My cuttlefish just laid eggs!!

MrThate · 01/09/2010, 11:31 AM

So me and my roommate are both posting on tonmo about this, but tonmo is pretty...dead. so im just gonna copy and paste what we wrote to save time: Some questions.

Jason: Ok i need any and all info on what i need for the baby cuttles. My cuttlefish just layed her eggs sometime between 2 A.M. 8 Jan 2010 and 12 P.M. I first need to find out how long it takes for them to hatch, what the likely hood of their survival is, a good food for them to be feed, what i need to do to keep them safe in the tank, and the growth rate for a dwarf cuttlefish is. pretty much any info you can give me will be greatly appreciated! thank you in advance

P.S. if you need any info about my tank just let me know and i will be more than happy to tell you.

Mason (me): so pertaining to the same cuttlefish i had some questions myself. How long can they hold on to sperm sacks? we've had her exactly a month and 7 days today and we found the eggs yesterday morning.. We're looking into buying all the supplies we need, and finding a place for our carnivorous fish (i.e. lionfish) to stay until we can find a good leeway for our baby cuttles. But we want to know if there's actually a chance or possibility they'll hatch before we go into spending all of that money (that we dont have, thanks Navy!). We cant look inside them to see if there are any embryos because Zoidberg filled them with ink, and maybe it's just my human mind arguing with a cephalopods instinctive nature, but i dont think that she would take all of this care of these eggs...if there was nothing inside them, she even burrows under them to sleep. I've found no consistency on any of these things online, so its possible that no one knows for sure.. After our wunderpus died, we cant go through losing zoidberg too, these eggs are a big deal to us haha.

any questions just ask, and any and all help would be greatly appreciated

MrThate · 01/09/2010, 04:27 PM

Also, I'll get pictures up when i get home from work, I'd put some up now, but my phone fell into a bucket of saltwater my roommate'd just made last night so i had to buy a new one

kingfisher62 · 01/09/2010, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrThate

Also, I'll get pictures up when i get home from work, I'd put some up now, but my phone fell into a bucket of saltwater my roommate'd just made last night so i had to buy a new one

Let me guess. You had the phone in your shirt pocket and when you bent down it fell in!

kingfisher62 · 01/09/2010, 07:25 PM

Can't wait to see the pics!

Koshmar · 01/09/2010, 11:14 PM

Your biggest problem will be food. The best thing for hatchlings is mysid shrimp (live). Lots of em. It took about two days for my newborn to go through fifty of them. They eat like crazy and if more than one egg hatches your going to need hundreds of live mysid shrimp. I was only able to acquire mine online. If it is a S. bandensis, it won't grow very large quickly but that doesn't mean they have a small appetite. The first couple of days after they have depleted their yoke sac they will have a difficult time trying to catch live food. They seem to go through a learning curve and gain accuracy with experience. Don't be alarmed if they haven't caught anything for a few days. They will eventually learn to catch the shrimp. Most people keep newborns in those breeder fish nets but I kept mine in a plastic breeder container with good results. I'm not sure the survival rate or hatching success since I bought my cuttle the day after it was born. One thing I learned the hard way is to not move the egg clutch to another tank, they seem to be sensitive to environmental changes because I bought an egg clutch and none hatched even though another similar clutch hatched (from the same parent) at the lfs with 100% success. I'm sorry to say that the mother will most likely die soon if she is similar to most cephalopods but I could be wrong on that. Thales can give you really good advice and should be able to correct/add to my reply. Good luck!

Thales · 01/10/2010, 08:17 AM

It is common for some of the eggs to be duds - even the wild caught ones.
S. bandensis doesn't die after laying eggs. They can start laying as early as 5 or 6 months and can continue for about 4 or 5 months. They tend to stop and live for several more months before the end of their lives.

Koshmar · 01/10/2010, 09:58 PM

Well, there ya go. We just don't know if it is a S. bandensis yet or not.

Jmar101786 · 02/21/2010, 11:29 AM

i've been trying for the longest time to find an LFS that has cuttlefish. I live in south florida, has anyone seen them or even a place online that is willing to ship them to me. i understand that they are extremely fragile and more than likely don't survive the shipping. thats why i am looking for an LFS that carries them, but i'm not ruling any option out just yet.

Bob 1000 · 03/11/2010, 07:44 PM

What happened to the pics???

Fieroguy19 · 03/13/2010, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jmar101786

i've been trying for the longest time to find an LFS that has cuttlefish. I live in south florida, has anyone seen them or even a place online that is willing to ship them to me. i understand that they are extremely fragile and more than likely don't survive the shipping. thats why i am looking for an LFS that carries them, but i'm not ruling any option out just yet.

The eggs will ship alot better and are probably easier to find. I bought eggs around this time last year. The hard part is having the right food for the newborns.

Bob 1000 · 03/13/2010, 04:52 PM

Where are you guys getting eggs from??

cmac23 · 03/20/2010, 07:05 PM

cant wait to see pics. byw im in the navy and i get paid good, but i have been in 9 years, im guessing since yall live together yall havent been in long. looking forward to updates

OUCaptain · 03/21/2010, 10:51 PM

I just wanted to say "Cool Name!!!!"

