I have only had one cluster that did not hatch so I can't be of any help but nothing in the photo looks different than other egg pictures I have seen. What about the eggs does not look right that might not be apparent in the photos?
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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.
I have only seen eggs that were ready to hatch so the clear section at the top of the egg is weird. It's like all of the ink is concentrated at the bottom of the egg. My previous eggs were much more of a homogenous single mass... Basically looked like black grapes.
I have some unfortunate news to report. I went out of town and returned last week to find a half crashed tank and 3 dead cuttlefish. We had bad weather, a power outage, and for some reason my sump ran dry. I filled it up before I left(no ato) and it usually would take 2 weeks to get that low(was only gone for 6 days). Either way, I returned to two cuttle bones and a floating cuttlefish. Two of the cuttles were still alive. One not far from death. I moved them both to my ten gallon shrimp tank. Threw on a hang on the back and fed them.
This was last monday. The female I have left ate a fish and a shore shrimp. I did not see the male eat anything. His color was off for a day or two but eventually he got back to normal.
I noticed that he would still try and mate with the female at night time and he was much more lively with full color then. But the female did not want to have anything to do with him as far as mating was concerned. I now think this was due to being in a 10 gallon tank and all the stress they experienced.
Anyways. I was in the mean time trying to save my 46 gallon Bow Front. With several 20% water changes and running the skimmer full bore I was able to get the water back and only lost 1 coral(a hard coral). All the softies and other hard corals are doing well.
Two days ago I got up in the morning to check on the cuttles and found that the male... Spartacus was missing his left front tentalce. I can only assume that the repeated attempts to mate caused the female to bite it off.
At this point they had not eaten in 3 days(despite several shore shrimp in the tank with them) and my main tank was doing as good as can be expected so I transfered them back.
They are still not eating and I am afraid that I will be forced to watch them both slowly waste away. This is very very sad for me. I try feeding them frozen shore shrimp. Live shore shrimp, and tossed in a fiddler today but as yet they did not eat it. The female has made an attempt to strike a shore shrimp last night but she didnt grab it. Spartacus was deffinitely hungry and became pointy like he was going to strike a shore shrimp last night but he never extended his feeding tenticles. This makes me wonder if the female bit those off too or if he is just too weak.
I don't know what I will do after this. I thought about not posting anything else on Tonmo. But this site has been wonderful and I felt that if anyone could learn from my mistakes then it was worth it.
I hope I have good news to report in several days but its not looking good.
This was last monday. The female I have left ate a fish and a shore shrimp. I did not see the male eat anything. His color was off for a day or two but eventually he got back to normal.
I noticed that he would still try and mate with the female at night time and he was much more lively with full color then. But the female did not want to have anything to do with him as far as mating was concerned. I now think this was due to being in a 10 gallon tank and all the stress they experienced.
Anyways. I was in the mean time trying to save my 46 gallon Bow Front. With several 20% water changes and running the skimmer full bore I was able to get the water back and only lost 1 coral(a hard coral). All the softies and other hard corals are doing well.
Two days ago I got up in the morning to check on the cuttles and found that the male... Spartacus was missing his left front tentalce. I can only assume that the repeated attempts to mate caused the female to bite it off.
At this point they had not eaten in 3 days(despite several shore shrimp in the tank with them) and my main tank was doing as good as can be expected so I transfered them back.
They are still not eating and I am afraid that I will be forced to watch them both slowly waste away. This is very very sad for me. I try feeding them frozen shore shrimp. Live shore shrimp, and tossed in a fiddler today but as yet they did not eat it. The female has made an attempt to strike a shore shrimp last night but she didnt grab it. Spartacus was deffinitely hungry and became pointy like he was going to strike a shore shrimp last night but he never extended his feeding tenticles. This makes me wonder if the female bit those off too or if he is just too weak.
I don't know what I will do after this. I thought about not posting anything else on Tonmo. But this site has been wonderful and I felt that if anyone could learn from my mistakes then it was worth it.
I hope I have good news to report in several days but its not looking good.
Kerrick,
Thanks for the update and recognizing that we need to record both good and bad events to provide the help that you initial sought and now share forward. I know the pain of having to report errors or, perhaps worse, unknown failures so my empathy is as high as my appreciation.
