Cuttle and squid egg ID needed

Perky

Cuttlefish
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Apr 15, 2008
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28
Hi All,

Some lovely cephalopod eggs have come into my possession via a local fisherman.We originally just wanted Sepia officinalis which we have but he's also given us the eggs in the photos. The small round ones look like another type of cuttlefish. They are around about the same size as the s.officinalis I was thinking due to the location (english channel/south coast) that they were found maybe they were S.orbignyana but I'm not sure if the egg is the right colour or size.

As for the longer eggs, my first thoughts are myopsid squid. The question though is which one. Any suggestions?

Any questions please let me know. I will be rearing these if they are fertile (I have big tanks at my disposal) so eventually I'll figure out what they are, but I'm like a kid at christmas I want to know what's inside the presents!:smile:
 

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It looks like the cuttlefish eggs may not be viable. If the eggs get too hot, they "cook" and turn opaque white. I can't tell if the same thing happened to the squid eggs. On the second squid photo, I think I see eyes (red dots). Good luck on the ID, and trying to raise squid... What kind of food are you going to offer the hatchlings?
 
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Thanks cuttle girl. The squid eggs are viable I checked this morning hundreds of little eyes staring back at me. I think your right about the cuttle eggs though.

We're going to try artemia larvae (i.e just hatched from the cysts). Was thinking about putting them in a race track tank so that there is plenty of circulation as I always find with other hatchlings( seahorses etc) they don't do too well with just an airline and no circulation.

Will take more photos as they progess. You can already see the little guys forming:biggrin2:
 
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I know what you mean. I was just going to start them on artemia larvae as I had read that unlike cuttles and octopus they come out smaller and therefore the initial prey is usually smaller. Of course they then make up for this with their fast growth rate.

I'm working on a plan to be able to get some plankton the tank is actually about 50 meters from the sea in a building so it may just be that I go out in my dry suit and do some plankton catching (we've done it before for our cuttles). Ideally I'd use a light trap but I don't have one at my disposal. I think this in the end will be the easiest option as these bad boys are going to eat more than I can hatch anyway of anything.
 
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Kerry, we had some Sepioteuthiseggs (were you still here then???? can't remember) anyway when the few babies (very few :roll:) hatched they didn't seem to see artemia, but they did see and attack mysid and euphausiids. My feeling is that newly hatched artemia nauplii are just too small.

J
 
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Are your tanks fed by sea water? If so, you could just stick a small plankton net over an out-take pipe. Otherwise, good luck collecting. Maybe you could use a waterproof flashlight to help attract some of the plankton.
 
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Jean I actually found that in a thread the other day it seems so long ago... I will be doing everything in my power to try and keep them alive for as long as possible which probably means many sleepless nights for me. Unfortunatly I don't have access to a light trap unlike yourselves which unless I build one is going to make things a bit difficult. Although our tanks are fed by sea water they go into an underground resevoir that's under our main arcade are (the benefits of working in the worlds oldest aquarium:mad:) which means we don't get so much plankton in our system.

All I can say where there is a will there is a way. Have started designing and will construct their tank in the next couple of days.
 
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Unfortunaty no, I wish, although I'm sure we have a lot of other things that live down those drains (victorian plumbing so who knows) still think I'm going to have to resort to jumping in the drink
 
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My boss convinced our maintence man that I was jumping in the resevoir at one point ( to fix one way valve) to identify a giant cephalopod that he'd seen there last time he was down there. If only :wink:

Have started building my baby squid tank, have to do some plumbing on it tomorrow. Very excited!!!!!!
 
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Yep it is elliptical so that I can get my return doing directional flow. I have four returns two either side of a central wall which should in theory cause the water to go round and round. Have just siliconed the wall and curves in place. Will post pics once I've completed.
 
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Ok so have been a bit slack posting pictures etc. Both the squid eggs and the white eggs have hatched. The squid were still not sure which myopsid species but as per usual with squid not having so much luck keeping them alive.

The other little white eggs from what I can tell appear to be sepiola atlantica which is quite exciting. The first of these hatched on thursday and they are absolutely adorable. Once I download my pictures onto my computer I'll post them up.
 
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