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S Bandensis (Id and

Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
42
Hi all,

On friday my LFS had some unidentified black cuttle eggs. Some already hatched and I think they are S Bandensis -Any clue on this will be appreciated. You'll find a pic below-
So long time I was looking for it (1 year), I got one with me.

I'm fish breeder and maintain live cultures, tech about rearing tanks, egg chambers, etc is not new for me.

I put it in a dark blue nursery tank, just 1gal with rounded corners and a direct input of water from a central system.
Sand, red macroalgae and a couple of small live rocks is all I put there.

First was very interesting to see the reaction to water flow. In the store and on saturday in a baby net inside the main aquarium it was completely motionless.

Yesterday I prepared the good nursery tank and she started to swim from here to there, all the time. Hanging on the leafs, then going up and down, and specilly going under the water flow to play. Then hidden in the algae for a while and come back. Was a very surprising reaction. Back and forth all the time... :bugout:

(Of course its not too much flow :sagrin:, I use a 5mm plastic pipe, same uses the aireator, connected to a micropump, up to the minimum power)

Also I put a small amount of rotifer, harpacticoid copepods and artemia nauplii in the tank every 5-6 hours. Seemed to me the cuttlefish went out the algae and feed on it. Im not sure because its very small, just noticed some short and fast movements aproaching the target... I readed they may stay about two weeks without feeding at this stage, so first question is: they really feed at 2-3 days old?

Hopefully I'll get back my copepod culture (excellent USA Reed trigriopus) on friday.
Sorry for the long post, so long time waiting makes me a bit (lier, I'm a lot) excited :roflmao:

Any advice or experience from the forum will be welcomed.

Thank you!

PD: I uploaded some pics to the multimedia area, but heres a pic for you:

winterDSCF9785.jpg
 
It looks like bandensis to me, but I've mistaken baby officinalis for them before. A closeup of the eye might help: bandensis has a funny bar across its pupil, while officinalis has a W-shape. Of course, it may depend on light level, too.

I *think*, but I'm not sure, that bandensis is the only species we see in the pet trade that has black eggs.
 
thanks esquid

Here you can find a small video of the "nursery" nanotank I've prepared. Just introduced some artemia and cyclopeeze, I still don't know if its really feeding on it...

The tank uses a simple aquarium water input that just go out by overflow. The cuttle is on the right, over the red algae, the tiny white dot there

winterDSCF9815.jpg


Ill keep you informed
cheers
 
Looks like Bandensis, but cant be postive.

In my experience, the only thing Ive 'Seen' hatchlings eat are large copepods that are around 2mm in size or live mysid shrimps. Mysids are the only foods Ive tried in which all hatchlings will go directly for. The copepods can be too quick and the less conifdent cuttlefish will give up after attempting to catch it.

Im doubtful it is eating any of the items you have offered it. Like you mentioned earlier, it may not be interested in food for up to 2 weeks. I would recommend trying to get some live mysids if possible.
 
Thank you very much for your comments. All this information is really useful for me.
Based on your info, I've prepared a plan for this

Short-term :

Everyday I'm collecting and culturing aquarium small-sized gammarus and harpacticoids. I'm introducing them in the bowl everyday (I get 5-10gam & 20-30"pods" daily)

I'll get big live copepods -Tigriopus- on friday, so will introduce them inmediatly and start a culture. (I already cultured them in the past)

Mysis is basically impossible to find here. I EU I mean. I tried from USA but the shipping time is too long. Still searching, so if someone around have some info regarding this, it will be really welcomed. :sun:



Secondary actions

I got some L serticaudata couples to breed them and use hatch as food.

Get some live grass shrimp from coast, also for culturing.

Insist hardly :heee: on frozen food


Feedback, other ideas, will be welcomed.

Again, thank you very much
cheers
 
Sepia update: 1 month since hatching

Hi everybody,
today the small sepia is 1 month old, so I though on posting some updates and share them with you

It has grown about 50% in size. Nowadays size is still about 1.5cm (0.6 in) and is still maintained in the small nursery aquarium full of algae, sand and some rocks.

The feeding is based on live gammarus (most of them quite big, near the sepia size), young artemia and big pods (tigriopus).

Last monday I put some young palaemon shrimps. -- I didn't do it before because shrimp were about 3 times the size of sepia, and I was a little bit worried about feed the wrong animal :sink: Nowadays the shrimp were only double in size so I got more confortable. --
I've seen the shrimp alive a couple of days, but since 2 days ago I cannot locate them. So could be a good new to complete its diet with this small shrimps.
I fully agree with your advice about mysis. It would be the perfect feed source but has been completely impossible to find them anywhere.

About its behaviour, is still mainly nocturnal. I have founded a big change in its feeding skills. At the beggining it was just like a fast pecking. Now is more ellaborate or "elegant" behaviour.
The sepia locate the target. Move slowly around it, changing color, and attack. Inmediatly the fast atack with the tentacles has succeed, approach opening the arms and close them around the victim, and slowly go back under the algae.
I think thats all at the moment, I still try with frozen mysis everyday but I'm not sure it feed on it.

OK stop babbling and more pics:

winter_sbandensis06112008DSCF9838.JPG


winter_sbandensis06112008DSCF9855.JPG


Cheers
 
Yeah I agree sorseress

dwhatley, sepia is more than 2 months old by now. The great news are that its feeding on frozen mysis since 4 weeks ago. Now its more like a small adult, more active, longer tentacles, wider (not fat). Its impressive how it master the colour change now.

So those are the good news. Has been a crazy time and a lot of work to get 10-15 live gammarus everyday, baby mollys, palaemos, crabs, artemia... but It survived without live mysis. I'll update the pics.

Cheers
 

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