My cuttlefish project

GrizFyrFyter

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I got an egg from a local fish store. Spent a week doing research, calling breeders and contacted the Monterey Bay Aquarium about their new cephalpod exhibit ("tentacles ") and found a lot of info that many people repeated. Raising these guys seems easier than breeding clowns.

My egg hatched and I have a cute little bugger in a floating breeder box. He's pretty active and changes color all the time.

I have live baby mysid shrimp on its way and he is already snacking on the fire shrimp larvae that are in my refugium.

Expected life span at 78* is 12 months.
I went back to the store and set up a tumbler for their eggs and told them what I know (they were clueless, the eggs came as an extra from the wholeseller). They haven't seen any that hatched yet.

My wife wants me to breed them and the flamboyant cuttlefish....

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Cuttlefish day 1, changing colors: https://youtu.be/fMfjfm-Lu0g
 
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GrizFyrFyter

GrizFyrFyter

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Tried feeding them ghost shrimp yesterday, the shrimp are bigger than the cuttlefish but they didn't hesitate to attack them. They only ate about half of the shrimp body. I'll try to take a video this evening. I'm going to let them out of the breeder box next week, just need to make sure they can't get past the refugium chamber.
 

geckoejon

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i'm tagging along for this one... i have been considering another species tank and cuddlefish project. is there any way to tell what kind of cuddlefish they are at that size or by the eggs?
 
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GrizFyrFyter

GrizFyrFyter

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The draw cuttlefish eggs are a dark wine or black color about the size of a grape. Flamboyant cuttlefish eggs are clear.

Sadly, my daughters compiling medical bills forced me to abandon this project. I successfully weaned them onto frozen krill before selling them.
 

Daniel@R2R

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Any updates?
 
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GrizFyrFyter

GrizFyrFyter

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Sold them and all my tanks that month. Starting over right now. Hope to get a clutch of cuttlefish eggs in a few months.
 

stunreefer

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Sepia bandensis are one of the coolest animals I've ever had the opportunity to keep :) You've likely found it, but check out Tonmo.com for loads of info.

Also, ReefGen out of NY sells juvenile S. bandensis that are much less expensive to feed over time (compared to sourcing live baby Mysid). Once they reach breeding size, they will breed. Oh boy... and breed, and breed and breed! ;)

IMG_20140709_214804725_HDR_zpsmqau5omn.jpg


IMG_20140516_220240_zps62105738.jpg
 

stunreefer

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I really enjoyed the experience of hatching them from eggs.
:thumb: Can't say I blame ya! They're so cute when they're tiny.

I was already at $2,800+/year in feeding my juvi's. Once I started to add up the cost to raise the never ending output of eggs I called my breeder buddies and sent them to them free ;)
 

iretthepirate

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O my gosh so freakin cute. Please give a detailed account on well everything lol. Such as tank set up, how you hatched the food for them how much you fed and how long you fed them live food before weaning and how you weaned to frozen. You can find breeding journal formats online. would love to try myself.
 
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