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Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.
LOL, Diego does not believe in leftovers but we feed him only a small meal when he has a large one the day before.
I am starting to sex the cuttles and would like to sell some males and possibly females... So check out my thread:
FS: Dwarf Cuttlefish
FS: Dwarf Cuttlefish
So the cuttles are doing good... Im trying to find a source for frozen shore shrimp right now. Frozen white shrimp are just too big for them and they havn't taken chunks of shrimp yet... Still need to know its shrimp I guess. Picky little bastards! lol.
Somewhere along the line, and I don't remember if it was ceph or seahorse related, someone found their wards would eat dead ONLY if it had eyes. I am not sure how you could safely manufacture eyes (black dots) but you might try coming up with something ...
So I have sold two of the cuttles. A male and a female. It was sad to watch them go but I need to make room as the males are starting to fight. This leaves me with 3 or 4 males and 3 or 4 females(one cuttle is still too small to sex). The cuttles have also started mating. I will endeavor to get some video this week.
They are on a steady diet of FW ghost shrimp, shore shrimp, fiddlers, feeder fish and frozen shore shrimp. I have found several cheap sources of live shore shrimp through various distributors and also found some cheap frozen shore shrimp as well.
My next goal is to sell one or two males, getting down to 5 or 6 cuttles. I will probably put a male/female pair in my 10 gallon shrimp tank. It only has biological filtration... Live rock/chaeto. right now so I am working on getting a skimmer for cheap or atleast a biowheel with a carbon filter replacement incase of inking.
I have been lucky as far as the inking goes... No major events and it seems to dissipate pretty quickly. I have a pretty major phosphate problem in my tank(about 2 ppm) that I am working on right now.
They are on a steady diet of FW ghost shrimp, shore shrimp, fiddlers, feeder fish and frozen shore shrimp. I have found several cheap sources of live shore shrimp through various distributors and also found some cheap frozen shore shrimp as well.
My next goal is to sell one or two males, getting down to 5 or 6 cuttles. I will probably put a male/female pair in my 10 gallon shrimp tank. It only has biological filtration... Live rock/chaeto. right now so I am working on getting a skimmer for cheap or atleast a biowheel with a carbon filter replacement incase of inking.
I have been lucky as far as the inking goes... No major events and it seems to dissipate pretty quickly. I have a pretty major phosphate problem in my tank(about 2 ppm) that I am working on right now.
Updates!
The cuttles are still fighting but it has calmed down a bit since I moved a small male to the 10 gallon tank. I have 3 females and 4 males. Two of the males are pretty small and wimpy but one of them (I call him Little Guy) will posture and display right along with Spartacus. He deffinitely has some spunk. Anyways... My goal now is to trade a little guy for some Coral, Get to 3 guys and 3 girls, and put a pair in the 10 gallon.
Also, I got a shipment of 500 Ghost shrimp 2 weeks ago for $30. Only about 100 were alive but the dead ones were still clear/grey so I froze those. Every day about 10 of the hundred died so they only lasted about 3 days. Petsupermarket replaced the five hundred today however with no additional cost and only 30 or so were dead so I have around 500 ghost which should last a while. The cuttles are currently eating about 3-4 a day live or frozen. I have been supplementing this with fiddler crabs because they seem to love them.
On to videos:
I am trying to get a good video of mating and of fiddler crabs.
The cuttles are still fighting but it has calmed down a bit since I moved a small male to the 10 gallon tank. I have 3 females and 4 males. Two of the males are pretty small and wimpy but one of them (I call him Little Guy) will posture and display right along with Spartacus. He deffinitely has some spunk. Anyways... My goal now is to trade a little guy for some Coral, Get to 3 guys and 3 girls, and put a pair in the 10 gallon.
Also, I got a shipment of 500 Ghost shrimp 2 weeks ago for $30. Only about 100 were alive but the dead ones were still clear/grey so I froze those. Every day about 10 of the hundred died so they only lasted about 3 days. Petsupermarket replaced the five hundred today however with no additional cost and only 30 or so were dead so I have around 500 ghost which should last a while. The cuttles are currently eating about 3-4 a day live or frozen. I have been supplementing this with fiddler crabs because they seem to love them.
