[Cuttlefish Eggs]: Lazarus, Nib, Blot and Rorschach - Sepia bandensis journal

The nets collect a lot of debris and algae so my guess is that they are feeding. It would be nice to ID them and then figure out where they came from since they seem to reproduce and stay in a population without the extreme separating that seems to be necessary with the ones we purchase. I would suggest not mixing them with the ones from Paul just in case the new ones cannibalize the ones that are free growing. You might throw a hand full of the volunteer variety in with the new ones just to see what happens (assuming you could identify which was which).
 
Yes, agreed. I don't want to mix them if I can help it. I know which shop they came from, as I've seen them in their tanks as well. They just refer to them as "fairy shrimp", even though I know that's not what they are. A few of my marine bio friends on Twitter independently said mysids when I posted my video of them, but getting a real ID would be good. I wish I still had decent macrophotography equipment.
 
That would fit with the Wikipedia article, habitat and location. Oh well, we keep looking for more easily grown hatchling (octo or cuttle) food but I suspect your comparison negates them. Since they are hanging out at the nets, I do suspect these may be algae eaters vs carnivores though and would be decimated by the mysid.
 
Took my old DSLR out tonight and tried taking a pic. There's one of the shrimp right next to him, but it wasn't in focus.
Lazarus.jpg
 
Cuttlefish baby #2 just hatched, still has a little bit of yolk sac just like Laz did initially. Although this one's much bigger already, so maybe that's down to "baking" in the egg for 6 days longer than Laz.

Some observations:
He detached from the yolk almost immediately. He's a better swimmer already. Much more control over vertical position.
 
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Mysids arrived. Pretty much all alive. They look very much like the critters already in the tank but slightly larger.
EDIT: One major difference: These shrimp LOVE killing and eating the other ones.
 
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Somehow I suspected the aggressive behavior of the mysid and will stick with my thought that the critters in your tank eat algae vs the mysid that are meat eaters. Reviewing our discussions, I am wondering if your "fairy shrimp" are actually brine shrimp. One way to determine if they are different would be to isolate a known quantity and see if they multiply. Brine shrimp lay eggs in "rafts" that float on the surface. If these carry their eggs and they hatch live, then they would be different and a possible new hatch cuttlefish food source. If they are vegetarian, they still may not provide the needed fats but most "pods" are not meat eaters (but may still eat detritus that contains meat) and are thought to be adequate if they would be eaten so the concern may not have merit.
 
Well, those shrimp and the amphipods I'm pulling out of my sump were the first week's worth of food for Laz. Balanced diet maybe? :smile: I will try to isolate some of them and see if I can culture them and what we end up with. They are larger than any brine shrimp I've ever seen, but about half the size of the traditional mysids.
 
Brine actually can get pretty big. Before keeping octopuses, I kept seahorses. The dwarf horses survived on a diet of new hatch (easy to produce but was a daily chore). I was never successful growing them to adults from eggs so I used to buy adults to feed to my large seahorses.
 

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