Malta Aquarist Society

 The video attached shows the first brood of seven young cuttlefish which I currently have. They are three days old now and all seem in good health. They are feeding on live collected isopods, cultured amphipods, newly hatched artemia and live Reef tigger pods. They are on ambient seawater of 20 degrees celsius with a water change rate of 200ml per minute. The hatching tank is a 15 litres plastic black bucket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUmuZr81ap8&feature=channel_page

Really interesting Ray! Do they have different larval stages while growing? 

Excellent work Ray, your dream is coming trough, it was worth it that you changed your work keep it up and let us know more of your success.

 Very interesting Ray and well done and of course thanks for sharing

 No Jon they don't have different larval stages (the hatchlings are called paralarvae). The hatchlings are fully formed versions of their parents at birth and do not go though a planktonic phase like many marine creatures do including their cousin, the Octopus.

 Thanks Charles, I will try to keep in touch. Yes, it's quite a rewarding job, especially for people like us with such a big passion for aquatic life. I have 17 young now.

Thanks alot for sharing & keeping us updated with your projects, Ray.

 The first hatched are seven days old now and more eggs are hatching daily. I have 30 in all and no mortalities yet.

The video shows them feeding eagerly on collected marine isopods and amphipods.

 I like these clips very much! Now when do you transfer them in an aquarium Ray?

I will transfer them to an aquarium as soon as they are trained to eat dead food. This may take several weeks.

BTW the eggs are still hatching at the rate of approx. 10 per day! I have 41 larvae now! I hope they are weaned quickly onto frozen food because providing live food is time consuming.

Keep up the good work you're doing Ray & hope to see more of your interesting video clips.

http://www.youtube.com/v/O5hA0MGJ4lE&hl=en&fs=1&">

Meanwhile, an adult female which was donated to the Centre a week ago by a young boy has layed two (one shown in the video)new clutches of inked eggs...

http://www.youtube.com/v/4tLDLKYfNWs&hl=en&fs=1&">

Note the place chosen by the mother for her prospective offspring, next to an airstone and attached to the standpipe, both good sources of oxygen exchange.

A video showing the developing embryos of the brood a few days before hatching...

http://www.youtube.com/v/o71ciPn1Wwg&hl=en&fs=1&">

Enjoy

Ray

Really wonderful Ray.

These video clips are very interesting & really enjoy viewing them. I never knew that the cuttlefish eggs are black & not round.

Once again..... keep up the good work.......

They are like octopus eggs I think!

I agree with seracin that these videos are really interesting! Really looking forward to see these cuttle fish at San Lucjan.

Cuttlefish eggs are not really like those of the octopus. The former's eggs are bigger and can inflate up to the size of a grape before hatching. Also, the newly hatched paralarvae of the octopus have a pelagic stage and are very small, whilst those of the cuttlefish are demersal and considerably large.

Regarding the colour of the eggs, the cuttlefish usually covers its eggs with ink, but there are times when they are white  becoming clear as they develop.