New Cuttlefish Journal

TQN

O. bimaculoides
Registered
Joined
Jun 27, 2007
Messages
69
Hello everyone,
We recently joined this site and wanted to document our experience of raising cuttles from eggs.
These are our first cuttles, although both of us have had years of saltwater/reefkeeping experience. Some of our recent/current projects include octopus, mantis shrimp, anglerfish, harlequin shrimp, and banded cat sharks. We also keep/breed many species of reptiles.

Today we received our first group of 4 cuttle eggs (thanks, Daniel!). When I unpacked them, I was disappointed to see that one had apparently deflated during shipment. Then I took a closer look and realized there was a hatchling cuttlefish cruising around! I did not expect to have a hatchling this soon. But it is super cool and seems to be doing well so far. After acclimating the cuttle and the eggs for several hours, they are now in a net breeder in our main reef tank.
We have both wanted to get cuttles for years, and we are super excited to have this chance to (hopefully) raise these little guys up to produce babies of their own.
More updates coming soon!
Kelly and TQ
 

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Hi and welcome to the site!

We're glad you're going to document your cuttles in a journal. This is interesting for the rest of us to read and we can all learn from your experiences. Your photos are good,especially the one of the little cuttle beside the egg!

What species of octopuses have you kept? Any photos to post about them?

Good luck, and looking forward to your future posts.

Nancy
 
Thanks, Nancy!
I have had several octos, but the only one I have been able to conclusively identify is the current one, an aculeatus. She is very shy, so I don't have very many good shots of her. But when I get a chance, maybe I will start a thread just for her :smile:
 
Absolutely. I do love that photo of the baby next to the egg.

What kind of anglers have you kept if you don't mind me getting a little off subject? I had an L. trisignatus that did great for almost a year and I transferred it to another tank and it died after swimming laps for a couple of hours. It was missing an eyeball and had a nasty sore on its lip when I got it and that healed up well so its death was a real bummer. The other 3 or 4 I've had didn't make it for more than a few weeks, even though they were feeding well. They are by far my favorite fish, especially A. pictus, but I haven't bought another and don't plan on it unless I can get some good solid advice on what I may have done wrong.
 
Thanks for the kind words for the picture. Our old camera bit the dust a few weeks ago, and I am still trying to figure out the new one :wink:
Cool, another angler fan! In the past I have kept A. hispidus, pictus, and striatus. I have one little guy now that I believe to be a nummifer. Anglers are very cool little beasts, for sure. So far, the one that lasted the longest was the hispidus. I had that one for over 2 years. The others have all been under a year. The newest one, I have only had for a few weeks. But it is feeding well, and doing great so far...
 
Thanks again for the eggs, Daniel! I am glad I finally had a chance to get some.

So for a quick update, babies #2 and #3 hatched last night, within minutes of each other. I was siphoning a few 'pods out of the fuge to feed to #1, and suddenly a new cuttle zoomed in from out of nowhere. A few minutes later, there were suddenly three babies cruising around the net breeder.
#1 showed no interest yet in the 'pods, but I did get inked at:razz:
I think he is still just too young to be interested in food just yet. But I have live mysis coming in the morning, so I will try those and see if they make a difference. I plan to keep offering food daily just in case, and they have some 'pods in there in case they do get hungry...
Number 4 is bouncing around in his egg, so he should be out soon as well...can't wait :smile:

Here is a short video clip (please excuse the poor quality) of a baby zooming around and changing color...I can't believe how cool they are now that I finally have some of my own...
 

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Well, here is a long-needed update to the cuttle project. Lots to catch up on. Some of this is going to be hard for me to write, but I feel it still needs to be documented as part of the process. So here goes--
The fourth and final hatchling appeared on 12/4. THe next day, I decided to move all 4 babies from the net breeder into a clear plastic breeder instead. I wanted to be able to see and observe them more clearly than the net breeder allowed. I set the plastic breeder up next to where the net breeder was, and added a little bit of fine sand and some chaeto.
A few hours later, I noticed that the newest hatchling seemed to be having trouble breathing. It died soon after that. All the other babies seemed to be doing fine, so I thought that it must have just been a weaker baby.
The remaining three seemed to be enjoying their new setup. They were playing in the sand, scooping it up with their tentacles, and jetting at the sand to make it billow up. One of them dumped sand onto its sibling, who went jetting away. So that was cool to watch, and helped cheer me up after the loss of the newest one.
The next morning I was devastated to find that the remaining 3 cuttles had died in the night. I tested the water, and all parameters were perfect. The reef tank that they are in has been running well for nearly four years. It was frustrating to loose them without even knowing what went wrong. All the other fish/inverts/ corals in that tank were fine, including a small anglerfish. My octopus, in the same room as the cuttles, was also fine. So I am not sure what would affect only the cuttles and nothing else. :cry:
So after that, I was really discouraged, not knowing if it was just a freak occurrence, or whether I had unknowingly done something wrong.
After careful consideration, I decided to try again. Luckily, Daniel still had a few eggs left. On 12/10, ten new eggs arrived (well, technically nine eggs, since one had hatched in transit). I acclimated the new ones and placed them in their new net breeders, and hoped for the best.
The next day, two more babies had hatched, bringing the total up to three. But my heart sank when the oldest of the babies started to have the same difficulty breathing as the first batch. I acclimated it to a different tank just in case it had something to do with the original tank, but it made no difference. It died later that day. Again, water tests showed all was well. Several more babies hatched, bringing it up to 6 hatchlings. But I dreaded watching the same thing happen to the rest of them.
But now, several days later, all the rest are fine. Already they look and act more lively, and are larger than the first group. So maybe those eggs were stressed during shipping in a way that the second batch were not? Who knows. But I do feel better with these new babies doing so well.
 
There are now 8 hatchlings and two eggs with visible babies inside. So now my question is, where did the extra baby come from? I received 10 eggs and lost one hatchling, so there should only be 9 remaining. Hmmm.....twins, maybe? That is the only explanation I can think of....
I moved the three oldest babies from the net breeder into the plastic breeder, and they started playing in the sand the way the first group did, picking it up and blowing it around. I offered them a couple live mysis, but so far, none of the babies seem interested. But the mysis are there, just in case...
 

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Just a couple more pics of the new batch...
these first two were taken just a second apart, and they show how instant and drastic their color changes can be. (You can see the reason for the color change in the second pic--a sibling jetting in from the left).
 

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