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Sepia Bandensis - First Round

L8 2 RISE;147761 said:
how have you gone about culturing these magical tigger pods?

At least around here tigger pods are readily available. Serveral local reef shops carry them as mandarin food. They store for several days in the fridge in a dormant stage.

I actually did try feeding them before to my cuttles but they were not interested however I had already started them on mysis. Perhaps the reason why snowmaker's ate so quick is they stayed in the eggs longer.
 
L8 2 RISE;147823 said:
Same here, I'd just rather not have to pay for them every few days.

There way easy to cultrue go to aquaculturestore.com and get a order of copepods!!! Then but them in a 5 gallon bucket and feed them a good quailty live plankton and a little light source!!!! They dont need circulation!!! and they reporduce al the time!!!
U can get a screen to harvest them from brineshrimpdirect they also sell copepod cultures!!! There is tonz of info on the net for culturing alsorts of stuff!!!
 
tigger pods are easy to culture. The cuttlefish in the two different batches of eggs I have started raising like
them in the first weeks. So far my observation for ranking first foods is
1. tigger pods first week or two.
2. amphipods
3. mysid shrimp

They prefer the amphipods the first couple of weeks because they are easier to catch. I have to select the smaller
amphipods to feed to them. The tigger pods are not large enough to sustain them on over time but work well with amphipods.
The mysid shrimp are a good quality food and should be used also during the first few weeks and after. There are several
types of amphipods and mysids. Here in Maine both can be collected locally and are larger species.
I am going to try to collect some locally in the next couple of days. January is not the best month for collecting.
I have a cuttlefish who is a 1 1/2 months old and eats a lot. I have not seen it eat frozen mysid but all the
amphipods and mysids I put in the tank are gone in two days even the frozen mysid. The foods for the first month
need more research. I am not sure if anyone has raised them on amphipods alone. Amphipods are easier to raise than
mysid.
 
I agree that the tigger pods are probably the easiest to culture as they are so hardy. As stated - get a start from someone or buy a jar, transfer to progressively larger containers and keep them fed and they'll multiply fairly quick.
As I stated, I observed a 2 to 3 day old cuttlefish hatchling eat tigger pods. It had not, to my knowledge, eaten anything else at this time / age.
At 1 to 2 weeks, they were loving the very small amphipods. I was shaking them out of several chaeto clumps I have in 3 different systems. The chaeto clumps are fed daily - powdered zoo plankton like ZooPlan, or finely ground flake foods.
After shaking out a chaeto clump, the large amphipods were returned to the sumps (for now), so I will have some for when the cuttlefish get bigger.
I took a few pictures last night. Had a cover over front of tank to block room light and waited for them to come out, then used the flash to get these. The 2 that appear to be poking out of the water are not. The little tanks water level is about 1" above them.
 

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Thank you,
Will be easier soon as they will be transferred to a plumbed in 5 gal. that I won't have to lay on my stomach to photograph.
I figured to keep the first tanks small for ease of keeping foods concentrated.
 
I have a couple more questions -

At this point, there are 4 cuttlefish kept in a 2.5g flow through tank. They are still about 1/2" long. When should I consider moving them to their next tank - a 5g set up plumbed into the same system?

Every evening I am feeding 20 - 30 live mysids (to 4 cuttlefish) and 2x to 3x per week adding 10 - 15 smallish amphipods. By morning, there does not appear to be any live foods left in the tank and there is no possibility that the foods are escaping the tank.
Am I feeding enough or too much?
 
I feed mine approximately one mysid each at a time. Sometimes the next
feeding is litterly a minute or 2 later but I make sure most of the mysids added are hunted right away. Of course mine are in breeder nets so it's almost impossible for the shrimp to escape.
 
Thank you,

I do notice there is only a very short time between each time any particular cuttlefish captures the next shrimp. Maybe a minute or so and longer if an amphipod.
I cannot tell that each of the 4 are getting their share that I put in the 2.5g tank, however, it appears the one with the best perch, or willingness to roam around (nearest area where mysids are frequenting) will get the most to eat. That said, they are all growing.
I feed them shortly after lights out - say 7 PM. By 12 AM I will be hard pressed to see any live foods left.
Should I start feeding them in the daytime (light) to attempt to get them to come out in daylight? The main reason I haven't been doing is that I have been "pre-loading" the mysids by capturing the 20+, transferring to a small bowl and placing some of their food in it and letting them eat for an hour or two before transferring them to the cuttlefish tank. I wouldn't want the gut loaded shrimp to have 8 hours to digest the food I gave them as I felt they would just swim around, "hang-out" until they got eaten several hours later.

This raises another question:

At what time (photoperiod) are most of you members here feeding your young cuttlefish?

I only see the cuttlefish active after (refugium) lights out. During lights-on they are inactive and hiding somewhat. At this lights-on period, I have watched mysids and amphipods literally swim / crawl in to the cuttlefish. The cuttlefish ignores them or slightly moves out of the way - Like "Don't bother me, I'm sleeping".
The light I'm using is a 9w CF cool white - what illuminates the chaeto clump in the refugium next to the cuttlefish tank. There is an opaque divider on the lit side of the cuttlefish tank to block some of the light as well.

Thank you for answering my questions or providing some experience to this newb.
 
So, last night I watched two of the cuttlefish eat a thawed PE mysis shrimp - whole. I am very happy to see this at 6 weeks old. If stretched out, the PE mysis were about the same length as the cuttlefish - 5/8" - 3/4". Bye-bye soon to live mysids! Woo hoo!

At first, the cuttlefish just stared at it. One mysid was waving back and forth very slowly and the cuttlefish took it. The other mysid was stationary and the cuttlefish took it only after I very lightly blew some water on it with a pipette causing it to move slightly.
 
Great thread, thank you for sharing your experience. I am just starting and find alot of useful information in your thread.

I had one source tell me that I would need to separate them pretty quick, along the lines of 1 cuttle to a breeder net setup. Do you notice any signs of aggression or dominance?
 
snowmaker;149224 said:
So, last night I watched two of the cuttlefish eat a thawed PE mysis shrimp - whole. I am very happy to see this at 6 weeks old. If stretched out, the PE mysis were about the same length as the cuttlefish - 5/8" - 3/4". Bye-bye soon to live mysids! Woo hoo!

Your cuttlefish are probably ready for some shore shrimp. They are definitely big enough to eat the small ones.

Oh, and I think they are probably ready to move to a bigger tank.
 
No, no signs or aggression or dominance - but the tank is in a spot (in a sump, under a stand) that is difficult to observe them.

Rather than shore shrimp, I have been able to catch amphipods in tidepools here - up to 1.5" long. My friend's 10 week old cuttlefish eats them greedily, and is growing much faster now. Thankfully, the amphipods have been very easy to catch, esp. if I can go on a relatively warm day (it's 5'F here right now...) We went collecting 2 weeks ago and in 1 small tidepool I'd say I caught 40 or so amphipods - up to 1.5", in less than 15 minutes. They are very easy to keep alive (still have them) in a 5g w/ airstone, algae from the tidepool, and I feed every 2 - 3 days. We did catch 1 shore shrimp as well - raking the net under and around seaweed.

I have done most of the work on their next tank - only a 5g, but I'm hoping it will do for the next 5 or 6 weeks.
 

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