S. bandensis

[Koshmar]

I recently purchased a new born and an egg clutch from my lfs and would like some first hand advice. I've read the proper material on tonmo and the cephalopod page on these guys but would love some experienced members to help out. My main concern is feeding. I've got frozen mysis and brineshrimp available as well as some live amphipods floating around in the breeder. The breeder now has some sand inside it also. Pics.

 

[micstarz]

Koshmar!!! Congratulations!

The second pic looks like he/she doesn't have eyes, haha.

Is that chaeto?

I'm probably wrong, but don't baby cuttles refuse dead food until they grow a little bigger? Maybe you could try guppy fry and brine shrimp...

How much did they cost you?

 

[Koshmar]

Ya, I've read a lot of articles and posts on this species but as I said I lack the experience. You are correct on the refusal of frozen, I just want to give it a try. I'm low on cash so I can't really buy food until I sell some stuff The pods should be a food source as I have read in other posts about keepers using their refugium critters as food with success. I have to scrap the money to buy some pods soon though... The newborn cost me $40 and the eggs clutch was $30... Pricey yes but I've never seen them for sale before and I jumped on the opportunity. That is chaeto in the pic. It has some pods in it and it will add some safety and cover for the newborn.

 

[Animal Mother]

live mysis shrimp are best. I had minimal success using amphipods. They are too strong for most hatchlings.

 

[Koshmar]

Animal Mother, how many live mysis can a hatchling go through in a week? I want to buy enough to feed the young one but I don't want to buy a ton because of cannibalism. Also, is the yoke sac visible or is it an internal supply of nutrition for the newborn? My lfs told me that it hatched a few days ago and I'm worrying a little about it not eating. I'm having live mysis shipped immediately, this was really a surprise and I jumped at the opportunity without being fully prepared. It was an improper move on my part but I know how rare it is to get a cuttle let alone an egg clutch without having to ship. How long is it usually until they accept frozen?

 

[micstarz]

Whoa!

Cuttles here cost $10 USD D: (At the aquarium store)

Too bad you live inland, or you'd have enough money leftover from buying the cuttle to feed it for a while

 

[Animal Mother]

I spent $200 feeding my hatchlings for the first 2 weeks. There was an excess amount of amphipods available but I still never saw some of them eat, other times I saw them catch the pods but weren't able to hold on to them.

Some of them will eat just about as many as you will feed, so I can't really tell you how long how many will last. You just have to buy in bulk and keep a steady food supply regardless of whatever wasted product there may be. Cutting corners and being cheap will only end badly.

 

[micstarz]

Wow...$200 is just under half what I have spent on fish this year...wowzas.

 

[Koshmar]

Well the rest of the eggs haven't hatched so I guess they are duds, I'm still keeping them in the tank though because I have no idea how old they are. I've ordered mysis and today I bought 100's of brine shrimp. I saw the newborn go for a few with its tiny little feeding tenticals. I didn't see it catch one though so I don't know if it's eating properly. I enriched the brine shrimp with selcon and I've got a lot in the breader with the hatchling. Tomorrow the mysis should come in so I can get a proper diet going. I'm a little worried about the newborn because it rarely moves.
Animal Mother,
1. Do newborn cuttles move around a lot?
2. Should I create a different kind of breeder? The brineshrimp are not swimming around much in the current one and I think it is because of flow or the breeder being rectangular.
3. Should I enrich the mysis with selcon or are they already nutritious enough already?
Thanks in advance. It seems like you are the only one on RC that has kept these guys. I'm starting to think that they are not worth all the trouble it takes to keep them but then again I haven't successfully raised one yet so I can't see the rewards.

 

[Animal Mother]

There are some other members on RC that are much more experienced than I am. I got my eggs from some of them. You should be able to see babies inside the eggs. If the eggs are too dark to see inside they may be pretty new. Sometimes you do get duds.

Newborns don't seem to move about much. For the first several weeks they will hide under anything they can hide under and are only active when chasing food from my experience.

Brine is a waste of time I'm afraid, even if they do eat them. Just not any nutritional value, and freshly hatched brine is too small.

The live mysis will be enough alone, without supplementing.

They are worth the time and effort, but they don't show a lot of personality until they are 3 months old or so, and it would be best to try and have a group to breed so as to maybe recoup some expense down the road and also be able to pass on a second generation to someone and have more to raise again.

