Flamboyant cuttle fish eggs help

[Slayer213]

Hi all, about a month ago, i happen to chance upon some flamboyant cuttlefish at my lfs! I was so excited that i converted my exististing tank to a species tank for it within a week. Bought myself a chiller, check the parameters and all is good to go. So i went down to the lfs and gotten myself 4 of this amazing cutties ( 4 remainings out if the 9 that arrived ). I notice 3 cuttle eggs floating about in the tank which the owner of the lfs gladly throw them in without any charge. I place the eggs in a breeding net in my flam tank and left it alone. Its been a month since i gotten them, all 4 cuttles are doing very well and feeding like crazy... BUT... nothing is happening to the 3 eggs. It looks exactly to same as the day i got them. Its alittle opaque and theres a litte clear ball in the middle of each egg. No movements or activity within the eggs. To my understanding, eggs are sometimes not fertile... So im thinking of removing them as alittle diatom are actually growing on them...

Ok, here comes the questions:

1. Should i trash the eggs or wait awhile? How long should i wait?

2. I have been feeding my cuttles exclusively ghost shrimp and i believe thats not the best diet to provide. However, thats all i can get in my lfss and thr cuttles refuse frozen mysis, krills and chopped market prawns. And i have no means to get crabs or lobsters from my lfs cos they are too expensive to sustain. The only thing i did was to put in 5 little fishes (red dot cardinals) from time to time hoping they will catch and eats them. I have never witness the feeding but the fises are vanishing at a rate of 5 a week, so i assume they got eaten.

What will be the long term effects of ghost shrimp exclusive diet?

What else should i feed them with?

What other fish can i provide them? My lfs stocks tons of blue green chromis amd occasionaly the red dot cardinals but are more expensive...

Sorry bout the long post. Will post some pics tonight when i get hm. Please advise, thanks alot!!

 

[DWhatley]

Hopefully Thales will be on-line soon and confirm but from his prior posts on bendensis feeding and what I know of octopus diets, the shrimp are fine but the fish are not a good idea (for both nutrition and potential chemical exposure). Are you located in the US? If so, you can mail order fiddler crabs as an additional live feed to alternate with the shrimp (any small crab would be appropriate, fiddlers are the easiest to get here). For the octos, I remove the bottom part of the large pincher (leaving the top one attached if the crab does not throw the claw completely). Shore shrimp (salt/brackish water) are also a good food, can be kept in a saltwater tank and will not die if not eaten quickly (these can also be purchased on-line in the states).

Sorry, but I can't help with the eggs. With the last squid eggs I tried, the clear egg inside turned opaque when they died. The ones that remained clear grew "bubbles" that eventually developed into squid. The infertile octo eggs I have never changed (I know these are infertile as I received a very young, sexually imature female) and even after 2 months they look no different than when I harvested them.

 

[Slayer213]

Hi, im in singapore... So i guess i will have to do with the ghost shrimp as of now cos we dont have any saltwater feeders what so ever. I will gut load the shrimps with good quality food prior to feeding.

I pressume what u meant by fish is not ok are freshwater fish eg. Mollies and guppies. So i will assume feeding saltwater fish to my flams will be fine? Next fish i will try feeding them will be blue green chromis as they the cheapest fish available. Will that be ok?

Bummer... I guess i will wait alittle while longer before i trash those eggs... Just in case..

Thanks alot for the advice!

 

[DWhatley]

I assumed you would avoid freshwater fish altogether but even saltwater fish are often treated with copper as a preventative (at least in some of our stores/importers here). Copper is lethal to inverts and cephs have been known (antecdotally, I do not know of specific testing for quantity) to be especially sensative to even very low exposure. I am more familiar with octos than cuttles but much should cross apply. At least two studies I have found showed that octopuses did not do well with a fish diet (studies were done to reduce the cost of aquacultured octopuses as a food product). Both studies concluded that crab needed to be included in the diet but did not exclude fish as part of the diet. Shrimp were not part of the feeding trials but we have found them to be appropriate food (balance of fats badly lacking in most FW animals and fish but less of a problem with FW crustaceans). Richard has mentioned that bandensis do well with the FW ghost shrimp but I am not clear about other species.

 

[Slayer213]

Thanks a lot... That eases my mind alot!

 

[Cuddlycuttlefsh]

Just a request, could you share some photos? Hope everything works allright.

 

[Thales]

Is this FuEl?

 

[Thales]

Moved to Exotics forum.

 

[Slayer213]

Hi, sorry about the delay... Haven been able to get myself a decent camera... Will post some pic really soon!

 

[FuEl]

Hi Slayer213,

Guess you were the one who beat me to the eggs!

I have very good food for gutloading your shrimp from Repashy Superfoods. Let me know if you need.

 

[Slayer213]

Alrighty! Finally figured out my camera... so here are the pics of my flams... feel free to comment, thanks!

 

[Slayer213]

Trying to upload a clip... Standby...

 

[Slayer213]

ok, heres the link to my flamboyant cuttlefish feeding! Thanks!!

Sorry about the shaky clip....

 

[brent&kitty420]

Are you able to get more?

 

[Slayer213]

Get more of?