TONMO. Help me not be a statistic! Great luck for me, hopefully S. bandensis as well!

[fishingfozzy]

I have been on a S. bandensis kick for about a year. I have read a lot of the stuff on here, inlcuding all the stickied stuff. I manage the LFS so I have a lot of resources at my finger tips, but I also am a full time college student going for biology/ecology so it doesn't leave a whole lot to spend either... I have 3 reef tanks and all have done exceedingly well. I set up my 29 gallon 2 years ago so it is very well cycled. It has 4 kinds of healthy macro algae, 30-40lbs live rock, a prism protien skimmer, large bio-wheel filter, and a couple of power heads (still a lot of slack water, even with them). This is where I hope to keep a pair of S. bandensis. After about six months of poking around I decided that it might be fun just to keep reefing and not worry about cuttle fish. This is where the story gets interesting. Two weeks ago I saw "cuttlefish eggs ..... $8" on one of our saltwater suppliers lists and imediately ordered some. Not to anyones surprise at the store, they didnt come in... Then 3 days ago their sales rep called me and asked if we were still interested. I said yes and asked what kind they were and how many were in a bag with "eggs" being a pretty broad range for a number. She said that there would be 3-5 eggs and that she didnt know that there were even different species of cuttles . Reluctantly I ordered them, figuring they wouldnt come in anyway. Well, now that I am a new member of the forum, you would have guessed right. They did! I paid $8 total, not per egg . And not for 3-5 eggs. I have at 14+ eggs not including three deflated eggs and the two that were free swimming in the bag . Please tell me what now! I have attached some pictures of my tank, one of the babies (the other disappeared ) and the breeder net I am keeping them in. I have live adult brine shrimp. will they eat those? I put a couple in and they paid them no attention. I read in the Cuttle Army article that they can hatch premature due to stress and will likely die... do you think this is what happened? The supplier is not know for being to gentle with their fishes. My levels in my tank all seem really good, nothing detectable for NO2, NO3 or NH3. pH was fine at 8.2, but my dKH was about half what it should be - I will be getting that up as fast is as safe. Food and pre-hatch care is what I am most concerned about. I have axcess to new-born crayfish, glass shrimp, cherry shrimp, feeder guppies (all fresh water). I also have axcess to an assortment of SW feeders, but all way to big for this stage in their lives. Also yes I know the fish and shrimp in the reef tank are toast - they have already found a home a week ago, just waiting to get picked up. Pending a successful hatch I will be needing to find homes for these guys. I will probably wait till they are trained on frozen if that makes scense. IDK, I also dont want to count my cuttles before they hatch... HELP!

 

[corpusse]

The first few eggs may have just hatched first. It's hard / impossible to tell from the pics. Do they still have yolk sacs?

You have about a week until they need to eat. Adult Brine are too big and not nutritious enough. The only food suitable at this stage of their life would be live mysid shrimp. Once they get bigger the glass and the cherry shrimp are probably fine as staples. Some will say salt water feeders are needed but they are very similar to salt water feeders and you can always feed them nutritious foods before feeding them to the cuttlefish. For now you are going to need the live mysids. They'll start out eating 1 a day each, then 2,3,4 once they are eating 4 or 5 a day they are big enough to take larger food at which time it is probably safe to move over to the fresh water feeders.

 

[fishingfozzy]

UPDATE: So the two that have hatched have made it through their first 4 days in my tank. No one else is hatching yet and to my knowledge the two little guys haven't attempted eating yet. How do you know if they have yolk sacs? I didnt see anything that was outwardly obvious as a yolk sac... Today I put my finger in the tank and slowly moved it towards one of my little buddies and it jetted away quickly before I ever got close enough to touch it. I took that as a good sign. How do you know when they are ready to eat? whats your advise for enticing the first meal other then the obviousness of just throwing in some live mysis? Is that it? how do you know if they ate i guess is what i am getting at. They fasinate me but i cant spend all day in front of the fish tank even though i may want to!

 

[fishingfozzy]

OMG OMG OMG !!!! So I just went out to check on them again and one was sitting on top of the large shell streching its feeding tenticles in and out! I was so excited. The other was stalking a small amphipod in a small clump of cheato i have in there! I am hoping this is positive progress and not just them play with my head! I have never seen them out and about - till tonight they have always remained in hiding. Also Corpusse, I see you are in Ontario - where abouts? I am not to far from you!