Questions on hatching cuttlefish eggs

[ReefTeacher]

Hi everybody-

I’ve got some questions re: hatching cuttlefish eggs, and would appreciate your insights.

I’ve got a smallish lagoon aquarium in my classroom, and have had 4 cuttlefish eggs in a breeder basket for the last 3 or so weeks. In the last few days, a couple of them have shrunken in size and have lost part/most of the dark brown outer layer of the eggs. Those eggs have somewhat translucent/opaque off-white/grey coloration.

Is this an indication that the eggs are about to hatch? I’ve read on this forum that the size of the egg decreasing in size preceding hatching, but wasn’t sure what was going on with the color/shell change.

I’ve got more questions, but we’ll start with that one. Thanks for your input!

 

[GavanMCooke]

The eggs tend to swell as they develop, not shrink, at least for the Sepia species I've raised. Shrinking might be a sign they unviable. Can you see the developing embryos inside?

 

[ReefTeacher]

The eggs tend to swell as they develop, not shrink, at least for the Sepia species I've raised. Shrinking might be a sign they unviable. Can you see the developing embryos inside?

It’s been tricky. For a while were somewhat transparent for a while and I could sorta see something inside (it looked like you would expect the inside of an egg to look like). But due to wanting to be really careful and not disturb them, I have not looked really closely.

The shrinking seemed to happen over the last few days. Two of the four have lost volume. The other two seem more or less unchanged.

 

[tonmo]

Thanks for posting, @ReefTeacher -- any chance you can share a pic here?

 

[Thales]

You should be able to clearly see an embryo at this point. Sadly, it seems you may have dud eggs.

 

[ReefTeacher]

You should be able to clearly see an embryo at this point. Sadly, it seems you may have dud eggs.

I’m afraid you’re right. I had made a point of not disturbing the eggs, so it was difficult to see if there was much in the way of development.

Today, I pulled the breeder up and took a close look, and the eggs were definitely not viable.

Looks like I’ll be trying again. Does anybody have a source that is pretty reliable? I have a saltwater distributor who is pretty reputable, and that I where these eggs came from, but I can’t say that cuttlefish are necessarily a priority for them. I don’t want to keep dropping money on dud eggs.