Dwarf cuttlefish hatchlings reaching two months milestone!

[zzyz]

Those are Nassarius snails, and not venomous cone snails. Anyways, good luck with the dwarves!

I see. Thank you ichthyogeek for pointing this out! I thought all cone snails were venomous.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Hmm....well, I don't know of any cone snails that aren't venomous. But Nassarius are not cone snails. Nassarius snails are snails in the genus Nassarius, while the venomous cone snails you're thinking of are within the genus Conus.

As for cuttlefish stuff, have you checked out the MACNA videos on raising cuttlefish? This is the latest one:

 

[zzyz]

Hmm....well, I don't know of any cone snails that aren't venomous. But Nassarius are not cone snails. Nassarius snails are snails in the genus Nassarius, while the venomous cone snails you're thinking of are within the genus Conus.

As for cuttlefish stuff, have you checked out the MACNA videos on raising cuttlefish? This is the latest one:

Thank you for sharing the link. I have to say that is an ultra professional video on cuttlefish husbandry! And I love the mating scene the best. As Laura pointed out in the video that cuttlefish mate for just a couple of minutes, I shall observe very carefully as the mating stage approaches.

Btw, I did some research on Nassarius and found I mistakenly killed one several months ago as I thought it was dangerous, which was so wrong! Thanks for letting me know this.

 

[lion king]

Great fun, hatching these is how I found out breeding and raising babies was not for me. Once you have them grown enough to eat grass/ghost shrimp you are gold. You will now have options for food and even give them a chance to even start taking dead food from a feeding stick. You've done such a great job, the only thing I can offer, is they like very stable water conditions. Not meaning pristine, just small water changes with obviously matched sg and ph.

 

[zzyz]

Great fun, hatching these is how I found out breeding and raising babies was not for me. Once you have them grown enough to eat grass/ghost shrimp you are gold. You will now have options for food and even give them a chance to even start taking dead food from a feeding stick. You've done such a great job, the only thing I can offer, is they like very stable water conditions. Not meaning pristine, just small water changes with obviously matched sg and ph.

Thank you lion king. Yes, I have more diverse choice available to me now regarding the live food to be offered to them than two months ago. I've been trying frozen food but to no avail yet. Some say pressing the dead food to their tentacles could help, but I haven't succeeded just yet.

Water param wise, I've kept salinity 1.024, ph 8.3, kh 10.0, no3 6, po4 0, ca 460, mg 1320 stable in a very narrow range in the past 6 months.

 

[samnaz]

Tell me everything!!!! Cuttlefish are my absolute favorite creatures on earth. Especially flamboyant cuttles. Saw them at the birch aquarium and it was like being in the presence of an alien, but cooler. I could watch them ALL day.

 

[lion king]

Thank you lion king. Yes, I have more diverse choice available to me now regarding the live food to be offered to them than two months ago. I've been trying frozen food but to no avail yet. Some say pressing the dead food to their tentacles could help, but I haven't succeeded just yet.

Water param wise, I've kept salinity 1.024, ph 8.3, kh 10.0, no3 6, po4 0, ca 460, mg 1320 stable in a very narrow range in the past 6 months.

Where I had luck was to feed some heavy weight fishing line through a rigid airline tube, bend the tube curved slightly as not to present the food straight on. By attaching the chunks to the fishing line, the fishing line gave it a little wiggle. Move through the tank and you'll get them to chase it down and attack in instinct. I also fed live mollies and ghosties.

 

[zzyz]

Where I had luck was to feed some heavy weight fishing line through a rigid airline tube, bend the tube curved slightly as not to present the food straight on. By attaching the chunks to the fishing line, the fishing line gave it a little wiggle. Move through the tank and you'll get them to chase it down and attack in instinct. I also fed live mollies and ghosties.

Interesting, I shall try it out! And maybe do it next time when they are hungry. Thank you!

 

[zzyz]

Tell me everything!!!! Cuttlefish are my absolute favorite creatures on earth. Especially flamboyant cuttles. Saw them at the birch aquarium and it was like being in the presence of an alien, but cooler. I could watch them ALL day.

Thank you samnaz. I wonder if they are actually live aliens living on earth!

 

[lion king]

Thank you samnaz. I wonder if they are actually live aliens living on earth!

