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

5 fat babies swimming around in their nets. John estimates their lengths to be between 6-8 mm. Have no idea if that largest one is a Paradise Pets or Blue Zoo baby, but at this point it doesn't matter much- they are who they are! They do seem to congregate close to each other.

Of course, now both nets have mysid shrimp swimming around freely... I tried to avoid "flood feeding" them, but I was so worried that they were going to die off, that I put a net full of mysids into each breeder net. That, and I have no idea what I'm doing. Last night and today I poured off the melt water from frozen mysids into their nets so they could get the odor, and tried tempting them with a piece of frozen mysid in a pipette. One looked mildly interested, but none of them took the bait.

I see icky brownish stuff floating in their nets no and again. Don't know if it's dead shrimp matter or if they ink in there... How often do people clean out the nets? You know, moving the cuttles to a new net as you turn the current ones inside- out to get all of the detritus out. I've been sucking off any detritus I find daily, ands have been cleaning their nets out a couple of time a week. Not sure if my methods are the best...
 
Still have 5! I have a regular shipment of shrimp coming from Reed Mariculture, so I'm not worried about food anymore. I have seen hunting/ feeding behavior from all of them now. They are large enough to see clearly through the netting, and I have seen them "walking" around the bottom of their pens.

The next project is to get them weaned onto frozen food...
 
For some reason one of the nets always seems dirtier than the other. I have taken to cleaning it out with the turkey baster (never actually used on food, like all the other ones I've ever owned), and use the same baster for feeding shrimp. I guess I've never used it to clean the other net, only for feeding. Today, without thinking I began to poke around with the baster in the "cleaner" net, and one of the cuttles swam right over to it looking for fresh shrimp! Little guys are learning already- maybe weaning onto frozen won't be so hard after all...
 
Down to 3 today. Lost 2 in the "dirtier" net, so I moved the remaining baby into the "cleaner" net. The 2 in the other net are bigger by a week, far more active hunters, we'll see how it goes... My 2 bigger ones are becoming more fun to watch, I can actually see cuttlefish behavior" instead of newly hatched that just sit there. Feeling more confident about those 2 based on their behavior, hope the 3rd little guy can rally!
 
One fat & happy little guy left. The last 2 took a few days to die, they seemed to loose neutral buoyancy- they'd float until they saw me coming, turn red and dive, but then struggle to stay down.

The one who is left has been growing steadily, hunting, and just being a little tiny cuttlefish. How long until I can be sure that he might actually make it so I can give him a name?

I will not be put off by failure of the others to survive! Another attempt will be made!
 

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