill the minimum nutritional needs. Eggs/hatchinglings from this vendor seem to have more problems than most but that may be because they have eggs more often.

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

He's gone.

When I left for the weekend Friday morning he was looking great! Active, saw his tentacles a lot, darting around showing interest in moving food. There were three live mysis in with him and I put probably a dozen live brine in there and left.

When I returned Sunday night, he was still alive but the other eggs looked like they were either opened or deteriorated to an open state. You can clearly see thick, white substance on the inside of them. There are also several things in the breeder net that look like they could be undeveloped cuttles..... they look like miniature cuttlebones. I hope to get them out tonight and examine them under a magnifying glass. It's almost like the eggs stopped developing at some point and they died in the eggs.

Monday morning, the one living cuttlefish was dead. I have no idea why. As D predicted, we will never know exactly why. I will try again soon.
Sue

 

[cuttlegirl]

I'm so sorry. I wonder if the deteriorating cuttles affected the water quality in the breeder net. They probably are tiny cuttlebones, they develop while they are in the egg.

 

[DWhatley]

The jelly mass sounds very similar to my last squid eggs. I had two groups, one was developed and one total clear. When they arrived, I could not detect movement in the developed ones and they soon turned opaque (there is no ink coating on squid egg casings). The clear ones stared to develop lobes but then also turned opaque. My first batch (neight of these) grew and hatched in the same tank as the undeveloped eggs. I don't think it was water quality (at least in the case where the eggs were placed in a previously successful hatching) but I do wonder about water flow as the immature eggs were placed differently and did not receive the same (less) amount of movement. Interestingly, my infertile octopus eggs have never deteriorated, being kept only in saltwater (about 2 months now).

There may be baby bandensis available (depending upon educational demand) from what used to be part of the NRCC in a couple of weeks. I have no idea what they will cost and if they will wait until they are eating to ship (I am thinking this may be a key factor in shipping the little ones but want to ask Thales about the thought). If I see a note saying they are available, I will encourage or request permission to post on the availability thread.