• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Lost 1 of 10 cuttles! HELP

Joined
Jan 4, 2006
Messages
318
I am hatching 10 Bandensis cuttle eggs. 5 hatched (one in the bag while bringing it home!) since Wednesday and they have been doing okay. I lost one this morning and am wondering for ideas why. :sad:

Stats:
20 gal hex with breeder net. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5 ppm. ph 8.2, salinity 1.0245 (1.024 and 1/2)

If I had any contaminants (i.e. copper) they would all just die or look sick, right?

The only thing I did change was moving the breeder net to a area of the tank with less flow. I had read that eggs should have good flow and oxygen so I put the breeder on the opposite side of the tank but in front of the exit of the filter. The cuttles seemed healthy and moved, but did not do alot of color changing or interaction with each other.

When I moved them to a side fo the tank with less flow -afterwards they all moved ALOT more and started interacting and flashing each other. I guess they were getting buffeted by too much flow for such little guys.

Any other ideas?

Do they have a relaxed color state? They were mostly white, now they are mostly patterned brown/red.

Do babies just die often?
 
I have a couple of questions. Are they eating? When they hatched did they still have the yolk sac attached? It could be that you have done nothing wrong, something could have happened in the transfer from the LFS to your house. Hope the others are ok.
 
I bought 10 eggs. I did not see any yolk sack attached to any of the ones that hatched yet.

What does that mean?

Are they in the egg too long and eating all the yolk?
 
Losing # 3 right now.

They just turn totally white and kind of lean with thier tail end upward, hanging on with thier tentacles. This guy looked dead, but when I slowly scooped him up he would SLOWLY turn colors when out of the water. No movement, just look like color was leaking in to the white. When I place him back under he would loose the color and go to white, but not swim off.
 
Illithid said:
Stats:
20 gal hex with breeder net. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5 ppm. ph 8.2, salinity 1.0245 (1.024 and 1/2)
/QUOTE]

I think this looks good as it gets. Tell me if there is anything else I can check. Temp is 78 degrees.

They looked great when they hatched-all 5 of them. I think it is something I am doing and I can't figure out what. I don't want to keep killing these little guys, it is driving me crazy.

The ones left seem fine. But so did they all. I have tiny fish I got from Cedar Key last night to feed until the mysid and pods come in and they are loving the breeder net and water.

The little guys were dying befor eI got them so I don't think it is them-they arent bothering the cuttles either.

Grasping at straws here.
 
I just checked them, cuz before I could see the little guys scooting around inside.

They are all dead. Perfectly formed little cuttles-look ready to hatch and didnt.

I figure something has to be contaminated somehow.

Gonna do a water change now, just in case.
 
Was I supposed to remove the outer skin of the eggs? I noticed in Righty's article that they looked as if they were removed and didn't know if that was SOP.
 
After many hours scouring the internet and going over and over water tests, I think I have found the problem.

I have never used copper in the tank I have them I -I know because I had a bimac in it before (15 years ago). But I think the skilter 250 that is running in it has been used with copper (probably 12 years ago). I got all new tubing and knew the tank was clean, but didnt remember to look at the filter.

Damn.

2 babies left of 10 perfect eggs. Let's see how they fair tonight. I'll see if I can get them back to the fish store tomorrow to save them. I'll put extra carbon to draw as much out as possible. I don't have anywhere else to put them -my big tank won't be in till early Feb.

Only thing I can think of that could cause the die off.
 
I'm interested to find out what the copper test says. I'm under the impression that copper levels fatal to cephalopods remain beneath the detection threshold for consumer copper tests.

I've never raised anything from eggs other than cookies, brownies and tirimisu; but I wouldn't be too worried, nothing has a 100% survival rate.

Dan
 
yes it makes me wonder, im planning on getting the same eggs illithid has, so lets home that there is no copper in my tank. although i have raised a cuttle in the tank so i would assume that since my last cuttle was fine these babies should be too.
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top