<----- Mason as well

Carry on

01/09/2010, 11:31 AM	#1
MrThate Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Stationed in Bremerton, Washington Posts: 4	My cuttlefish just laid eggs!! So me and my roommate are both posting on tonmo about this, but tonmo is pretty...dead. so im just gonna copy and paste what we wrote to save time: Some questions. Jason: Ok i need any and all info on what i need for the baby cuttles. My cuttlefish just layed her eggs sometime between 2 A.M. 8 Jan 2010 and 12 P.M. I first need to find out how long it takes for them to hatch, what the likely hood of their survival is, a good food for them to be feed, what i need to do to keep them safe in the tank, and the growth rate for a dwarf cuttlefish is. pretty much any info you can give me will be greatly appreciated! thank you in advance P.S. if you need any info about my tank just let me know and i will be more than happy to tell you. Mason (me): so pertaining to the same cuttlefish i had some questions myself. How long can they hold on to sperm sacks? we've had her exactly a month and 7 days today and we found the eggs yesterday morning.. We're looking into buying all the supplies we need, and finding a place for our carnivorous fish (i.e. lionfish) to stay until we can find a good leeway for our baby cuttles. But we want to know if there's actually a chance or possibility they'll hatch before we go into spending all of that money (that we dont have, thanks Navy!). We cant look inside them to see if there are any embryos because Zoidberg filled them with ink, and maybe it's just my human mind arguing with a cephalopods instinctive nature, but i dont think that she would take all of this care of these eggs...if there was nothing inside them, she even burrows under them to sleep. I've found no consistency on any of these things online, so its possible that no one knows for sure.. After our wunderpus died, we cant go through losing zoidberg too, these eggs are a big deal to us haha. any questions just ask, and any and all help would be greatly appreciated

01/09/2010, 07:25 PM	#4
kingfisher62 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: massachusetts Posts: 4,972	Can't wait to see the pics! __________________ 55g Tank - 216W T5's Foxface, tomato clown, yellow tailed damsel, Starrie Blennie, LPS and softies 29G Biocube- 120W LED's 2 percular clown, Six line Wrasse , LPS and softies Current Tank Info: 55 gl. Reef tank ,29g biocube Reef

01/10/2010, 08:17 AM	#6
Thales Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: bay area Posts: 3,808	It is common for some of the eggs to be duds - even the wild caught ones. S. bandensis doesn't die after laying eggs. They can start laying as early as 5 or 6 months and can continue for about 4 or 5 months. They tend to stop and live for several more months before the end of their lives. __________________ The reefer formally known as Lefty Ink is the way; the way is ink. Current Tank Info: 150 mixed reef with a 180 remote sump • 250 gallon fish breeding system • 200 gallon cephalopod breeding system • 212,000 gallon reef tank at work

03/11/2010, 07:44 PM	#9
Bob 1000 is Join Date: May 2009 Location: Staten Island Posts: 148	What happened to the pics??? __________________ Got salt???? Current Tank Info: 300 piano, 125 sump/refugium, LE SPs, natureef denitrifier

03/13/2010, 04:52 PM	#11
Bob 1000 is Join Date: May 2009 Location: Staten Island Posts: 148	Where are you guys getting eggs from?? __________________ Got salt???? Current Tank Info: 300 piano, 125 sump/refugium, LE SPs, natureef denitrifier

01/09/2010, 04:27 PM	#2
MrThate Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Stationed in Bremerton, Washington Posts: 4	Also, I'll get pictures up when i get home from work, I'd put some up now, but my phone fell into a bucket of saltwater my roommate'd just made last night so i had to buy a new one

01/09/2010, 11:14 PM	#5
Koshmar The Hardy Mongolian Pony Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Dallas, Texas Posts: 1,372	Your biggest problem will be food. The best thing for hatchlings is mysid shrimp (live). Lots of em. It took about two days for my newborn to go through fifty of them. They eat like crazy and if more than one egg hatches your going to need hundreds of live mysid shrimp. I was only able to acquire mine online. If it is a S. bandensis, it won't grow very large quickly but that doesn't mean they have a small appetite. The first couple of days after they have depleted their yoke sac they will have a difficult time trying to catch live food. They seem to go through a learning curve and gain accuracy with experience. Don't be alarmed if they haven't caught anything for a few days. They will eventually learn to catch the shrimp. Most people keep newborns in those breeder fish nets but I kept mine in a plastic breeder container with good results. I'm not sure the survival rate or hatching success since I bought my cuttle the day after it was born. One thing I learned the hard way is to not move the egg clutch to another tank, they seem to be sensitive to environmental changes because I bought an egg clutch and none hatched even though another similar clutch hatched (from the same parent) at the lfs with 100% success. I'm sorry to say that the mother will most likely die soon if she is similar to most cephalopods but I could be wrong on that. Thales can give you really good advice and should be able to correct/add to my reply. Good luck!

01/10/2010, 09:58 PM	#7
Koshmar The Hardy Mongolian Pony Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Dallas, Texas Posts: 1,372	Well, there ya go. We just don't know if it is a S. bandensis yet or not.

02/21/2010, 11:29 AM	#8
Jmar101786 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 90	i've been trying for the longest time to find an LFS that has cuttlefish. I live in south florida, has anyone seen them or even a place online that is willing to ship them to me. i understand that they are extremely fragile and more than likely don't survive the shipping. thats why i am looking for an LFS that carries them, but i'm not ruling any option out just yet.

03/20/2010, 07:05 PM	#12
cmac23 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Virginia Beach, VA Posts: 425	cant wait to see pics. byw im in the navy and i get paid good, but i have been in 9 years, im guessing since yall live together yall havent been in long. looking forward to updates __________________ “Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant?? I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize, Oh my God....I could be eating a slow learner.” “Even a fish could stay out of trouble if it would just learn to keep its mouth shut.” Current Tank Info: 29g biocube hqi

03/21/2010, 10:51 PM	#13
OUCaptain Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 21	I just wanted to say "Cool Name!!!!" <----- Mason as well Carry on __________________ Sadly, I don't own any fish tanks. My fish on the other hand, own a nice people house.