cuttles n clams

[hobogato]

i am eagerly awaiting the arrival of two three month old S. bandensis tomorrow. they will be living in a 50 gallon clam tank that is plumbed into my 240 gallon display tank.

here are some pics of the 240
front

back

the filtration

here is the clam and cuttle tank from the front

here it is from the top after adding some rock and macro algae in preparation for the cuttles

 

[hobogato]

here are some live shore shrimp (cuttle food) that a friend brought me from the coast yesterday

 

[hobogato]

last night, i built this acrylic tank and cabinet (havent finished the molding yet) to house the live shrimp i will be keeping to feed them. it will be plumbed into the sump/fuge on christy's 180 gallon lps display.
tank - it is 16"x16"x16" or about 18 gallons.

installed in cabinet

the cuttles arrived this morning - one male and one female, 3.5 months old
here they are floating

here they are just after release - sorry for the pic quality, only actincs on here

here is the more active one this afternoon, the other one is hiding under a rock ledge

here is a quick video

 

[ScubaDiver93]

Do you have a harlequin tusk in reef?

 

[hobogato]

yep

 

[hobogato]

well, they are staying hidden most of the time right now, but i managed to catch them napping on top of the powerhead sponge, i love how they take up the texture as well as the color

 

[sharkdude]

I really like the look of the top down viweing tank for clams. How are you lighting them? angled fixtures from the sides?

 

[Bläckout]

i know this is a bit off topic but id love to see some specs and filtration on that clam tank its amazing! The S. bandensis are amazing too!

 

[sharkdude]

here's another pic hobogato has on his tank build thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9286335#post9286335

plumbed to his 240.

 

[hobogato]

sorry to leave you guys hanging....

sharkdude - yep, the lights barely fit under the top and are hidden by the wood frame. there is also a black acrylic glare shield around the viewing window to help hide the lights. that pic was also before i added the t5 actinics on both sides and in the back. the light you see is an SE 175 watt halide (thank goodness i have a chiller on the system, the heat would really be a problem since the bulb is 1" above the water)

thanks blackout, as shark pointed out, it shares a sump/fuge and all other filtration with the 240. the original idea was to make a coffee table, but i couldnt figure out how to make it stank alone with it's own good filtration and have it short enough to use as a coffee table. another local reefer had a clam tank plumbed into his system this way, so i combined his idea and mine to come up with the side table clam tank.

 

[hobogato]

unfortunately, i brought in one last clam just before getting the cuttles. it was a wild one and from vietnam, so over the next couple of months, all of my clams died. i will wait 6 months or so before introducing any new clams...

on a more positive note, the cuttles are doing great! they are now begging for food, and showing all kinds of displays. captured a bit on video last night, but before i got them eating, the camera battery died. i will try again tonight for that. what i have for you now is three terrible videos (they are only really active when the tank is dimly lit, so it is difficult for the camera to stay focused).

in this one, you can see them begging me to feed them. they actually come up to the top and stick their tentacles out of the water

here is another one of that behavior

here is the hunting display of waves of color

 

[kar93]

Cool, Do you have more pics of the acrylic shrimp container?

 

[hobogato]

was doing some cleaning yesterday and found a clutch of eggs. they have been mating for a couple of weeks, but i didnt think they were ready to have eggs yet. i counted at least 60 eggs and all are nicely inflated - some are smaller than others

here is a cruddy pic - actinic lights on only, so had to adjust the pic to get the detail

this is most of the eggs, they will be divided into two or three net breeders when i get some more net breeders

there is another rock that has about 8 more that will go into another net breeder

 

[hobogato]

first hatchling!!!!! took the eggs out in a glass bowl of water to backlight them to make sure they are fertile - many are.....

one little cuttle must have been in the middle of the clutch

here it is

now i am in a bit of a pickle - these are about a month before i thought they would even have eggs..... gotto find some live amphipods and mysis to feed these guys soon.

 

[hobogato]

sad morning.

woke today to a cloudy tank and both cuttlefish are dead. not sure if the eggs are ok or not.

found redbugs in my main tank yesterday, so i took the cuttle tank off line to make sure the treatment didnt get in there. it was off of the main system for about 12 hours, but it has two powerheads in it for circulation. also did it at night so heat wasnt an issue. only thing i can think is i killed some aptasia (that is what i was doing when i noticed the redbugs) and got my pH a little out of whack for about an hour - fixed it with vinegar. everything was stable before i took the cuttle tank off line.

i changed a little more than half of the water in the cuttle tank this morning and then another 30 gallons from the main tank before getting the cuttle tank back online.

sometimes this hobby does not make me happy.

 

[dragonette]

oh how terrible how are the babies?

 

[hobogato]

what a rollercoaster this is gonna be....

one new hatchling - no yolksac attacked and it is swimming a bit..... hopefully it will make it.

took out some of the other eggs in a glass bowl of water to backlight them to check on them and many of them look like they are about ready to hatch. some of the babies inside even responded to the light a bit (i dont think they like it).

the plan is to keep two or three of these and trade a couple to someone else with some captive hatched ones so i will have a couple of breeding pair in the near future.

meanwhile, i will have to work on setting up a mysis hatchery and getting some live artemia going as well.

 

[scootman]

I'm tagging along for the ride....This has been fascinating....please keep the posts coming as things unfold. Very sorry to hear about the cuttles passing.....Good luck with the hatch-lings....

 

[clownFish1313]

tagging along, sorry for the loss.

 

[hobogato]

well, that hatchling didnt make it and all of the eggs began to fall apart, so what ever got the adults must have took care of the eggs as well.

in a few months i will look into another pair and try again. i am starting to set up phyto, baby brine, rotifer, cilliate and mysis cultures so i will be ready for babies the next time as well. ill post some pics of the cultures once i get em going