baby squid (PICS)

GoblinFish

GoblinFish

New member
hello all,

i just came back from the beach and brought back 5 baby squid, i called 2 different LFS's while i was on the beach but both sounded like they didn't know what to tell me, all they told me is that they need allot of space and might be aggressive towards the other fish. What i am more concern of is what is the survival rate of these animals?
These are about 2 inches long starting from the tip of the tentacles and my tank is a 55 Gallon.
I remember seeing a video here on RC where someone was feeding one and it seemed like it was doing really good in captivity.
I tried feeding them about 30 min after i put them in the tank but they wouldn't eat anything.

Any help or info is much appreciated, i can still return them to the place where i found them.


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Survivability of squid in a home aquarium is pretty much 0. They're going to need lots of live food, they will grow very fast, and they will likely end up injuring themselves jetting around in the tank.

They are neat. Great pictures. Cool experience, but just not suitable for the long-term. Take as many notes as you can.

Caribbean Reef Squid info: http://www.marinebio.com/species.asp?id=286
 
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Those may not be babies either, they look like caribbean reef squid (a common species in shallow near shore waters of FL) which only get 2 to 3 inches. As far as keeping them alive they tend to do better with round tanks, they can be kept and even bred in cylindrical tanks. I've caught them and never been successful in fish tanks. Talking to people who have kept them they are best done in a horse trough type tank if you can't get a cylinder. The troughs are oval and have no corners, but you can't really watch them well except from above.

Even if you are successful, it is important to remember that they only live about a year and if they are already adults they may only live a few weeks or months. Like Animal Mother says, keep notes as the more we learn the better we are able to succeed in the future.
 
Those may not be babies either, they look like caribbean reef squid (a common species in shallow near shore waters of FL) which only get 2 to 3 inches. As far as keeping them alive they tend to do better with round tanks, they can be kept and even bred in cylindrical tanks. I've caught them and never been successful in fish tanks. Talking to people who have kept them they are best done in a horse trough type tank if you can't get a cylinder. The troughs are oval and have no corners, but you can't really watch them well except from above.

Even if you are successful, it is important to remember that they only live about a year and if they are already adults they may only live a few weeks or months. Like Animal Mother says, keep notes as the more we learn the better we are able to succeed in the future.
 
that is really neat, i wish i lived somewhere like you so i could just catch my tanks contents! How did you catch them?
 
very kewl!
saw your thread in the main forum... keep us posted on how they do... that would be neat to have those in a tank!

what about keeping them in large hexagon tanks?
not oval shaped but might work if that is what they need

regards
 
On TONMO there are a lot of Marine Bio. folks who work at public aquariums or university research aquariums on a professional level and if they say it's hard to keep them in their setups... I couldn't suggest anyone killing some just to try it out at home.

Bobtail squid would be much more appropriate. Or dwarf cuttles.

Nothing's impossible and I wish anyone who attempts it the best of luck.
 
well, i would never feel bad killing them trying to research what works best seeing how there are literally millions of that species in the wild. i would feel bad but at the same time, these things probably only live 6-7 months in the wild if they are lucky and if you figure the best way to keep them in a home aquarium that would be beneficial to us all!! I know what you mean though animal mother, but this is a species so abundant that it isnt hurting anything!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13228995#post13228995 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jojoyojimbi
better question is how the heck did you catch them?!
Click to expand...

believe it or not i caught these with a plastic bag, when i first spotted them i tried getting close to them and noticed that they were not scared at all, i also tried catching them with my hands and came really close to catching one.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13229757#post13229757 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mhills16
well, i would never feel bad killing them trying to research what works best seeing how there are literally millions of that species in the wild. i would feel bad but at the same time, these things probably only live 6-7 months in the wild if they are lucky and if you figure the best way to keep them in a home aquarium that would be beneficial to us all!! I know what you mean though animal mother, but this is a species so abundant that it isnt hurting anything!
Click to expand...

Fair enough. Anyone who wants to research squid should go to TONMO though and speak with the highly educated and experienced Marine biologists that post there. Most of their work is with Giant and Colossal squids but it's not limited to that. And like I said, many of them have experience maintaining smaller species and they're always willing to give good information and they don't flame anyone.

IMO, and I'm not flaming anybody but research technically should be done before obtaining the animal. Going at it blindly isn't research. When I was a kid I'd catch frogs and turtles and tarantulas and I know what it's like to spot an animal I'd like to keep and think "if I don't catch it now it won't be there later." But that is a selfish approach to keeping any animal.

Never could I have imagined catching and keeping some small squid, that is indeed pretty cool. It's just unfortunate that the facts are that they don't fair well in your typical home aquarium. Considering their abundance you think you would see them in the trade but, like a lot of cephalopods, there's good reason you don't see them in the trade.

If someone succeeds in keeping them then much praise to them. It doesn't get much more interesting IMO than having a ceph or group of cephs to appreciate.
 
i was the same as a kid, i caught evrything that lives in ohio and kept them, i learned alot from that lol! i just think its neat he was able to catch them likt he did, with a bag lol!! i just wish i lived near there so i could catch things too for the tank, i dont think i would ever go to the lfs, and most likely i would always have a disease free tank!
 
Marinebio.com's description says that they will reach 12-20 centimeters mantle length. That's 6-10 inches, not including the arms.
 
i've seen the full grown adults, they're really kind of like cuttlefish, slow, deliberate, not all spastic like a lot of species of squid seem to be, maybe they'll do ok in a tank
 
My bad AnimalMother, I was thinking of grass squid, another very common squid that only gets a couple of inches. Not sure how to tell them apart.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13279018#post13279018 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Animal Mother
Update?

Working out?

Not working out?

Any shared experience on the subject would only be beneficial.
Click to expand...

did not work out, the squid did pretty well for the first 5 days except for one of them that jumped out. On day six i woke up and 2 out of the remaining 4 were gone and the next day the other remaining 2 disappeared. I noticed the skimmer was going nuts during those last few days so im pretty sure that they died in the tank. One of the biggest problems that i noticed in this experience was the excessive squid ink that was being sprayed every time they would get spooked by the other fish, i had some of the ink go on my corals and caused them to close. Also feeding them was near impossible, they wouldn't eat anything that would float around them, i had to force the food between their tentacles and only then they would grab on the food. I guess they are not used to having food just float by them.

Overall i think it was a pretty good experience.
 
Sorry it didn't work out GoblinFish. What were you feeding them? Live foods? Also, fish in a ceph tank is almost never a good idea... If the ceph doesn't eat the fish, then the fish usually stress or harass the ceph. You might have better luck if you try them in a species tank next time... Let us know!

Thanks for sharing!
 
Get a few more, put them with no fish and cover the tank....then post on tonmo with what happens and also on here.
Also, did they not try to eat each other?
 
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