Cuttle egg adventure

[lilalancarey]

Have 6 eggs arriving tomorrow morning from the place with random success NYaquatics. Will order Mysids on Wednesday to receive them on Friday with optimism of a hatch-ling or two by then.

This is'nt my first endeavor with cuttle eggs but i have more time and a better tank up and consistent parameters then i ever have so hopefully all will be well.

I have a 30g rimless with a few fish that will be removed if the cuttles decide to live but until then they will just be in the breeder net hoping for the best. I also understand that if i do happen to have 6 survivors a 30g would not be sufficient for them and i would either need to set up another tank or get them to a good home.

I will have Rotifers, Artemia, Mysids as well as Amphipods from my fuge for when they get bigger, available. (i also have dwarf seahorses coming so the food tasks required overlap a bit) I will have the Mysids in a 40g breeder with an air stone on one side and a sponge filter on the other with about 8 in of water. I will try and have a divider in the middle and have different sized nets to hopefully separate some of the smaller and bigger Mysids to prevent cannibalism as much as i can. We will see how that works out...

Wish me luck!

 

[DWhatley]

If you can avoid it, don't offer the cuttles brine shrimp. They will eat it but it does not supply enough nutrition and they won't eat enough of what they do need. I have not kept them but the brine shrimp affect is well established. The seahorses, however need new hatch daily. I found a hatchery that I really like when I was keeping them here. Unfortunately, the darn thing is expensive and and you need 2 (it has almost doubled in price since I bought mine more than 6 years ago). They have excellent brine eggs and mine will still hatch after 6 years in the fridge!

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Don't be too eager about a quick hatch. I order eggs from NYaquatics two weeks ago from today. Some of the eggs are now inflated, but I haven't had a single hatch yet. So I would wait until your first hatch, then order mysid, especially since baby cuttles don't eat for the first few days.
Also when I placed my order, I purchased 3 eggs but when I opened the box when they got to my house, I had 17! So be prepared to receive more than you are expecting.

 

[lilalancarey]

Yeah i just got them and there's about 10 in there which is cool, i should have ordered 3 instead of 6 and save myself 20$, probably would have gotten the same amount lol

Eggs look good, all inflated most of them are as big as i have seen them when they hatch. Kind of relieved none of them hatched during shipping so i don't have to worry about ordering food the instant i looked into the bag. I haven't had a chance to look at them through a flashlight but will when i'm done acclimating and see if i can see any development.

Very excited and optimistic about this batch, they look good even though its still early.

 

[lilalancarey]

Thanks for that info by the way DBW, 2 weeks feels like eternity waiting for cuttles to hatch o.0

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Thanks for that info by the way DBW, 2 weeks feels like eternity waiting for cuttles to hatch o.0

Oh yes, believe me it is! I'm checking the eggs like every hour! It's sounds like your eggs are a little further along then mine were when I got mine, so you probably won't have to wait as long.
Can you tell about what size the eggs are? Larger than a grape? When I got mine, they were about half the size of an average grape, now I have about 7 that are a little larger than a grape.
Also, let's see some pics!

 

[lilalancarey]

There are i think 2 really small ones, not sure if you can see any of them from the pictures.

To my eye they look less than a week away from popping out, i am no expert though but usually when they lok like this there is already one swimming around in the bag when i get them, which i am somewhat pleased that there wasnt but that is always a little reassuring that you have good eggs, who knows. Well see!

Let me know how our eggs match up, maybe post a pic of yours if you could as well so i can see when i get home later.

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Very nice! Those eggs look good and healthy. Now it's just a race to see who gets the first hatch
I do see one of the two small eggs you are talking about...I don't think you should worry quite yet because many different cuttlefish will lay in one bundle, so it may be that that egg was laid much later than the others. I have that problem now. Ten of my eggs are really small (four could fit on the surface of a quarter) while the other 7 are almost the size of a quarter. Ill post pics below...
Also, I hope that quarter isn't in the water with the cuttles because extended exposure to the metal could be fatal. When I take my pictures, I either have the quarter outside of the water (like underneath the container) OR I have a fake, plastic quarter that I stole from one of my younger brothers board game that can be used in the water with no harm.

For some reason, I'm getting "invalid file" when I try uploading the pics. Give me a minute, maybe I can figure it out.

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Hey I got a video of the one of the cuttles moving inside the egg today. I guess they don't like the light, cause he was going crazy! Haha. Sorry about the poor quality, I took the video with my iPhone...

 

[lilalancarey]

That video is great at least you know you have a live one! Any of the ones i can see in the egg i dont see move at all so idk about them, maybe theyre almost grown but not alive anymore? do you always see yours move in the egg or do they usually look like dead cuttles? lol Looking just now at 2 of them didnt leave me too optimistic about their survival or health =/

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Oh dont be worried! Today was the first time I saw any movement! As long as the cuttles are attached to their yolk, you're good. I don't think they start moving until the majority of their yolk is gone. And I think the only reason mine moved is because I pissed it off with the light lol. Ya the movement surprised me. I was just taking a peek at the progress of the eggs and one moved; it really took me by surprise so I quickly grabbed my phone and started recording.

 

[lilalancarey]

lol awesome, yeah i saw one move because i kinda poked it with a small droplet... but lol yeah.. i needed to reassure myself i was a little upset because ive had this happen before i see cuttles in eggs and a few days later its nothing pieces of what used to be a cuttle. The worst thing i had to do was open 5 cuttle eggs and all was left were 2 whole dead cuttles and 1 that had nothing in it and 2 had cuttle pieces in it =/ so i get scared. Its hard to see a lot of my eggs without moving them around a bit because of their position and what theyre attached to =/ Ill settle for just seeing one though. Ill try and get a video if i see anything cool as well.

 

[DeepBlueWonders]

Ya be careful though. I've already had one cuttle die inside the egg this batch (which I blame my curiosity and poking around too much with the eggs). Once you get the eggs where you want them, DO NOT TOUCH/MOVE THEM.

 

[lilalancarey]

Yeah that stinks to have ond die to your own curiosity, i wont touch em again, i just gave it a little poke and it moved. I dont even like putting the flashlight on them too much bc of stress.

Hopefully tomorrow brings one of us a hatchling!