On to videos:
I am trying to get a good video of mating and of fiddler crabs.
Very sad news... I had not seen one of my males for a day or so and feared that Spartacus had finally eaten him. Although Little Guy was about 1/4 Spartacus's size he would display and hold his on. He would also vigorously mate with any female that happened to be outta Spartacus's line of site.
I went looking for him today and found his cuttlebone. I had added a new Powerhead last week and thought I cuttleproofed it by stuffing a fluval sponge into the intake. This apparently was not enough. I feel pretty bad and have decommisioned the powerhead.
I will miss Little Guy. He was the ballsiest little cuttle I have ever seen.
I went looking for him today and found his cuttlebone. I had added a new Powerhead last week and thought I cuttleproofed it by stuffing a fluval sponge into the intake. This apparently was not enough. I feel pretty bad and have decommisioned the powerhead.
I will miss Little Guy. He was the ballsiest little cuttle I have ever seen.
Losing them is always rough, losing a special one to an oversight is extremely painful. I am still trying to analyze the loss of my two little octopuses and am driving myself crazy.So some updates are in order. I talked to the guy I sold the male and female pair to(I picked this pair because I found them mating face to face the morning he was coming). Unfortunately it seems that the female did not make it. Apparently the male killed her. I am somewhat confused by this because he was feeding them enough(3-4 shore shrimp a day per cuttle). But who knows(he has also told me he just found a yellow sphere in the tank which speaks to me of an egg without ink, so maybe the female killed the male). He also says that the cuttle is having trouble grabbing shrimp with its feeding tenticles. To me that sounds like they were injured when he killed the female?
Anyways he says the male is now just bum rushing the shrimp and grabbing them with his regular tenticles. I have promised him some eggs because he seems like a very knowledgable reefer and a good guy to get into the hobby of keeping cephs.
Anyways. Over the last two days one of my females has laid 3-4 eggs. They don't seem to be fully formed from the decriptions I've read but I will let Thales or another guru attest to that.
Right now I have 3 females and 3 males(I think). I am somewhat confused because I saw what I thought was one of the males mating with Spartacus the other day. Spartacus chased it around the tank with the outstretched tenticles and black/white mottled color(in my experience he uses total black for the other males). Spartacus then grabbed the smaller cuttle and got face to face. It broke off after a minute but they were deffintely mating.
Anyways... Pictures and videos!
Eggs:
Eggs and Momma:
More pics and video shortly.
Anyways he says the male is now just bum rushing the shrimp and grabbing them with his regular tenticles. I have promised him some eggs because he seems like a very knowledgable reefer and a good guy to get into the hobby of keeping cephs.
Anyways. Over the last two days one of my females has laid 3-4 eggs. They don't seem to be fully formed from the decriptions I've read but I will let Thales or another guru attest to that.
Right now I have 3 females and 3 males(I think). I am somewhat confused because I saw what I thought was one of the males mating with Spartacus the other day. Spartacus chased it around the tank with the outstretched tenticles and black/white mottled color(in my experience he uses total black for the other males). Spartacus then grabbed the smaller cuttle and got face to face. It broke off after a minute but they were deffintely mating.
Anyways... Pictures and videos!
Eggs:
Eggs and Momma:
More pics and video shortly.
Attachments
Check with other keepers but from what I have read, that is an odd place for a female to place her eggs. I wonder if she put them in a rock with too much current.
Unfortunately I lost another male yesterday. Found him sitting in a corner and he was white. I checked him and didn't see any injuries. I have since checked water paremeters and everything is good except for phosphate (2.0ppm). I am working on dropping that but I am having trouble. I hope this wasn't the cause but the other cuttles are eating and seem healthy.
I am now down to 2 males and 3 females. This is in my main tank. I was considering transferring the smaller male and a small female to the 10 gallon. I got a HOB with carbon. This is just in case spartacus is killing the males.
So I took a pic of the eggs. They do not look right to me. Would like input from someone who knows.
Thanks,
I am now down to 2 males and 3 females. This is in my main tank. I was considering transferring the smaller male and a small female to the 10 gallon. I got a HOB with carbon. This is just in case spartacus is killing the males.
So I took a pic of the eggs. They do not look right to me. Would like input from someone who knows.
Thanks,
Attachments
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