Keeping Squid In Fish Tank

[Hunter_Killer]

Heres an idea, whoever has access to a saltwater tank put some small bait sized squid into it! LOL. Maybe itll work but imagine if they start squirting.



Does anyone think this is achievable? Will they die easily?

[Jazman]

I think I remember reading somewhere that squid are hard to keep, but I'm not 100%. My mate has a saltwater tank, for a while we had heaps of little whiting, leatherjackets and other fish we had caught in it, it was awesome. We also had a blue ringed octopus for a while.....they are an amazing pet, and the blue warning colours have to be seen to be believed. We fed it crabs, you'd put in 4 or 5 small crabs, and the next morning there's nothing left but empty shells....this was an occy with a body the size of a walnut! <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' />

[RX3-BOi]

hey guys i read on a tropical fish froum that people keep puffer fish.



at the aquarium near me i bought a eel and they have stingrays for $250 pretty kool

[glen]

there is a website dedicated to keep octopii, squid etc in tanks:



[url="http://www.tonmo.com"]http://www.tonmo.com[/url]

[Hunter_Killer]

Wow great site glen thanks. Now I know for certain that theres an internet site for everything <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' />

[RX3-BOi]

glen do you know anywhere that i can buy squid to keep in a tank? i want em <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' />

[aok47]

hehehehe,.. for the tank or for the tummy whenever you feel peckish? <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' /> <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



AK

[Hunter_Killer]

RX3 Boi Im sure you can catch your own small squid and keep it alive in an aerator and transport it home cant you? it wouldnt be any different to buying a squid and transporting it home!



I guess the disadvantage with keeping these things is that they dont live long. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' />

[glen]

i can't think of any law that would prevent you from catching a squid and keeping it in a tank. however if you started selling them, then arguably you are involved in an aquaculture operation and would need a permit under the Fisheries laws.



a southern calamary squid would need quite a big tank because they like to swim around. an optopus on the other hand is better for a small tank.



cheers, glen

[Mr_Willy]

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!!!

[Hunter_Killer]

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 :blink:

[Mr_Willy]

Yeah, didnt see the end of it - i dont think i saw the doco, just shorts of it on some other show - absolutely unbelieveable the power of the occies - my mate caught one on a jetty once - had a live tommy out for a mully and he pulled it in to check the tommy and he thought he had weed, then when we saw it we thought it was a massive squid, but an occy came up - the thing pulled like hell once on the jetty too - it was going all over the place - hook removed, it went back in the drink - it was a bloody good size too!!

[Hunter_Killer]

Yeh when we catch occys we just lay them there on the wahrf and they ALWAYS walk in the right direction, straight into the water, with a *plomp!* when they land. I do not believe squid are intelligent. Occys are. How can squid become intelligent when they live fot 18 months max? Impossible. Theyre idiots <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':ink' />

[RX3-BOi]

i remember seeing one doco were a occy was in a tank with a screw on lid. it unscrewed the lid and went into another aquarium!! unbelieveable maybe but thats amazing

[Guest]

I remember standing on a rockwall and seeing a mexican wave of shrimp, small fish and crabs darting out in all directions. Some fish were even landing on dry rock to get out of the way. About half a metre behind the mexican wave was a dirty great big occy oozing its way between the rocks. They're definately a feared predator.



My mate catches crays professionally and for fun while skin diving. He told me that given the choice of a divers hand and an occy, the cray will always run for the safety of the glove.

[Mr_Willy]

Occys are a problem for cray fisherman all over the place, as they can quite often climb into the pots and eat the crayfish - i know a bloke at victor harbour in SA who has cray pots and he loses an estimated 30 crays to occys every year. Cuttlefish can also be a pest - this guy caught a massive one in his pots last year - he had eaten 1/2 his cray, so he kept the cuttlefish and ate that!!

[Hunter_Killer]

I have no sympathy for those cray fishermen because the occys are not eating the fishermen's food. Its the other way round. Give the occys respect or the karma of the ocean will strike.

[inky]

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.

[Jazman]

Thanks for that inky, interesting stuff.

So what about when they ink!!

I can envisage putting a squid in a tank, then it inking everywhere, then changing the water, inking again, etc....

I have seen those dumpling squid, they are pretty cute.

Cheers

Jaz

[glen]

hi inky, is there southern dumpling squid in port phillip bay?



thanks for the info, glen