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

[ekocak]

Yes she has been! Lately, we've been trying to figure out what the mystery shrimp in my tank are. They look like dwarf mysids, but eat algae.

 

[ekocak]

Oh, and BTW, here are some pics of Laz I took last night. I found a small flashlight held over the net works well for shooting through the mesh with my iPhone.

 

[CUTTLE-ADVENTURE]

Nice pics!! Few people share our passion! I had to remove two of my eight cuttles due to them being the runts ( and not being able to compete for food), moved them to my main display sump. I'm far off giving you an expert opinion, but my sump also has hundreds of those shrimp that look like Mysids, but they are most definitely not (maybe same family). Mine are almost see- through, so can't imagine them being of any real nutritional value. Also, keep adding Ampipods after starting to add shore shrimp, it takes some of the guys a while to get used to new food.

 

[ekocak]

They did seem to be eating the little mysid-like shrimp for awhile, but I think they're more interested in bigger prey already. At least it was good as a stop-gap.

 

[CUTTLE-ADVENTURE]

Yeah, I had sleepless nights for the first two weeks with my guys!! Also would like to mention, I raised my net breeder so that the water level is only about 6cm above the bottom of the breeder (makes it easier for the guys to take down prey).

 

[ekocak]

That seems like a good idea. I just went home on lunch and fished about twenty amphipods out of my filter sock and fed them!

 

[DWhatley]

@CUTTLE-ADVENTURE , thanks for the shout out but I am a novice with the cuttlefish (octopuses are my primary focus). I do try to guide to existing informational posts, bring what I have had success with for a marine environment and pass on posts from members with more experience.

 

[ekocak]

I saw Nib take a swipe at an amphipod!

 

[ekocak]

Last night, I tried taking pictures again, but didn't get anything worthwhile. The nets are starting to grow a film of algae on them which is making it increasingly difficult to get decent pictures. So no pictures right now. And I'm double-annoyed with that because last night before bed, all 4 cuttles were lined up at the front of the net. I'm not sure what they're doing, but I wonder if they're trying to grab the little shrimp caught between the net and the glass? It's odd because there are still plenty of those mini-mysids in there with them. Maybe they see something else they want? Or trying to communicate with the Deep Ones.

Anyways, I was hoping my 300 mysids from aquaculturestore.com were coming today, but the tracking website says tomorrow. Means more amphipod picking. I am not very good at it either, so it takes me forever to pluck them out of the filter sock, filter floss, sump rocks, etc. At least I have a few places I seem to be able to grab them. I can usually pull about 20 of them in a sitting.

 

[DWhatley]

Did they line up about the time you feed them? They learn feeding time very well. I had one that got quite obnoxious if I was late to bring food. Sadly I never got a good photo of him breaching the surface to get his shrimp.

 

[ekocak]

Yes. haha. Smart little buggers.

 

[ekocak]

Got more mysids today, and some saltwater janitor shrimp tomorrow. That plus the amphipods, I think I'm set for awhile.

 

[ekocak]

Well this is frustrating. Most of the marine janitor shrimp from livebrineshrimp, like 80 out of 100 maybe were DOA. I called and they aren't in on Fridays. Most of the mysids from Sachs didn't make it overnight either. Fortunately, I still have lots of amphipods. The oldest hatchling is 2 weeks old tomorrow, so maybe I can try some thawed foods.

 

[ekocak]

Because of the holiday, it's going to be difficult to replenish my foods, and I'm worried I'm getting low on amphipods. I'm racking my brains for anything I can use to supplement. I bought frozen mysids from the LFS today, they seem sorta interested by I don't know.
Has anyone ever tried using triops? I doubt it'd work, as they're freshwater, but they're easy to get ahold of...maybe fish fry....arg.

 

[DWhatley]

My only other suggestion is to see if you can find some freshwater ghost shrimp locally and be allowed to catch the smallest in the tank. These have been used to raise cuttles so the nutrition factors are close to sw but finding any small enough is the challenge.