No lurker, glad I found you today.

Amphibious

Cuttlefish
Registered
Joined
Mar 28, 2006
Messages
21
Location
Ft. Pierce, FL
To do a complete bio would likely bore you to tears. SO, suffice it to say, I've been involved with aquariums for 59 years and strictly marine for the last 34 years. I set up my first marine aquarium in 1966 by 1972 I'd sold all my freshwater aquariums and have been strictly salt ever since. To say I'm captivated by marine critters would be an understatement. I've always been a hobbyist but have also sold them retail and wholesale, installed and maintained aquariums for bars, restaurants and private individuals. In 1992 I began an attempt at growing coral fragments. By 1994 I was having some success and as the lighting requirements became better understood my success grew.

In the mid to late 1970's my interest in Cephalopods lept into the forefront when an Atlantic pygmy octopus layed a clutch of eggs in her aquarium. That did it for me. The eggs hatched and I had some success growing out the young. Back in those days there wasn't a clear understanding of the Nitrogen cycle and the role Nitrate played in the total picture. There wasn't a clear understanding of how to controll Nitrate either. Nitrates in the range of 50 ppm, if memory serves me correctly, did them in. However the youngsters lived and grew for 3 or 4 months. Kept various other octos over the years with varying degrees of success. In the '90s my interests changed to corals and haven't had an octo for quit some time. Never lost my love/fascination for them though.

In January 2004, my name was given to two professors at the Univ of Hawaii, Drs. Ned Ruby and Margaret McFall-Ngai, head professors in the Dept. of Medical Microbiology and Immunology. Their research involved the pygmy bobtailed squid, Euprymna scolopus and it's symbiotic relationship with the luminous bacterium, Vibrio fischeri. The professors worked as a team and had accepted positions at the Univ of WI, Madison, where I lived at the time.

You can imagine my surprise when they told me they bred the squid in captivity regularly and their research was conducted on the young before they picked up the luminus bacteria.

I was fascinated with the prospect of accomplishing this project for the professors and accepted the challange. If you are interested in reading my blurb of the events here's a link to it on my website - Squid System.

Today, I reside in FL, retired from 40 years of pipefitting, (yes, in addition to the aquarium business). I'm setting up a coral fragging business with related sales in live rock, live sand, clams and who knows maybe cephalopods. The professors want me to try growing out some bobtailed squid because my system produces more eggs than they can use and the eggs ship very well.

If you've read this far, you've had enough of me for one night. Very happy to have stumbled into you guys. Looking forward to learning from the experts and contributing where I can.

Dick
 
:welcome: sounds like you've got a lot of valuable experience to share!
 
WOW!!! Never have I been greeted with such enthusiasm. Thank you! :cool2:

bobwonderbuns, monty, My experience is limited to hobbyist level with a bit of intense research. I believe we are obligated to do diligent research on the critters we are about to keep so as to provide more than adequate housing. We take them from an ocean world, even captive bred are pre-programed for a world size view of things, and contain them in watery closets. I'm happy I found this forum to direct me to updated information and sources.

CapnNemo, cthulhu77, erich orser, cuttlegirl, tonmo, Thank you all, looking forward to getting to know you.

bigGdelta,
I wonder, is there much difference between keeping the bottom living squid and the cuttles?
Well, that's going to be an interesting comparison. I know little about cuttles and their habits/needs/requirements. E. socolofi, the Bobtailed squid is pretty kewl but boring. It buries in the sand/gravel all day, comes out at night and searchs for food (shrimp) and buries itself at dawn. One interesting habit at dawn is they expel 90% of the luminous bacteria, V. fischeri they carried from the day before. The reason is, since they breed year around there are hatchlings daily and this insures there is abundant populations of V. fischeri in the surrounding waters for the youngsters to pickup.

i need cuttle,
cant wait to see what you do with the bobtails
Me too, because there is a small but growing demand for them for research purposes. Right now all are collected in Hawaii by the reseachers themselves as they need to replenish their stock. In the lab the girls are put through a pretty laborous ritual of breeding and laying with little rest. They keep a minimum breeding population of 16 females and 4 males but have had as many 75 squid at one time. (lucky males) The stress level leads to early aging and death for the girls. More recently, the lab staff has reduced the numbers and frequency of mating because they were producing more eggs/hatchlings than needed, by hundreds. The last time I visited the lab, July '05, I counted egg clutchs and estimated the average number of eggs per clutch and came up with 2,800 possible hatchlings. Pretty impressive.

We were out-producing the system the Profs had in Hawaii with circulating fresh sea water continously. They were extatic with the system I designed and began doing this, :notworth: , when ever I was around. Not literally you understand but, they would call me to the lab for a meeting with their staff and students from time to time and introduce me as the "squid system guru". It was a very humbling experience coming from the leading researches of their field in the world. Both Ned and Margaret are considered in the highest esteem and travel extensively speaking at universities and conventions world wide.

DHyslop
How long did you live in Madison?
I was born and raised in Madison until our move to FL in Sept '05, so about 68 years. Miss the old gang back home but, this was a good move for us. We designed our home, searched the area for two years trying to find a lot bigger than a postage stamp and wound up with 5 1/2 acres in the country, close to everything, for a great price, just before prices went skyward two years ago. We love it here. Our house has survived three hurricanes, one with me in it. What an experience!

Okay, I think that covers everyone. Thanks again, for the great welcome.
 
:welcome: Dick, nice to have you around!
As you might have guessed from my pseudo, I really like this species!
So how was your success in culturing the v. small babies?

eups
 

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