Do you think the creator ofvthe aliens in the movies Alien... was influenced by these guys.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Do you think the creator ofvthe aliens in the movies Alien... was influenced by these guys.

https://www.livescience.com/43076-m...g-parasite-that-inspired-the-movie-alien.html

Although the cuttlefish was used in Jurassic World because of its awesome color changing skills. +1 on all the flamboyant cuttlefish geeks, if only they were easier to keep (in comparison to all the other cuttles)!

 

[zzyz]

Do you think the creator ofvthe aliens in the movies Alien... was influenced by these guys.

I think so. And also the alien scrin units and structures in C&C video game.

 

[1ByLand2BySea]

Congrats. that's awesome.

 

[MastaMind82]

Saw this post and it reminded me of a youtube video I saw years ago, check it out here.

 

[EMeyer]

Where I had luck was to feed some heavy weight fishing line through a rigid airline tube, bend the tube curved slightly as not to present the food straight on. By attaching the chunks to the fishing line, the fishing line gave it a little wiggle. Move through the tank and you'll get them to chase it down and attack in instinct. I also fed live mollies and ghosties.

Nice trick, I'll have to try that if I ever have time for cuttles again.

Once mine got big enough they were pretty easy to feed frozen krill. Id thaw them, skewer one on the end of a wooden skewer, and hold it in the tank... I think by that time they had come to associate me with food anyway, so they'd just eat it right off the stick. It was great fun.

 

[zzyz]

Nice trick, I'll have to try that if I ever have time for cuttles again.

Once mine got big enough they were pretty easy to feed frozen krill. Id thaw them, skewer one on the end of a wooden skewer, and hold it in the tank... I think by that time they had come to associate me with food anyway, so they'd just eat it right off the stick. It was great fun.

"associate me with food" so hilarious! I wonder how big your cuttlefish have got before they became adapted to frozen food?

 

[pezgal]

Okay, I've been drawn out of the woodwork by this thread. I've been lurking for months, I'm a newbie to saltwater so I'm trying to learn as much as possible. I started my first reef tank in January with the blessing of my boyfriend on the condition that there would one day be cuttles on display. I've been reading and watching any information on cuttles I can find for several years now and am now in the stage of proving to myself that I can keep a tank stable before I jump in. Where did you get your stock from? That's all the first of about a million questions I have.

 

[zzyz]

Okay, I've been drawn out of the woodwork by this thread. I've been lurking for months, I'm a newbie to saltwater so I'm trying to learn as much as possible. I started my first reef tank in January with the blessing of my boyfriend on the condition that there would one day be cuttles on display. I've been reading and watching any information on cuttles I can find for several years now and am now in the stage of proving to myself that I can keep a tank stable before I jump in. Where did you get your stock from? That's all the first of about a million questions I have.

Thank you pezgal. Cuttles are quite hardy but as lion king said it's better to keep sg and ph in check. I also heard that cuttles would be sensitive to NO3 if the reading is above 50. Just make sure you have plenty of live food in stock before you get one as cuttles do not eat frozen food at least in juveniles.

There are many cuttlefish eggs in the coast in spring especially near piers. But these are common cuttlefish and can get pretty large in size. Dwarf cuttlefish, on the other hand, are smaller species suitable for aquarium culture. I bought dwarf eggs from LFS by pure luck as they do not usually offer these eggs.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Okay, I've been drawn out of the woodwork by this thread. I've been lurking for months, I'm a newbie to saltwater so I'm trying to learn as much as possible. I started my first reef tank in January with the blessing of my boyfriend on the condition that there would one day be cuttles on display. I've been reading and watching any information on cuttles I can find for several years now and am now in the stage of proving to myself that I can keep a tank stable before I jump in. Where did you get your stock from? That's all the first of about a million questions I have.

Check out TONMO as well! You can also try to reach out to Richard Ross (he’s somewhere on this forum...) to see if he’d be willing to sell with some of his cuttles.

 

[lion king]

"associate me with food" so hilarious! I wonder how big your cuttlefish have got before they became adapted to frozen food?

Try 1st thing when you start to feed, when hungry they will strike in reflex, it's like you fool them. Drop one or two feeders in, then try again. If you feed on somewhat of a schedule, it's like they have an internal clock, they'll be waiting for you. Next thing you know you can just drop chunks in for them to take. If it hits the bottom before one of them hits and they are stalking it, flick it up with feeding stick to make movement. I treated them like all my other preds, I'm a strong believer in feeding live foods. Really, what;s the fun in having cuttles, if not for the hunt. I just feed dead food to help with my food budget.