Please help me identify & rear my cuttlefish eggs

[WeedySeaDragon]

My spouse recently brought home some cuttlefish eggs from the fish store. The owner of the store said he did'nt know anything about the eggs other then that some had hatched and sold so the guy brought some more in. He could'nt remember if the guy said what kind they were. He was basically no help. So now, as the main caretaker of all the fish tanks we have, I get to deal with identifying and trying to raise them. I do know a little about cuttles but I know nothing about the treatment of the eggs and how to raise the very very young.

There are a total of 5 eggs, they are brownish black and are slightly smaller than your standard size marble. 2 of the eggs look like kind of funky when we bought them so we got them for free, I expect them not to hatch. They look like they have spikes or spurs all over them. 3 of the eggs are perfectly round and smooth and it appears that you can sort of see something moving around in them. I've had them for approximately a week now in a breeder net in my 55g, placed in a pretty high flow area so they are agitated somewhat.

I know my info can't be very good, but it's the best I've got to go on until I can get a camera, and I'm concerned that they will hatch in the meantime lol. Any help is much appreciated and thanks in advance

 

[Thales]

Where do you live.

They are prolly S bandensis eggs - they have been showing up in the SF area lately.
First thing you need is a food supply. The like mysids - lots of them - more than you think. I suggest www.mysidshrimp.com.

Gotta go, more later!

 

[Andy Lister]

If they were brought in to a LFS then they are probably local.

I found that if you keep the eggs suspended then they have a better chance of hatching than if they are resting on the bottom.

I got my officinalis babes to take dead mysis after about 2 days so if you can get hold of any then thats going to be a lot easier than going down and collecting live shrimp daily!

Eggs seem to take a good few weeks to hatch and will go through phases... they swell up and then shrink down a little again and then swell to around 1inch diameter before hatching.

Good luck with the eggs, but be carefull that 55g isn't going to be too big. I found it easier to feed them if they were in a smaller tank so the feeding density could be higher.

Good luck with the eggs though!

~Andy

 

[Thales]

I got my officinalis babes to take dead mysis after about 2 days so if you can get hold of any then thats going to be a lot easier than going down and collecting live shrimp daily!

How did you do that Andy?

 

[Andy Lister]

I keep them in a bare tank with no substrate and have a massive current in there, they will find places to sit and this seems to create areas where there is no dead water so dead mysis has to keep moving until I kill the flow and siphon it out.

Feed them around 10 times a day and they'll soon start on it!

 

[tjohnson]

The eggs which are shriveled up may not be fertile.

 

[Cephkid]

So, what happened?