05-08-2006, 02:53 PM
Hi, guys. I have been interested in keeping squid for a while, and I have been doing some research. It turns out that it is pretty exspensive to get started, I realized this about halfway through the process. I have not the oppurtunity to keep your tropical austrialian squid, but I have a good run of market squid that go through my front yard. I have a 50 gallon tank, with a big high performance protien skimmer, over kill for the tank I have it in, and I have started the tank cycleing. Some people that I've talked to have said that you should let the tank set with water, andtemperature of the wild filtration for two weeks to six months before adding any wildlife, I have started with bay water that I brought in five gallon buckets (a lot of them) and I put lots of barnacle covered rocks in the bottom along with seaweed at irst. My tank seems to be keeping the ammonia down fairly nicely, but it is probably on account of the excess filtration. To get the tank started cycling faster, I threw in a couple of sculpins for a day or two and then threw them back. The amonia in the tank dissapeared in my system in about two weeks. The on thing about squid as mentioned above, is that they have trouble with the sides of the tank, they don't see it and they run into it, and bruise themselves a little bit. This i put some stuff in front of the glass and they seemed to do alright staying away after a while. they like to jump, so a good lid is a necessity. they will eat little fish from the bay and they will ink whenever you come in the room after a while. These are coldwater squid, so it is going to be nessacary for you to chill the water to keep them. I don't know if it really matters for tropical squid, a heater or a chiller to get the water to the temperature of the wild would be nice. The chiller is decidedly more expensive than a heater, so keep that in mind. Good water quality is a must. A filter, a good biological filter like a sump, or something like that, and a protien skimmer will keep the tank pristine. They create much more waste than a fish their same size so keep that in mind as well. I would not recomend any tanks smaller than a 55 gallon aquarium, definately the bigger the better. I have had moderate success on keeping the market squids, a reasonable mortality rate, and they are really exciting to watch. my squid have color variations from bright pale to dark reddish brown with flouresent orange spots, depending on their mood. The are really cool to keep, the tank banging is a problem yes, but my tank is really bowed and curved so I think that this is why they are taking to it better. It will be extremely pricey to keep squid, but for me it was worth it, I guess it just depends on how much you love the squid!