ok, so I Have been toying around with the idea of keeping dwarf cuttlefish in my aquarium. It is an sps dominant 210g tank (obv would need to re-home all of the fish). I have a few questions on keeping them and have been having trouble finding answers with my research. I've kept saltwater for 10 years and keeping stable parameters aren't an issue for me. My question is on the feeding of mysids. How does everyone store the live mysids over an extended period of time? Is it at all possible to culture live mysids to sustain the cuttles during the rearing period? I live in Ohio so I have not found any areas to find live mysid cultures and would need to order them. If I can't culture mysids then how many would I need to order to keep say 10-12 cuttles alive at a time? what does everyone do with their extra eggs?
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Thinking of cuttles as my next step in salt
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@cuttlegirl @Thales
I have tagged two other the staff members to help as I have only kept s. bandensis a couple of times and only once starting from eggs. In my experience, I found that I had to order live mysis about every week because I could not keep them alive long. I had much better luck keeping them alive after I used a round aquarium (biorb) with no filtration, only an air wand (tubing placed around the circular base of the tank) to gently move the water and feeding frozen daphnia twice a day but by this time the cuttles were ready for larger food. At 3 weeks they were eating small Hawaiian red shrimp (ōpae) that I happened to have available. Here is my journal but please review other journals for variations on feeding.
I have tagged two other the staff members to help as I have only kept s. bandensis a couple of times and only once starting from eggs. In my experience, I found that I had to order live mysis about every week because I could not keep them alive long. I had much better luck keeping them alive after I used a round aquarium (biorb) with no filtration, only an air wand (tubing placed around the circular base of the tank) to gently move the water and feeding frozen daphnia twice a day but by this time the cuttles were ready for larger food. At 3 weeks they were eating small Hawaiian red shrimp (ōpae) that I happened to have available. Here is my journal but please review other journals for variations on feeding.
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Sadly, after a lot of searching, I have to agree that finding successful setups (here or else where) does not produce a lot of positive results. I had a miserable time keeping them alive until I tried my biorb setup. A lot of people (seahorse and cuttles) feed them brine but I found a huge difference in success with the daphnia (it's cheap, comes frozen, easy to feed and likely better for gut loading). I don't know how important the round tank is, I do believe that not changing the water (I forgot to mention that I DID incorporate live rock in the tank and is likely an important omission). I did not include lighting but if added, you can also include ulva and or cheato. The cheato would help in collection as you might be able to lift out a quantity and place it in the breeder net vs using a net to collect them. I believe the VERY gentle movement provided by the circular air wand was part of the success.
Raising enough mysis yourself is not viable in a home environment. We have had numerous people to try with mixed success at obtaining an ongoing culture but no one could raise enough to feed their cuttles.
Most keepers have kept all their hatched eggs even when they had not prepared for the successful numbers. You can offer the extras on TONMO but shipping is expensive and difficult (but can be done) and finding a buyer is often a matter of timing. With the size of your tank, you should be able to accommodate whatever you hatch.
Raising enough mysis yourself is not viable in a home environment. We have had numerous people to try with mixed success at obtaining an ongoing culture but no one could raise enough to feed their cuttles.
Most keepers have kept all their hatched eggs even when they had not prepared for the successful numbers. You can offer the extras on TONMO but shipping is expensive and difficult (but can be done) and finding a buyer is often a matter of timing. With the size of your tank, you should be able to accommodate whatever you hatch.
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I don't seem to be getting tags, so sorry about the late reply... (also I've been away so just now checking). I just bit the bullet and ordered mysids every week, sometimes less because a shipment would be DOA. Its a couple of painfully expensive weeks but gets better after that. I kind of wish I had a tank set up so I could take your extras but I don't currently have anything aquatic right now.
Do you have a sump? Maybe you could try stocking the sump with mysids now.
Do you have a sump? Maybe you could try stocking the sump with mysids now.
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I kept mine in shallow water in a large cooler (large surface area for gas exchange) with a bubbler. Didn't try feeding daphnia, but that would probably help.
I would start now stocking the sump, but be prepared to ship mysids every few days if you have 10 babies. They are voracious eaters.
I would start now stocking the sump, but be prepared to ship mysids every few days if you have 10 babies. They are voracious eaters.
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In hopes that you won't have to keep shipping mysids that die within a week...
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How did this work for you? I think I want to do this. How did you deal with algae in the reef without your algae eaters?
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