cuttles and clams thread

[hobogato]

unfortunately, i brought in one last clam just before getting the cuttles. it was a wild one and from vietnam, so over the next couple of months, all of my clams died. i will wait 6 months or so before introducing any new clams...

on a more positive note, the cuttles are doing great! they are now begging for food, and showing all kinds of displays. captured a bit on video last night, but before i got them eating, the camera battery died. i will try again tonight for that. what i have for you now is three terrible videos (they are only really active when the tank is dimly lit, so it is difficult for the camera to stay focused).

in this one, you can see them begging me to feed them. they actually come up to the top and stick their tentacles out of the water

here is another one of that behavior

here is the hunting display of waves of color

 

[kar93]

Very nice, I like the idea of the top down look. Good luck!

 

[hobogato]

was doing some cleaning yesterday and found a clutch of eggs. they have been mating for a couple of weeks, but i didnt think they were ready to have eggs yet. i counted at least 60 eggs and all are nicely inflated - some are smaller than others

here is a cruddy pic - actinic lights on only, so had to adjust the pic to get the detail

this is most of the eggs, they will be divided into two or three net breeders when i get some more net breeders

there is another rock that has about 8 more that will go into another net breeder

 

[Paradox]

Nice, can I ask about your water parameters?

 

[hobogato]

sure, but i havent tested anything in a long time...... remember, this tank is plumbed into my 240 gallon sps reef with a 100 gallon sump and beckett skimmer. the whole system (about 400 gallons) has been running for 2.5 years, but the rock and sand have been in one tank or another of mine for about 8 years.

is there something i should test for in particular that could be out of whack that wouldnt affect corals and fish?

[edit] i do have an aquacontroller to keep tabs on the pH (runs 8 to 8.4) and the ORP which is running 300 to 320. i also have calcium and kalk reactors running which keep alk at around 10 dKh and calcium around 450 ppm. i also run a chiller to keep the temp at 78 - 79 deg F. last time i checked (a few months ago) my ammonia and nitrite were zero with just a trace of nitrate - since changing the clam tank to house cuttles by adding lots of different types of macro algae, my ORP has actually come up a bit and i think the nitrates have probably come down even more.

 

[Paradox]

Cool, thats very similar to what I keep my parameters at. Good luck with the eggs!

 

[hobogato]

first hatchling!!!!! took the eggs out in a glass bowl of water to backlight them to make sure they are fertile - many are.....

one little cuttle must have been in the middle of the clutch

here it is

now i am in a bit of a pickle - these are about a month before i thought they would even have eggs..... gotto find some live amphipods and mysis to feed these guys soon.

 

[Thales]

Congrats! When they hatch with the yolk sac they usually don't make it. Early hatching like that is usually caused by some kind of stress - even moving the eggs can precipitate it. Good luck!!

 

[hobogato]

sad morning.

woke today to a cloudy tank and both cuttlefish are dead. not sure if the eggs are ok or not.

found redbugs in my main tank yesterday, so i took the cuttle tank off line to make sure the treatment didnt get in there. it was off of the main system for about 12 hours, but it has two powerheads in it for circulation. also did it at night so heat wasnt an issue. only thing i can think is i killed some aptasia (that is what i was doing when i noticed the redbugs) and got my pH a little out of whack for about an hour - fixed it with vinegar. everything was stable before i took the cuttle tank off line.

i changed a little more than half of the water in the cuttle tank this morning and then another 30 gallons from the main tank before getting the cuttle tank back online.

sometimes this hobby does not make me happy.

 

[monty]

sorry to hear it. It sounds like you were thinking pretty sensibly, and shouldn't beat yourself up over it...

 

[cuttlegirl]

Keep taking care of the eggs, you never know... Sorry about your adults ...

 

[hobogato]

what a rollercoaster this is gonna be....

one new hatchling - no yolksac attacked and it is swimming a bit..... hopefully it will make it.

took out some of the other eggs in a glass bowl of water to backlight them to check on them and many of them look like they are about ready to hatch. some of the babies inside even responded to the light a bit (i dont think they like it).

the plan is to keep two or three of these and trade a couple to someone else with some captive hatched ones so i will have a couple of breeding pair in the near future.

meanwhile, i will have to work on setting up a mysis hatchery and getting some live artemia going as well.

 

[Paradox]

Really sorry to hear about the adults. This hobby does have its frustrations. It always seems tragedy happens from a result of attempting to improve something in the tank.

It sounds like your eggs are doing very well. Good luck!

 

[shipposhack]

That's too bad about your adults. I am glad you were able to get some fertile eggs out of them though and I hope you can get the babies to do well.

Good luck with them.

 

[hobogato]

what a day!!!! came home with this massive T. squamosa to turn my glorified fuge back into a clam tank.

while cleaning out the old cuttle eggs in the netbreeders (put it off until now because it was so depressing), something incredible happened...... ONE baby hatched and lived in the last 3 days since the last time i sadly checked the deteriorating eggs. the only other two babies that hatched way too early and didnt make it.

so we have one surviving baby out of over 70 eggs. i am so happy bc i didnt think any of them would hatch and make it. now the quest for food begins bc i did not get any live food cultures set up yet.

here are a few pics, that is a 2 shot shot glass btw to give you an idea of how small it is