[Featured]: Metasepia Hatchling Journal

[Bongo Shrimp]

Hi Everyone,

I have been an hobbyist for 15 years and have worked with dwarf cuttlefish and pajama squid during part of my time as a professional aquarist in the public aquarium industry. After many years hoping for the opportunity, I recently was able to acquire some flamboyant cuttlefish eggs to try to raise at home.

I started with a ton of research and prep in every aspect of their care, specifically setting up live food holding and a nursery tank. They were shipped to me in eggs, 25 total, but due to a flight being pushed, they hatched on the way to the US from Thailand. This resulted in heavy losses and only 12 made it initially. As of this posting I have had them for a little over two weeks and now have 6 left.

They are in a heavily filtered, 25g tank, but in an isolation box within the tank since they are so tiny. There is a pump that supplies water from the top of the box for a little bit of flow.

I have been feeding them live mysids enriched with daily hatched artemia naups and they were mostly eating well for the past week, but recently I’m concerned they haven’t been eating as much. I think it’s possible this is due to me adding too much food at one time, which I now know can cause them to lose interest, but I have also seen them striking at food but not catching it, which is perplexing.

A few have been growing, but others have become buoyant, probably from not eating enough. I’ve talked a bit with Rich Ross, Bret Grasse, and Greg Barord, who I know are members here too, but if anyone has any ideas definitely post them here. I’m giving this everything I’ve got, it really is proving to be the ultimate challenge and I love it!

I’m not sure how this will end, but I figured I’d document the journey for others and myself in the future.

 

[tonmo]

amazing! I've moved this to the Exotics and Rare Species forum (with a permanent redirect), per prior guidance from @Thales et. al. for this species. I've also [Featured] it. Looking forward to this Journal!

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

amazing! I've moved this to the Exotics and Rare Species forum (with a permanent redirect), per prior guidance from @Thales et. al. for this species. I've also [Featured] it. Looking forward to this Journal!

Oh man sorry for putting it in the wrong forum! I went back and forth and couldn’t decide since it was a journal but for an exotic species.

And thank you! I hope it can continue for quite a while. I’m definitely a bit nervous since the more buoyant little ones seem to continue to struggle. I have since moved the most buoyant to a super shallow box within the isolation box to help them feel more comfortable and closer to prey items. They still seem weak though.

 

[tonmo]

Oh man sorry for putting it in the wrong forum! I went back and forth and couldn’t decide since it was a journal but for an exotic species.

No apologies necessary! In the future I'll be rationalizing site navigation, etc. It's hard to know where to go / what to do with our current configuration. It's on a to-do list!

And thank you! I hope it can continue for quite a while. I’m definitely a bit nervous since the more buoyant little ones seem to continue to struggle. I have since moved the most buoyant to a super shallow box within the isolation box to help them feel more comfortable and closer to prey items. They still seem weak though.

it's a daunting task, I am sure! Here's another fairly recent thread, from @Jimmert, who is also giving this a go:

Has anyone tried feeding amphipod babies to flamboyant cuttlefish babies?

I was curious as I was hoping to cultivate flamboyants and am ready with live mysid when the time comes as there is a local place that sells them but was curious when the time comes would they eat amphipods and would they have enough nutritional value?

tonmo.com

 

[pkilian]

If you've already chatted with Brett and Rich then you are doing everything you can. The babies can be fussy but you have a really nice setup! You could try a finer grain sand which would make traversal of the bottom easier for them but might be difficult to swap the sand at this point. Food transitions off the mysids can be difficult too so I would focus on finding the right size shrimp for your animals before they get too big for mysids, if you haven't already. Good luck! They look beautiful

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

If you've already chatted with Brett and Rich then you are doing everything you can. The babies can be fussy but you have a really nice setup! You could try a finer grain sand which would make traversal of the bottom easier for them but might be difficult to swap the sand at this point. Food transitions off the mysids can be difficult too so I would focus on finding the right size shrimp for your animals before they get too big for mysids, if you haven't already. Good luck! They look beautiful

Thank you for the advice! I probably could still swap out the sand in the little boxes. I ended up removing the rocks that were in there cause I felt like they were making it harder for the cuttles to see their prey if it was on the other side of the rocks. If I did change the substrate or for future attempts, I might also go with black sand to help maybe make the prey stand out more.

