NEWBY - HELP PLEASE - HATCHING OF CUTTLE EGGS

[CUTTLE-ADVENTURE]

Found this clip (

) showing young hatchlings being given shrimp much larger than themselves. (Centre of Marine Sciences, Project Sepiameta, Dr. Antonio V. Sykes).

Now this begs the question, in the video the shrimps being fed are MUCH larger (double the length) than the cuttlefish. The shore shrimp I currently have as food for my hatchlings are only slightly longer than the cuttles, but they aren't eating them....?

 

[tonmo]

huh, good find. quite a meal for that guy....

How are the cuttles behaving? Maybe the guys in the vid were more active eaters to begin with... if these guys aren't eating, maybe they need to start real small and work their way up.

 

[DWhatley]

You might try to contact the people that posted the video and ask if and how many of the cuttles survived to adults.

 

[CUTTLE-ADVENTURE]

Thanks, I've sent a mail to Dr. Sykes, but no answer as yet. They are actually doing very interesting research on cuttles. They have three programs running : Sepiabreed, Sepiatech, Sepiameta. They've also managed to design a pellet food that the cuttlefish accept ! Will post as soon as I get any info.

 

[CUTTLE-ADVENTURE]

FEEDBACK:
Dr. Sykes has replied to my first mail, so this is basically what he had to say:

• Do not use a net breeder without a smooth solid bottom, normal netting damages the fragile skin. Preferably use a smooth dark coloured container.
• Do not use bright lights over the tank, max 100 Lux.
• Gammarids are not the best food for cuttles, use Mysids, Shore shrimp.
• Add enough food so that there is always some left over by the next feeding time.
• Do not use any foods that are more than twice the length of the cuttles.

He has not replied to my second mail yet.
In the meantime I've raised my net breeder so that the water level is much lower in the net. This has made a huge difference, and it seems that the cuttles are able to catch the shore shrimp much easier.

 

[cuttlegirl]

Look at those little guys munching away.

 

[CUTTLE-ADVENTURE]

Well, all still seems to be going well, all cuttles eating shore shrimp and are growing quite fast (size= 1- 1.5"). I cannot seem to find any local crabs of the correct size in the tidal pools, so I wanted to know if someone's tried removing hermit crabs from their shells ?

 

[DWhatley]

I have tried naked hermits (for baby octos I think) - it does not work too well since there is little meat and that is wrapped tightly into the shell, even after death. My best successes came from getting good at smashing the shells where the body meat is. The trick is to NOT smash the meat at the same time .

 

[ekocak]

I read the bit about the mesh being too rough on their skin in the net breeder and since i don't have anything to replace the bottom with, I placed some flat shells in the bottom for them to help a bit.