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Food for the first 1 1/2 months

Almondsaz

Wonderpus
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Jan 21, 2010
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I know, or at least have read several different sources that say that the baby cuttles need live food for the first month and a half and that it has to be mysid. Has anyone successfully raised their young cuttles on amphipods or some other live food source. I was just wondering because I do feed my week olds baby amphipods and they seem to like them, catching them is another issue.

Thanks for helping.
 
I would say mysids are a must. When they are first born amphipods are too big. Some people feed tigger pods before mysids, but I don't think this is needed. It may take them a couple more days to start eating, but they always have a reaction to mysids.

If you are feeding them several times a day I think you can speed things up a little bit.

First few days > nothing
3 days to a week after hatching live mysids
after 2 weeks or so you can try frozen food but I would NOT rely on this as a staple even if they are eating it. What I typically do is feed them all pe mysis. Keep moving them around. Then right after I go back to live mysids. There is always a few who don't want the frozen and it ensures they eat too. One PE is probably the equivelent to 3 mysids so getting them to eat PE will speed up the growth process.

1 month on - shore shrimp. The smaller ones obviously but I found out today that even ones less then a month old are capable of taking them down. You may think well if a 3 week cuttle can take down a shore shrimp bigger then it, why can't a newborn take out an amphipod. Well Amphipods are faster, stronger and have a hard body compared to mysid shrimp which are slower and softer and much easier to catch. Even watch your cuttles hunt the first couple of times. I always think there is no way they are going to catch these mysids. I couldn't imagine them going after amphipods at anywhere near the same success rate. Then look at your cuttles a week later. They grab the mysids almost instantly. They instinctively hunt moving prey but their skills also improve after several attempts.

Also keep in mind they expend more energy hunting and fighting with the amphipods when they are really small. Most people want the babies to grow asap since this is their most vulnerable stage. The faster they get to eating bigger food, the sooner you don't have to continue to order live food, can leave them for a day if need be and they have a much better chance of making it through their short lives once they've past their smallest stage.
 
Thanks corpusse. I have another 200 coming on Tuesday, and it isn't that they eat them all, the mysid seem to eat each other. I will try to break them between more net breeders. I have been feeding them live baby brine shrimp. I really appreciate all the good info in your post.
 
You should be keeping the mysids in a much larger space. A 10g minimum. I've kept some alive for 3 weeks or longer. Typically I try an order only every 2 weeks since shipping for me is so expensive.

I keep mine in 10-15g tanks. Usuallly no more then 500 per tank but last time I only had one clean tank so I put all 1000 in one. Yes some are eating each other but in a 1-2 week period you shouldn't notice a drop off. In fact I notice babies in mine, which likely become prey for the adults real quick.

I used to hatch bbs for mine but now I feed them almost exclusively pellets and sometimes cyclopeeze. Remember mysids are not super sensitive to water quailty. You should be feeding at least twice a day. 3-4 is even more ideal. Once the food runs out they eat each other, but with other food in the tank they seem more content to eat that.
 
Can you just use a basic Hang of Filter? or do you have to have any special requirements? What about temperature, can they be kept at room which is about 70 degrees F?
 
Ok, so I had a spare 10gallon in the garage. I have cleaned it, filled it with saltwater and bought a penguin hob filter. I was going to use some of the live rock rubble from my sump. They come tuesday, so I am going to get this all settled by then. The LR rubble will be the key. I have everything else.
 
I have always used Sachs Aquaculture and am getting my second shipment from them on Tuesday. I am anxious to keep these little guys happy and healthy.
 
You can. I don't filter my mysid tanks. Just an airpump and a heater. 70 is probably ok. I have my heaters set at 75 though. They are pretty tough.
 
Almondsaz;149732 said:
I know, or at least have read several different sources that say that the baby cuttles need live food for the first month and a half and that it has to be mysid. Has anyone successfully raised their young cuttles on amphipods or some other live food source. I was just wondering because I do feed my week olds baby amphipods and they seem to like them, catching them is another issue.

Thanks for helping.

I had 3 live 1 year and they were fed only gammarrus the first month or two . I am waiting for a new batch to hatch now
 
*Gammarus and they're amphipods, the most predominant type in aquariums, I have found.

By the way, this thread is extremely helpful, thanks a lot Corpusse! What are sites that you all would suggest for getting mysids? I have my eggs arriving Thursday (fingers crossed)
 
L8 2 RISE;149798 said:
*Gammarus and they're amphipods, the most predominant type in aquariums, I have found.

By the way, this thread is extremely helpful, thanks a lot Corpusse! What are sites that you all would suggest for getting mysids? I have my eggs arriving Thursday (fingers crossed)

Ah. Never new the species name. If you pick out the small ones I'm sure it can be done, but I've already stated the reasons I prefer mysids.

As for where to order I prefer Reed Mariculture. Their mysids always arrive in perfect shape, they are cultured in a lab, not wild caught, so their ages are all the same. I've had no problem keeping them alive for weeks other then the obvious problem that they eat each other.

Reed Mariculture | Ensuring Hatchery Success
 
corpusse: I just checked out reed and have a question for you. They don't come in the bottle pictured do they? The ones I get from Sachs are in a relatively large bag....not a bottle.
 

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