keeping Atlantic squid

A

alprazo

Active member
Every summer while catching bait I always land several small 3/8 to 2 inch squid out of the Delaware bay. They make a popping sound when taken out of the water. Last year I decided to try and keep several alive in a tank but had no luck. Most of the time they were dead by morning. Has anyone had luck with them. If I can find a photo I will post it. I've tried natural and made SW with the same results. The bay water temp is quite high at times ~ 85 and I have matched that as well. The tank was rather small, 20 long but I can't imagine that would cause death to a squid < 1/2 inch in one night. Are these creatures just near impossible to keep and a kreisel tank is required or a I doing something wrong. I hope to try again this summer if anyone has ideas.

Thanks,

Alprazo
 
Squid requre a lot of room, Thats why you never see them on display in even public aquariums often. They could also have been into shock from handleing. Squid are very fragile and damage easilly. Water temp and PH is also a factor. I would lower the temp, try a much larger tank and keep it dark as much as possible.
 
cephalopoder,

Thanks for the reply. I am going to try one more time in 2 weeks. It will post photos if I catch any. I think you are right about them being in shock. The difficulty is transporting them from the bay to the tank. Transit time is about 20 minutes and the dissolved O2 of the bay is very low. The bait fish usually only live several minutes without aeration in the 82+ degree water. I think the aerator beats up the squid. I will post my failue or success. I will try a 55gal this time. I would hope that this would be large enough for one penny sized squid.

Alprazo
 
If you can try to get a round tank. One problem with cuttles and squid is they get butt burn from crashing into the end of the tank. A round tank keeps this from happening as much. The aerator could also cause micro bubbles to get trapped in the squids body causing boyancy problems as well. But you will still need to provide oxygen.
You could super charge the water with oxygen in the holding tank before you put the squid in. That should not be a problem for such small squid in a 5 gallon bucket on a 20 minute ride home.
When I go catch zoo plankton in the ocean at night I often catch american elvers in my net. Like squid, they are delicate and often die on the ride home fom handleing and shock mostly. I don't go out of my way to save them because I am more focused on the isopods and amphipods I catch to worry about a few baby eels.
I would limit as much as you can the number of squid in each contaner. Maybe one small 1" squid per a bucket and and make sure you have some sutible live food home to offer them. Squid are nervous and have a heary appetite so on hand food are a must.
I would say if you can keep baby squid for more than a week, you are doing excellent for starters.
chris
 
An update after 12 years. So I have learned how to keep these little guys.

Most important is that they need a tank with solid dark walls. If not they won't last 24 hours.

Transport should be in a dark bag or bucket.

Other than that they are quite easy and ridiculously aggressive. They will
Kill anything remotely close to them in size and when kept with larger fish they attack the eyes and will eat them or just blind the fish. Not sure. I had one kill at least 20 much larger mullet that were housed with it by taking their eyes. The longest I kept one was two months and let it go when summer ended. The smaller ones do well with live shrimp instead of fish. They also swim in groups and it is really cool
To watch them together . They tolerated poor water quality and tanks as small as a 5 gallon bucket for weeks. The only trick is the black or dark walls to the tank and transport vessel. I'll post pics as soon as I upload.
 
Btw. They are Brief Squid and get about 4 inches long though the largest I've seen was about 2.5 inches.
 
That is awesome and kudos to you for sticking with it for 12 years, solving a problem, and then posting it!!!
A few questions? Why did they die in a tank with clear walls? Stress?
What water temp?
Did they squirt ink, and if so was it toxic?
What did you filter with?
 
Spartan said:
That is awesome and kudos to you for sticking with it for 12 years, solving a problem, and then posting it!!!
A few questions? Why did they die in a tank with clear walls? Stress?
What water temp?
Did they squirt ink, and if so was it toxic?
What did you filter with?
Click to expand...


Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
I thought I posted this, but I guess not. to follow.....
Water temp is 80 - 85F
Filter is a canister.
They ink when caught and when they get spooked
They all went back into the bay a couple days after this video
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ua5SjOnktYY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Good for you! You kept with it and in 12 years and you figured it out! I love cephalopods but I am nowhere near being able to keep one!
 
Neat. The black walls probably make it think it's in an open body of water, and thus can escape if needed. Clear or other color walls show things nearby and thus no escape. So it stresses.

Blue ribbon eels are similar. If they don't have a long pipe to hide in, they will know that their body can be seen and thus eaten, because there is nowhere to hide. So they stress and don't eat, and starve.
 
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