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aggressive baby food

Thales,

I also tried directly feeding the CPz to the mysid I had left after the cuttles were eating the live shrimp. Unfortunately, there was not a lot of motion in that tank and I was not as consistent as I should have been at trying to feed them so my results don't merit close inspection but unlike both pods and shrimp, I never saw any red mysis.

My net breeder is much smaller, less than half that size but I only have two cuttles (I'm waiting out a storm before leaving the office so I can't measure). Are you seeing color and texture changes yet since there is a consistent background?
 
Opcn,
I was avoiding the L word and have to admit that the F word (no, not THAT word, Forgetful) is part of the reason I am not sure if the CPz would have been a good substitute for new hatch BB's. The fact that I did not see little red bugs swimming suggested that the food may have been too large so I am glad to know you showed a positive result.
 
dwhatley;96698 said:
Thales,


My net breeder is much smaller, less than half that size but I only have two cuttles (I'm waiting out a storm before leaving the office so I can't measure). Are you seeing color and texture changes yet since there is a consistent background?

The net breeders I used were small too. :biggrin2:
I was seeing color changes in the first week, but the texture changes seem to start later. I just got home and my current babies are about an inch now - massive! - and they are doing all the things adults do color and texture wise.
 
Thales,
Mine are about a week behind yours (also purchased from Seacrop) but with the LR I have been seeing color and texture after the first week (well maybe two weeks to see a lot of difference:tongue:). I have been trying to determine how their size compares with the "sizing" chart you put up and if yours are about an inch including arms, mine have caught up! I do notice that they look way bigger after they eat and then slim back a bit in an hour or so. I keep trying to come up with something to put in the tank to use as a growth chart. Knowing the thickness of the plexiglass was only a little helpful but I keep looking for something that will show up better in photos.

I still haven't seen them actually catch a shrimp (just part of the shrimp hanging out of the mouth) but Blinkin let me see him for about 5 minutes tonight.

It is so entertaining to see Winkin walking around on the LR. Are the two arms they walk around on specialized arms? Blinkin holds his arms entirely differently but I may be seeing a defensive posture since he has only allowed me to watch him this evening.
 
Sam,
Cyclop-eeze (to the best of my understanding) is an engineered copapod developed for feeding young fish and plankton eating inverts. It was developed to replace baby brine shrimp as a first food and is more nutritious (bbs is considered a poor food but one of the few almost everything will eat). It comes frozen and freeze dried (I only use the frozen) and is unfortunately, pretty expensive because of the shipping requirements. I am personally sold on its value for Mercatoris - both young and aging (Drs Foster and Smith has it in their frozen foods if you are interested).

I have tried (one time) using it as the only food for new born pipe fish without success. The two I currently have (two days old) I am feeding new hatch to for at least two weeks before trying the cyclop-eeze.

My feather dusters and other soft corals seem to thrive on it (I also feed my anemones black worm so it is not their only food). There does not seem to be much in my tanks that won't eat it (including snails, crabs and star/serpant star/feather stars). I have not tried it on baby seahorses.
 
Oh, thanks. Is it less expensive than mysid shrimp? And is so, is it reliable as the only food for baby cuttles at least until they are a little bigger? Lastly, good luck with you pipe fish! :smile:
 
Sam;99247 said:
Oh, thanks. Is it less expensive than mysid shrimp? And is so, is it reliable as the only food for baby cuttles at least until they are a little bigger? Lastly, good luck with you pipe fish! :smile:


Baby cuttles need live food, it is difficult to convince them to eat frozen food (although not impossible). Cyclopeeze could be used as a supplement (as in dwhatley's case), but mysids are probably the best first food for them. They will eat live amphipods, Thales has had success feeding his baby cuttles 'pods and then live marine shrimp. Thales has since switched to mysids as a first live food for cuttles. In my experience (and Thales) cuttlefish fed live food tend to live longer. The first few weeks of a cuttle's life are expensive!!!
 
I forgot that Cyclop-eeze was frozen. So mysids are still the best food for cuttle babies. Can you suggest what would be good for baby cuttles after their too big for mysids? I read something about small shore shrimp.
 
As Jennifer stressed (and as I noted with my failure with the pipes), the Cyclop-eeze is only a supplementary consideration, not a substitute for live. I add supplemental vitamins, calcium and occassional iodine to my tanks because I have seen a difference using these additions. Cyclop-eeze is another of these suppliments that I have become a believer in. It is, however, a daily food for my baby octopuses in addition to any shrimp they catch (roughly 2 a week). My cuttlefish has switched to regular hunting and consumes about 5 shrimp each day and may or may not eat the Cyclop-eeze directly at this time. IMO it is a nutritous food and the feeder shrimp in the tank consume it (evidenced by their coloration) so the cuttle has benefit whether or not it now eats it directly or only by consumption of the shrimp.

I think part of the problem with trying to use the Cyclop-eeze with the pipefish is its size (baby gulf pipefish are VERY tiny). These two are still doing well on the new hatch brine and I will continue feeding this way until they are larger, then mix the brine with the Cyclop-eeze until they can eat small frozen mysis (gulf pipes are easy to teach to eat dead/frozen foods, other pipes may not switch so easily, some cannot eat larger foods even as adults).

I am hoping Roy will officially experiment with Cyclop-eeze and compare it to new hatch brine as a first food for octopuses.
 
Hey, one more question on feeding. In the article they said that you should feed cuttles at least once a day, but I have read posts on people feeding their cuttles 5 shrimp a day etc... So how much should I really feed them? Do I just feed them as much as they can eat?
 
When they are babies, I feed them two or three times a day. When they are very small they will eat one mysid a feeding. When they hit a week or two they will start taking multiple mysids at each feeding. When they move to bigger food I drop down to twice a day, and at 3 or 4 months to once a day - though they will eat more.
 

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