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Eggs Arrived Today

Hopefully future cuttlefish owners will read this thread and realize how important it is to have mysids on hand when ordering cuttlefish eggs. They won't eat for the first day or two, but it is good to have the mysids available. You probably should order your next batch unless you have a way to keep the mysids from becoming cannibalistic... I think I only got about a week out of a mysid order. The first few weeks are always expensive...
 
I told Paul I would call him again on Monday to order more, once I know how many I have hatched by then. Could be this same two or it could be a dozen! When I was ordering live mysid for my octopus hatchlings I never got more than 3 days out of the mysids. What I can't figure out is how to do water changes in the vessel you're keeping the mysids in!
 
cuttlegirl;188934 said:
Yeah, I had that problem too - I wonder if you got a plankton net, if you could scoop them out... Good luck, I'm jealous you have hatchlings!

Actually I do have very fine nets that I use to rinse my frozen mysis..... I could probably try to catch them in that and change their water.... good thinking.

Don't be jealous..... Pittsburgh isn't that far from me. If I have some more hatch, I'll gladly share. :smile:
Sue
 
I don't currently have a suitable tank for them - but don't tempt me! I have enough creatures (two legged and four legged) to care for right now. I will have cuttlefish again, I just know I don't have the time to care for them right now, as much as I love them.
 
Once I can get some decent "adorable" photos, we'll get her, D. :cool2:

OK, so what have you all had the most success with while trying to keep live mysid "live"? My very expensive cargo arrived this morning (it actually works out to about $1.00 a piece if you need these on a Saturday) and I want to set them up in a way that gives them the best chance for survival. Getting a week out of them would be awesome because I doubt they will all be used up by the cuttles before then since only two have hatched and those aren't eating yet)

As soon as the mysids arrived I carefully poured them into a small container (but bigger than the bag they were in). I keep walking by and suctioning up their water and slowly dripping it back in again to get some aeration in there, but what do I want to set up for them for the next several days? Do I want a small tank with HOB filter? Do I want an airstone in there? What salinity should I keep them in? I believe they prefer low salinity (.014?) while the cuttles are in .025, so do the mysids die shortly after being added to the cuttle tank because of the salinity difference? Should I try to slowly acclimate the mysids to a higher salinity so they live longer in the cuttle tank?

I can't believe the insanity of this hobby - sometimes it even amazes me!and I'm one of the insane ones! I am actually stressing over keeping alive these microscopic squiggles that "normal" people would not even notice or give a second thought to. And the epitomy of craziness is when you are examining the plastic bag they arrived in with a magnifying glass and flashlight to make sure you didn't miss any in the bag!

Thank goodness for this forum where us crazies are "normal". :sun:
Sue
 
cuttlegirl;188950 said:
I kept mine in a cooler, with a heater and an airstone. Granted, I didn't have much success keeping mine alive... Soon, soon they will eat little shrimp.

K, I know this is probably only a 4-6 week thing with the mysid shrimp but I need to get them out of the plastic container and into something where they have a better chance, and, what the hell, might as well take on another challenge, right? Wouldn't it be awesome if I could find a way to keep them alive long enough to possibly thrive? With all the tanks I have running in the house it would be a nice tasty treat for all of them.

Biggest challenge is keeping the water clean. If I am supposed to feed the mysids to cut down on cannibalism, then the water is going to get polluted quick and that will kill them. I'm gonna dig around in the basement through all my bins and bins of equipment and find either a HOB filter or maybe a sponge filter and stick them in a small tank. After all, it's the weekend.... setting up another tank sounds like more fun than cleaning the house. LOL
Sue
 
Sorry, another question about the cuttlefish eggs:

I got a bunch in a few days ago that were all connected so obviously they were all laid at the same time. Why would it be that two already hatched and the rest haven't? Should I assume these two that are hatched are pre-mies?
Sue
 
SueAndHerZoo;188952 said:
Sorry, another question about the cuttlefish eggs:

I got a bunch in a few days ago that were all connected so obviously they were all laid at the same time. Why would it be that two already hatched and the rest haven't? Should I assume these two that are hatched are pre-mies?
Sue
No guarantee that they were laid at the same time, or even by the same female. Females will lay on top of eggs that are already there. I don't know if they are cuing on the presence of eggs or on the optimum, safe place to lay eggs. In my aquarium, my female always chose the most difficult place for me to retrieve the eggs...
 
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
 
I had that happen before. I guess you need to spread the mysids out. My cooler was big (probably three feet by 2 feet) and I had a few inches of water so there would be a large surface area for oxygen exchange. Maybe you could spread the mysids out in breeder nets in all of your tanks?

Might was well try to offer some of the things that you caught at the beach. They can eat food that is as big as they are, once they figure out how to capture prey.
 
I asked Paul about keeping them and he said they use a "sweater box" container. When I inquired about shape of such an item he said it was like one of those boxes you keep sweaters in under the bed :biggrin2: So, CG's low water with lots of surface area fits the description. I only tried mysis twice without success but I did not attempt the suggested arrangement.
 

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