Yesterday I was finally able to witness one of the larger ones catch some prey and today I saw the larger ones trying, but missing, and a slightly buoyant one did catch a mysid. One of the super buoyant ones was gone by this evening and the other two are struggling still. It seems when they get to that point it’s really really hard to get them back. Just trying to note all the details.

As far as transitioning to larger foods, my first experiment is with Hawaiian volcano shrimp. They are way WAY too fast, but if their tails are damaged the larger cuttles can and do catch the smaller ones. Mine are still slightly too small to reliably eat the volcano shrimp, but I’m hopeful that the shrimp will be useful.

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

A little update, things are going well overall. I had to go out of town for a week, but my best friend expert fish sitter came twice a day, everyday and fed the little ones. The smaller one became slightly buoyant and wasn’t eating at all by the time I got back.

However, the two bigger ones only have grown stronger and bigger! They are both about 0.75”-1” long and will eat 8+ mysids in a sitting. Only the very strongest and fastest mysids can escape their grasp. I’m probably going to try to switch them over to grass shrimp soon. The volcano shrimp still seem too fast or strong and scare the babies a bit. They’ll eat one now and then, but very cautiously or not at all and only if the shrimp are slightly disabled and can’t dart away.

I’ve been making sure to feed them before I go to work and before bed, but I try to also do a feed when I get home from work to spread out the feeds. It’s very early before I head to work so their light isn’t on. I’ve found, however, that I can slowly bring my flashlight towards their tank without startling them and they quickly wake up, eat, and go back to sleep when I leave. Optimal? No. But it seems to work.

It’s very clear that these guys eat way more than bandensis babies and feeding them multiple times a day is key and absolutely required.

A couple screenshots from videos of them eating:

 

[tonmo]

Hi @Bongo Shrimp - checking in; how's the tank, and how are your flamboyants doing? Everything looking great in the last update!

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Hi @Bongo Shrimp - checking in; how's the tank, and how are your flamboyants doing? Everything looking great in the last update!

Hey I was just thinking I should post another update. The two bigger ones are the only ones left, but they seem to be doing well! I’m continuing the same feed schedule and they have been eating almost exclusively adult volcano shrimp as long as the shrimp are still disabled a bit so they can’t dart away. Those shrimp are so fast they can be hard to catch with a net! I also got some grass shrimp but they might be a bit big as the cuttles don’t seem as interested in them.

 

[tonmo]

nice! makes sense about the size of the shrimp. Can you estimate the size of the volcano shrimp? Also, how many flamboyants total at this point?

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

nice! makes sense about the size of the shrimp. Can you estimate the size of the volcano shrimp? Also, how many flamboyants total at this point?

I’d say the volcano shrimp are around ⅜ inch ish? I just tried to measure one in a net quick and dirty. They are definitely a bit smaller than adult fw cherry shrimp.

I have two total left. Definitely disappointing, but also even though Rich told me how difficult they would be, I didn’t truly get it until I had them. I think I could already do better if I started over. The biggest thing I’d do is make sure to feed them in the morning before work in addition to multiple times when I get home. I thought initially I could get away with multiple feeds after work. I was wrong.

Also, the live mysids are the worst. I was ordering wild caught and they kept dying in my care. I might try captive bred mysids next time, which are more expensive but if they live they would 100% be cheaper than the total I paid to get through the mysid phase.

 

[tonmo]

good learnings; thanks @Bongo Shrimp!

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Definitely time for an update. Around 7/8/24 I lost one of the two I had at the time. They seemed to be reacting more to each other’s presence, but I never actually ever saw any aggression. They had stopped eating right in front of me but I would find shrimp heads hours later. I suspect there was some sort of aggression that was causing one to stop eating and eventually I lost it. I should have separated them but I wasn’t fully sure what the issue was at the time.

I now have one left, but he/she is doing great! Now eating grass shrimp as soon as I put one in, even early in the morning with just a flashlight before work. Just eating and growing slowly.

 

[tonmo]

nice! A video or pic from feeding time would be great to see! But I guess one hand on the flashlight, one hand on the feeding tongs... perhaps you have a tripod

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Ok here’s a terrible phone video of a feed. I’ll work on getting something better haha