Keeping Squid In Fish Tank

[Hunter_Killer]

Good info there inky. 4000L tank eh? :blink: :blink: And you still find it hard to keep the calamari squid! Thats not encouraging for amateurs like me <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':ink' />

[Jazman]

Yes Glen there are dumpling squid in Port Phillip Bay, I've occasionally seen them off Chelsea.

[Guest]

Ink isn't a major problem as it is generally released in discrete clumps that can be removed without a full water change. Protein skimmers, and activated carbon upwellers (as well as biofiltration) will remove residues.



I'm pretty sure dumpling squid occur in PPB but it would be worth checking a marine life book for a distribution map, I think they occur from about Brisbane south. They like a sand substrate in <1-60m depth (much of PPB would be suitable). Remember they are nocturnal too.



I'm afraid I don't think calamari are suitable for home keeping as they are too active, though you could probably keep small ones for a couple of weeks.



Hope this helps



-Inky.

[Guest]

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of that footage? My sixth grade class would love to see it. Or the name of the channel it was on?

yeh Willy i saw that documentary too. Obe of the best Ive seen. How about later in the episode when those large Atlantic occy were KILLING THE SMALL SHARKS !!!



Lol thats just unbelievable. For those that missed it, they said in the beginning when they put the occys and species of sharks in the aquarium they feared that the sharks would kill the occys. Guess what? the occys strangled the sharks one by one. these sharks were the fast type and definately heavier than the occys. They werent baby sharks lol 

[Guest]

[quote name='Christina' date='Sep 29 2004, 07:59 AM']Does anyone know where I can get a copy of that footage? My sixth grade class would love to see it. Or the name of the channel it was on?

[right][post="3291"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]



it's on a national geographic channel documentary called "the octopus show". the only place i could find to buy it from was gowings uk. you can get it through their ebay store at [url="http://stores.ebay.co.uk/GOWINGS-STORE"]http://stores.ebay.co.uk/GOWINGS-STORE[/url]







and to inky: thanks for the info re: southern dumpling squid. i found myself one of these little critters just this weekend, and instantly fell in love. now that i know that there is a possibility of keeping them successfully in captivity, i think i know what species i'm going to dedicate my next tank to.



-adam.

[JEWEL]

Try a small cuttlefish, they have a lot of personality in a tank, just be careful with what you put in with them! I also take a bit of provocation to get them to ink.

[naten3/4]

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!

[glen]

hi nathan,



thanks very much for that information. how long do your market squid typically last in the tank? what is your longest survivor so far? <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



welcome to the forum, cheers, glen <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xyxthumbs.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[broesam]

Hi there!

On a beach walk at North Beach of the Queen Charlotte Islands (South of Alaska) my daughter and me found washed up squid egg sacks. She put them in a bucket with seawater and a bubbler. surprisingly they hatched and tiny transparent-white squid are swimming in the bucket now. How can we find out what kind they are? They´re so tiny, we can´t tell the number of arms legs etc.... What might they want to eat?

What is artemia and where can it be found?

Do you think we can keep a few in a small tank and just keep giving them fresh oceanwater daily?

any other suggestions?

The squids are so beautiful....

Thanks for your help!







[quote name='inky' post='2393' date='May 31 2004, 05:07 PM']I've been doing squid research for the last couple of years and this has involved keeping squid in captivity. From my experience, squid are quite touchy about water quality, though no more so than many scale fish. However they are vulnerable to damage from contact with tank walls etc. and do require live food. In a community tank they may be problematic as they will take fish up to 1.5 times their bodylength and will be eaten by things bigger than this. I have successfully kept southern calamari (Sepioteuthis australis) though with very high mortality rates by hatching eggs collected from the wild, with some animals living for up to 6 months (6-8month life cycle). However they never reached the size of comparable aged wild animals. These animals were fed artemia, mysid shrimp and palaemonas shrimp and kept in a 4000L recirc system. With considerably more success I have kept southern dumpling squid (Euprymna tasmanica), these are a hardy species ideally suited to captivity and will take many different crustaceans though we mainly use mysids for small animals and shrimp for larger. They are pretty cool in a tank and they like to bury themselves or coat themselves with sand. Also they fluoresce in the dark which is kinda cool. The are best obtained by wading, diving or snorkelling over a shallow subtidal sandflat at night, finding them with a spotlight and scooping with a net. They appear fluro green in the water and are about the size of a golf ball or less and will be sitting on the bottom. I reckon this species would be good in a home aquarium though again not with other animals as they are loaded with vibrio bacteria which can be pathogenic to fish (this is what makes them glow). The other species I have played with is Ideosepius pygmaeus the southern pigmy squid, these can be found amongst drift algae, only grow to a few cm in length and can be fed on artemia.

Good luck to all who try and let me know how you go.

Cheers

Inky.[/quote]

[glen]

if you want to keep squid in a tank then i would visit [url="http://www.tonmo.com"]http://www.tonmo.com[/url]



they talk a lot about keeping squid and octopii as pets!



cheers, glen

[AlienLion]

I use to keep octopiis in captivity many years ago and I managed to prevent them from escaping by having a 3 inch layer of astro tuff (artificial grass) stuck to the top of the tank all round, above water level. they can't get a grip on that. hahahha, so solved the problem of them escaping but ended up with couple of them squeezing them selves into my filter hahahhaa.





[quote name='Mr_Willy' post='2328' date='May 27 2004, 05:59 PM']And watch out for octopus - they get out!!

There was a doco on tv once with octopus and crabs. And they didnt have lids on the tanks, but each night a crab would go missing - the installed a camera and the octopus would get out of its tank, crawl over to the crabs tank, grab a crab, then go back to its own tank and eat it!!



Have thought of keeping things like this before - need a good aerator and filter, and perhaps some small live tommies or gar or whiting or something for the squid to feed on!!![/quote]

[glen]

hi lion! welcome to the forum. those occys are sneaky aren't they! so they they manage to get out of the air filter alive?



cheers, glen

[luspin]

The aquarium should be as large as possible for the species that you intend to keep. The minimum size should be at least 36x18x18 (inches) to be used for small octopus species and as big as you can get after that.