Thanks for the update and recognizing that we need to record both good and bad events to provide the help that you initial sought and now share forward. I know the pain of having to report errors or, perhaps worse, unknown failures so my empathy is as high as my appreciation.
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
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- 3,019
Bummer! As D says the bad events are just as important to report, if not more important than the good ones. Much sympathy to you and support for whatever you decide to do in the future.
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2010
- Messages
- 202
Im sorry to hear about your cuttlefish, there were some bads storm in the area and i lost power more than once. I noticed earlier in the thread you mention a LFS that was good. I live in your area, so where was it? And please do continue posting, even if it is bad, that way we can all learn from each others mistakes.
^ieatfalafel
Dubeys Pet World in Burlington, The Fish Room in Raleigh, Down Under, The reef farm... Are all good places to go.
I would not recommend the only Saltwater place in Durham. Won't mention it by name but they were one of my problems getting into the hobby.
My main problem was that I got into the hobby without much research initially. I read up on a few reef keeping websites and tonmo and pulled the trigger. I bought a pretty decent setup, oversized skimmer, etc. But I did two newbish things that I now regret. A local saltwater store was going out of buisness and I grabbed about 80 lbs of used live sand. I didn't know anything about rinsing it or vacuuming it as I was adding it so I added a huge source of phosphates to my brand new tank. I have been battling hair algae ever since. Secondly. I started buying my water from the Fish store in Durham. I didn't realize at first that they only used DI water and never changed their resin. It was only after months of a consistent hair algae problem and finally testing their water with a TDS meter that I discoverd I'd basically been adding Durham Tap water to my tanks.
This all being said. I am starting a new tank (34 gallon solana) that I will being doing right from the start or not at all. I am doing minimal sand. An oversized skimmer. Only dry/dead live rock and live sand, and then slowly cycling it/very slowly adding livestock. Gonna also experiment with DIY LED and will deffinetly have a UPS and ATO!
I may get rid of my bow front or just use it as a softy tank/shrimp tank. I don't know if I'll do cuttles again. If I do it will be a on a smaller scale.
I will deffinetly keep you guys updated. They are both ok this morning. Still not sure if they've eaten anything.
Dubeys Pet World in Burlington, The Fish Room in Raleigh, Down Under, The reef farm... Are all good places to go.
I would not recommend the only Saltwater place in Durham. Won't mention it by name but they were one of my problems getting into the hobby.
My main problem was that I got into the hobby without much research initially. I read up on a few reef keeping websites and tonmo and pulled the trigger. I bought a pretty decent setup, oversized skimmer, etc. But I did two newbish things that I now regret. A local saltwater store was going out of buisness and I grabbed about 80 lbs of used live sand. I didn't know anything about rinsing it or vacuuming it as I was adding it so I added a huge source of phosphates to my brand new tank. I have been battling hair algae ever since. Secondly. I started buying my water from the Fish store in Durham. I didn't realize at first that they only used DI water and never changed their resin. It was only after months of a consistent hair algae problem and finally testing their water with a TDS meter that I discoverd I'd basically been adding Durham Tap water to my tanks.
This all being said. I am starting a new tank (34 gallon solana) that I will being doing right from the start or not at all. I am doing minimal sand. An oversized skimmer. Only dry/dead live rock and live sand, and then slowly cycling it/very slowly adding livestock. Gonna also experiment with DIY LED and will deffinetly have a UPS and ATO!
I may get rid of my bow front or just use it as a softy tank/shrimp tank. I don't know if I'll do cuttles again. If I do it will be a on a smaller scale.
I will deffinetly keep you guys updated. They are both ok this morning. Still not sure if they've eaten anything.
LOL, I am not sure there is a single right way (there are several wrong ways, of course) but I will only use LR and clean dead sand and I change out my bottom substrate every couple of years but not my LR
. Some people go bare bottm where others won't use LR and all can be successful.
Kerrick,
Sad for your loss of Spartacus, I know he was special.
Did you have any problems from Irene? I saw that Durham was pretty well inland but it is hard to know where the storm had impact.
