[Cuttlefish Eggs]: Sepia bandensis for Sedna...

sedna

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Volunteering at the Belle Isle Aquarium has made me restless for trying something new. Since my current octo (ok, I've been holding out on you guys...) hasn't come out from the barnacle it's been in for the entire 5 weeks I've had it now, I decided to take the plunge with cuttlefish eggs!

I got 10 eggs for Paradise Pets last Tuesday (St.Pat's Day). They came in a small box with only newspaper for packaging. There were actually 12 eggs, but 2 were old and shaggy looking. Four cuttles had hatched out, in various super tiny sizes, and one was dead. I needed my macro lens to see if they were alive or not. All of those ended up dying, but one more hatched out on Thursday, and another on Friday. I can't believe how much larger, more colorful and responsive these were compared to the originals! They change colors and swim away from the end of the pipette I use to "investigate them" them with. No more have hatched out, and though I still have the eggs, I don't think that any more will hatch from that group.

I have yet to receive the food that I ordered from Paradise Pets on Wednesday, or hear anything more about the order, for that matter! I'm not super happy about that... I offered them some tigger pods, but they aren't interested. Hope the shipment comes tomorrow, and that it's normal for them to wait a few days to eat after hatching out.

I received 10 more eggs from Blue Zoo Aquatics which arrived on Saturday (3-21). I am far more impressed with everything about dealing with them! Even the ordering was easier, with more confirmations. The eggs came in a styrofoam box with heat packs, and another bag of water that really helped keep the temp up. They even included some tubing and a suction cup for drip acclimation! These eggs look "nicer," more inflated and none look shaggy or beat up. Yes, I know that if they actually all live, I'll have more animals on my hands than I can keep, but I have ideas about that. For now, let's not count the cutttles before they are hatched!

I have lots of questions about all of the best options for keeping the eggs and everything after. I know that even though I've read RR's articles, I'll be asking already answered Q's. I'm lucky, since I know you'll all be patient with me and help me through!
 

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Ok, so the last pic in the previous post is of eggs. I posted it to make sure that they are "spent" eggs, old and empty. Not sure how to tell eggs that haven't inflated yet to old ones that just aren't icky looking...
 
Here is a shot of the most recent group of eggs, there were actually 11. One looks a bit deflated, though, which is maybe why I got the extra one.
 

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One new hatchling this morning- first from the second bunch of eggs, which makes 3 in all so far. Since all of my "newborn ceph" experience is mostly with small egged octos, these guys look huge to me. They are so super cute!
 
What is the best placement in the tank for the breeder nets these guys are in? How much water movement/ circulation do they need? Is there a good way to tell when one is about to hatch? Do any of you have tips or tricks for me?
 
What a crazy project! When I checked in on these guys on Wed. morning, and there was only one living cuttle left from the Paradise Pets (PP) bunch. There was ink on the side of the net, one live cuttle, one floating cuttle, and a dead micro-star just on the outside of the net. I have no idea what happened, if one cuttle was inking the other or if it didn't like the micro-star on the outside of its net...

I put some of the Blue Zoo (BZ) eggs into that net (all 10 were in one) and by the end of the day, I had another hatchling. At the moment, I have 3 cuttles hatched out. One PP, two BZ. One egg is obviously about to hatch, it has that big distended bubble on the side as someone is about to pop out.

I finally got my shipments of mysid shrimp on Wed., too. By the time they came, almost all of them were too large to feed the cuttles. Today, they are pretty much all bigger than any of my babies- what an expensive waste! What else are they good for? Thinking I'm just going to give the bigger shrimp to my sea horses...

This is hard! Trying small egged octos is hopeless, so I never felt bad that they all die off. It's hard having the cuttles die off if it means that I'm just not doing something right. I know this takes practice and experience, and the only way to get it is to DO it.
 
I can't give any sound suggestions since none of my tank bred eggs survived but I did want to offer several :thumbsup: :thumbsup: for Blue Zoo. They easily compete with the great shipping of Live Aquaria and with LA being taken over by PetCo I have my concerns about how the live animal business will go (and the price of my salt - bought extra this month to stock pile some). BZ often has cuttle eggs and all of the reports have come back with high marks. I don't think they ever have octos though :sad:.

My old man (Jabba) is still with me. He was the largest at birth, stayed larger than the other four and has lived quite a bit longer. No way to generalize on a one off experience but ...
 
This morning there are four babies, they all seem to be doing ok. As a last minute resort, I got some brine shrimp, I actually saw one of them eat this morning! I have to remember to put my glasses on if I want to see anything clearly!
 
6 babies today, 3 in each net. I think I only have 2 more eggs left to hatch out. The "older" ones look so much bigger than the new babies, I can't believe the difference a few days makes! Now on to the food problem... None of the web sites have any listed for sale on line, but a few of the places have a number to call- so that is tomorrow's chore. That, and deciding how to do a very scaled down version of a way to culture mysids. In the mean time, going to try feeding frozen w/ a pipette with the older babes. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
 
Paul Sachs always has mysid (be sure you get mysid - saltwater - and not mysis - freshwater - Paul has both but the link is to the mysid). I found that keeping them in my Bio-Orb with only an air wand (circled at the bottom of the tank so no high pressure) allowed me to keep them alive for 3 times (or more) longer than in a rectangular container (tried all kinds but the round 8 gallon with NO filtration was the only successful setup).
 
Well, thanks to Reed Mariculture for saving the day!!! The Belle Isle curator- Richard Kik- also recommended Sachs, but something is weird with their website and I couldn't order anything from them. I was able to get through Reed on the phone yesterday and explain my situation- at least one 2 week old cuttle and 7 more (yes, up to 8 now) with NO appropriate food- and they had mysids to me by 10:30 this morning! They will be able to supply me with small mysids until they are ready for something bigger, so one less worry on my mind.

I put the shrimp a rectangular 10 gal because it's what I had sitting around. I think I'll take your advice, D, and pick up a Bio-orb tomorrow. Not so much worried about culturing them as much as just keeping them alive. If they grow too big for the cuttles, I can feed them to the sea horses. I also ordered Tahitian Blend, Nannochloropsis and SELCO from Brine Shrimp Direct- again, at the recommendation of R.Kik. I was worried that the only thing I had for them eat was brine shrimp, Kik suggested that at least supplementing them would be better than nothing. Kik's only experience with marine breeding is the dwarf sea horses at the aquarium, so we are just throwing out ideas at each other. Guess now I'll add it to the tigger pods I'm culturing to feed the shrimp.

Boy, this is really turning out to be a project... Good thing they're so damn cute! They range in age from 2 weeks to 1 day old. I only have one more egg that might possibly hatch out, but I'm kind of glad because it seems like a lot of cuttles! I didn't expect to have this many hatch out, but I'm expecting to have loss before all is done. The 2 week old must have eaten something that I've offered it (brine, mysids & tigger pods over the last 2 weeks), but I have yet to see it actually eat. I can't tell the larger ones apart anymore, either. Right now they are spread out among 3 nets, with 3,3 & 2 in each. I have another net, so I could break them up into pairs if that'd be better.
 
If you can't find a used Bio-Orb you might even try an old fashioned, large goldfish bowl. I think the round, the gentle air flow (I also had live rock rubble in the setup) were the major impacts on success. Size may also be important but I tried a ten gallon several times without success (my Bio-Org is 8 gallons).
 
Down to 6 cuttles today, 2 in each net. One doesn't look so great, good color but floating at the surface... Feeding them the mysids, hoping that at least a few will make it!
 

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