just ordered 5 eggs, need a little info.

[lilalancarey]

Hey ive been around the forums reading and reading and reading for quite some time now and still not sure on a few things.

-do i need a protein skimmer?
- how much flow do i need/gallon?
i plan on keeping a species only tank,no corals nothing (maybe some polyps but idk)
-the only food i need up to 3 months are live mysids/frozen, copepods, and amphipods?
which food is 100% necessary for them will baby brine work? live brine from LFS? frozen baby brine?
im talking about not whats "Reccommended", what is necessary to keep them alive til they grow to adults and i can feed them fiddler crabs and ghost shrimp and all that easier cheaper stuff lol.

and any other additional information that i definitely need to know will be greatly appreciated, i want to do this onec, and i want to do this right, hoping to get them to breed so i can help out people in NY looking for cuttles as well.

 

[MAKOOKAM]

You will need a skimmer eventually...and it would be a good idea to have one to start with just to keep the H2O quality up there. I'm assuming you have an already established tank with liverock or other advanced biological media. Flow on the eggs should be low/medium (not tumbling). Live mysis/mysid shrimp are necessary. You might be able to get them on amphipods right away, but they are much harder for the hatchlings to take on due to their speed and maneuverability. Copepods (tigger pods and the like) are good to start but they will quickly outgrow them. Never use brine for anything but an emergency. They are garbage and empty calories. I know live mysis are extremely expensive, but thats what it takes to do it right in my opinion. The least expensive by far that I know of are from www.aquaculturestore.com/. 20 bucks for 100 each. They usually are on the door step within 3 days and shipping is included in the price.

If you havent read these articles you really should.
Step by step instructions - Welcome to Daisy Hill Cuttle Farm! and http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-10/feature/index.php

 

[lilalancarey]

okay thanks a lot, im going to put the in an in tank refugium for when they are babies and by the time there adults ill either move my protein skimmer to my 30g tank, or move my fish currently inhabiting my 46g tank to my 30g so the cuttles that made it (hopefully all 5) have enough room to live for a while. i also ordered live mysids from aquaculture and amphipods and plan on starting an amphipod culture as soon as they arrive. i might also throw the mysids in a 10g and with luck theyll reproduce.

anyone have any luck culturing mysids? id like to try 100 of them in a 10g and another 100 in a 5g i have so if one crashes i still have 100 left until i get a new order in (trying to save money and learn a little bit about culturing for the future) i have a copepod culture running right now have A LOT of pods crawling around, i just throw chaeoto from my sump in a bowl with kent phyto and an air stone and im good to go. im sure its different with mysids though.

and thanks a lot for the articles, ive been reading those articles for almost 6 months now, + anything new that pops up on google, im always looking for cuttle info, i want to do it once and i want to do it right. hopefully ill have an on going supply of cuttles runing around my house in the future. =] just a thought though lol. going to hope for the best.