Sad for your loss of Spartacus, I know he was special.
Did you have any problems from Irene? I saw that Durham was pretty well inland but it is hard to know where the storm had impact.
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 9
I am so sorry to hear about your series of unfortunate events after your vacation. It seems like they were kind of out of your control. From your posts I could tell that you cared about your cuttles very deeply. I hope you will continue your adventure into cuttle keeping in the future. Best wishes to your female as well!
^Shellz... Thanks for the support. I don't think this is the end for me and cuttlefish but we will see.
^^D... Thats the funny thing. I ran out and got an UPS for the tank and everything. We did not lose power once however. I think Spartacus was just two stressed during the last couple of weeks. I never saw him eat after I got back.
I was reading around and I think that one of my problems may have been my Macro algae going sexual. I saw a pic of someones tank in which this had happened and it looked exactly like mine. Milky... etc. The macro in the sump was all brittle when I got back. I don't know why I have macro in the sump... Just one of those things that people tell you help with nutrient export. But with the skimmer I run I really dont need it.
In future setups I will just go with a big skimmer and no Macro.
^^D... Thats the funny thing. I ran out and got an UPS for the tank and everything. We did not lose power once however. I think Spartacus was just two stressed during the last couple of weeks. I never saw him eat after I got back.
I was reading around and I think that one of my problems may have been my Macro algae going sexual. I saw a pic of someones tank in which this had happened and it looked exactly like mine. Milky... etc. The macro in the sump was all brittle when I got back. I don't know why I have macro in the sump... Just one of those things that people tell you help with nutrient export. But with the skimmer I run I really dont need it.
In future setups I will just go with a big skimmer and no Macro.
Every bad storm we think about getting a generator but never do ... I have air pumps for the tanks but nothing else so a few hours is not a problem but days are. Then again, days would be an issue even with a generator since we would run out of fuel. I only have automatic air on one tank (that one would kill the fish without air circulation after a day or less because of the shape) so we would have to be home to set up the air pumps.
I found trying to keep a fuge environment in a sump (as well as a DSB in a small sump) to be counter productive. Either the algae dies and makes a mess or gets in the way of the return pump. The extra lighting means more algae to clean and a Deep Sand Bed takes up a lot of space AND gets sand in the return pump. I may try a fuge again some day but only as top overflow specifically for growing out feeder animals and potentially a nursery. Sumps do better as sumps IMO and not Multipurpose add ons.
I found trying to keep a fuge environment in a sump (as well as a DSB in a small sump) to be counter productive. Either the algae dies and makes a mess or gets in the way of the return pump. The extra lighting means more algae to clean and a Deep Sand Bed takes up a lot of space AND gets sand in the return pump. I may try a fuge again some day but only as top overflow specifically for growing out feeder animals and potentially a nursery. Sumps do better as sumps IMO and not Multipurpose add ons.
So my female seems to be doing well. She ate a fish yesterday and shrimp have steadily been going missing. I'm somewhat sad for her because she is all by herself. I may be anthropomorphizing but I think shes lonely. She is allways waiting on me when I walk in the room and she has started following me around somewhat(she was allways shy).
I'm trying to find a male online for her but I am reluctant to pay $150 plus shippnig when they can't guarantee sex and age.
If anyone has an extra male they would sell me I would be greatful... I know its a long shot but oh well.
I'm trying to find a male online for her but I am reluctant to pay $150 plus shippnig when they can't guarantee sex and age.
If anyone has an extra male they would sell me I would be greatful... I know its a long shot but oh well.
Update: My female died yesterday morning. She had not been eating well for over a week. I believe her eyesight was deteriorating. This is unfortunate as I had gotten her two companion cuttlefish(one male one female) that were about a month or two younger than her.
They are doing fine and I may start a thread about them. But as of now this is the end of this thread. I really enjoyed keeping these Cuttles and really miss them. They all had such interesting and varied personalitys.
Thanks for reading.
They are doing fine and I may start a thread about them. But as of now this is the end of this thread. I really enjoyed keeping these Cuttles and really miss them. They all had such interesting and varied personalitys.
Thanks for reading.
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