Anyone here try raising their own food for their ceph?

[schmunkel98]

I am about to take the cuttlefish plunge, and I was hoping to offer them live food on a fairly constant basis. I will primarily feed them ghost shrimp at first, then fiddler crabs and maybe even crawfish. Has anyone had any success at raising any of these critters on their own for ceph food? If so, has it been an expensive, royal pain, or what? Please let me know if you have and if so, what your setup is and what it cost.

Thanks,

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

[jacksonpt]

I'm in exactly the same boat as you. I'm buying my first cuttle later this week, and was looking at rasing live food as well. Hope to see some responses soon.

[schmunkel98]

Actually, I've heard that freshwater Mollies would be a good choice since they spawn frequently and aren't hard to care for. I'm not sure how long it takes for one of the mollies to reach near adult size though. Let me know if you find out something.

Mike

www.schmunkel.0catch.com

[cephalopoder]

One thing to remeber is unless you are rearing cuttles from eggs you don't need really small food. Woods Hole uses newly hatched killifish for their hatchlings with great luck. You can order them from gulf coast minnow. The cutles you will get Mike will be bigger than hatchlings, you will just need to feed them same items you feed octos.
Bulk crayfish are a good choice, ghost shrimp, even crickets have been used for cuttles in desperate times. Living in texas you should have plenty of food choices. There are a few large fresh water shrimp breeders in texas as well.
chris

[jimichonga]

cephalopoder,
Do you happen to know any of the names of the shrimp breeders here in Texas? I'm still looking for a bulk live food supplier, and crayfish are out of season.
Any info would be great.
Jimmy

[jacksonpt]

I've heard that feeding fresh water fish (i.e. guppies, mollies, feeder gold fish) to saltwater predators is a bad idea. I've heard that saltwater fish, lions especially, will develop fat deposits that will eventually kill them.

Any truth to this?

[jimichonga]

I belive FW crustaceans(shrimp, crawfish, and crabs) are not the same as FW fish. They basically are the same as SW crustaceans. If you read some of the back posts you will see that no one recommends feeding octos FW fish (feeder goldfish), and in that you are correct that FW FISH are unhealthy. Some times they are feed in a pinch though.

[cephalopoder]

I don't know where the info is right now. I did a massive search a few months ago. If I find it I will post it to you. I would just do what I did.
Do a search on fresh water prawns. The guy I talked to was a breeder. Here are a few links. That might help you.
http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/discuss/shrimp.htm

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/magnasco_toonen.html

http://www.aquaculturestore.com/products.html

www.jehmco.com