 

[Animal Mother]

 

[micstarz]

Nice cuttles, AM!

Koshmar, good luck with the mysis!

I hope those eggs hatch D:

 

[Koshmar]

Yeah, the eggs are still a dark purple. It's good to know that the babies are not that active because I was beginning to worry. I keep checking several times a day to make sure that the new born is still alive. It still is atm but almost never moves so I'm constantly worried. I'm afraid that raising a group is out of the question, I don't have the time or money for more than one or two. If all of the eggs hatch, I might have to sell the hatchlings. I bought a clutch because I was skeptical that more than one would survive. I admit that I was way underprepared for this, I should have known better too because I've read so many articles and posts about how you have to have the food ready before they even are born. I'll have to wait and see how this all turns out. Thanks for the advice AM.

 

[Animal Mother]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14579423#post14579423 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Koshmar
Yeah, the eggs are still a dark purple. It's good to know that the babies are not that active because I was beginning to worry. I keep checking several times a day to make sure that the new born is still alive. It still is atm but almost never moves so I'm constantly worried. I'm afraid that raising a group is out of the question, I don't have the time or money for more than one or two. If all of the eggs hatch, I might have to sell the hatchlings. I bought a clutch because I was skeptical that more than one would survive. I admit that I was way underprepared for this, I should have known better too because I've read so many articles and posts about how you have to have the food ready before they even are born. I'll have to wait and see how this all turns out. Thanks for the advice AM.

I understand your dilemma. I purchased a dozen eggs, 1 arrived hatched. It died. I was bummed. I had a ton of pods because they were free and plentiful. I got so many eggs because I didn't think at least half of them would make it or be fertile. Shipping delays and lack of suitable food turned out to be the problem, not fertility. So, lesson learned and now I'm passing it on.

Honestly I got them because my girlfriend wanted some ever since I got into octopuses and I figured if I was going to spend my money on them I wanted enough to have at least one breeding pair and maybe sell some within my local MAS. I didn't realize the food bill was going to fall completely on me and since it did, I do kinda regret getting them because they are NOT cheap to feed at all. I'm kinda glad I only have 3 of them to feed now. Hardest part about keeping them is affording it.

Now that they are larger I have some luck getting them to take frozen silversides and krill, but not consistently, and they eat more and more the bigger they grow.

 

[sunce_22]

When I was keeping them, the only thing that they would eat were live tiggerpods. It cast me about 60$ per week(3 bottles)! They are very expensive to feed!

Great little guys though!

 

[Koshmar]

My oh my Sunce! How do you keep up with all those tanks? You and Micstarz, I don't know how you guys do it!
Anyway, time for an update. Quite amazing I must say! The only solace I have had these past few weeks is that fact that the cuttle survived! (Knock on wood repeatedly) What do I mean by survived you may ask? Well I've been ordering live mysid shrimp from Sach's Aquaculture online (incredible customer service and great prices), anyway one shippment was not properly delivered by USPS. At this point I had no food supply for the cuttle and it was not excepting frozen yet. In an attempt to provide it with a food source, I seperated part of my G. chiragra tank and added two large pieces of LR full of amphipods to the cuttle side. I then proceeded to transfer the cuttle into the new section. A few weeks passed and amazingly the cuttle sustained itself through amphipods alone until I could get the whole missed order situation straightened out.

Needless to say, I had great success with pods. The cuttle has grown rather large from them so I'm guessing it was able to catch and subdue the pods, thank God! I tried smallish live ghost shrimp, I think it took down or at least got a bite out of one or two, they were still really big for it though. This morning I got an order of 100 mysid shrimp and transferred the cuttle into a breeder with the mysis before I left for class. It took three mysid shrimp in less than 3 minutes before I left! Poor guy must have been hungry. I swear at one point it captured two mysid at once. Right before it caught the first one it started hovering and in a snap went into a "camo" mode, very exciting to watch. I forgot how fast and striking their color changing abilities were. Here are the best pics I could get with my camera, the little things in the background are the mysid shrimp.

 

[micstarz]

Oh, wow! He looks so bug-eyed in the first pic! Those mysids look just like cleaner shrimp fry...the coral tanks at one of my LFS's wre full of them (fishless system)...they were EVERYWHERE...like every few cm squared there was one...at first I thought they were harlequin shrimp fry because there were a few in the breeder boxes they were in...