Ja - there's a little camera icon there that you can grab a shot of them with. Problem is they move so fast and are in and out of frame all the time ...

Hi all. :smile:

We were just curious here as to how much longer the broad squid will be kept, and what their final adult size will be?

--Carl :cyclops: and Barbara :cyclops:
from the home of Jack Daniels and the Tennessee Walking Horse :wine:

I've been asking myself the same question. They grow to about a foot in length, so I'll need a much bigger tank soon.

I've no intention of terminating SQUIDCAM in the immediate future, but with cephs you never know when a catastrophe hits and we lose them. So, unless something terrible happens I think you can count on a few more months (at the very least).

Thankyou, we're looking forward to seeing them grow :smile:

Nice, wish i could keep squid, the only place with live squid that doesn't die in five mins is in Ocean Park, their squid is quite sucessful, about let's say 9 inches long ( excluding the tentcles)

... but with cephs you never know when a catastrophe hits and we lose them. So, unless something terrible happens I think you can count on a few more months (at the very least).

JINX! Went in this morn for the next feed ... and there's half of the larger one on the tank floor. :sad:

Contemplating next steps.

What do you think happened? Sorry to hear.....

What the hell happened

We'll never know - one just ripped into the other, leaving only half of it in the bottom of the tank. I've seen cannibalism before, but not with just 2 animals in a tank. I suppose I'd best be on the lookout for autophagy ....

This afternoon I'm changing the diet of this lone fella. I'm going to give him some glass shrimp. You might see a few funny things if you tune in late US time (I don't know the time difference, but I'll probably drop the food in ~ 7.30pm this evening)

7:30 your time???? It's 9:30 here, so how many hours difference?

It's now 3.30pm, so 6hrs? You'll be sleeping :hmm:

:hmm: Maybe not... I don't sleep much these days.... so 1:30am our time ! We'll see....

Oo....So, you planning to post pics actually? We the less fortunate poeple who needs sleep and school might also want to see this..

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 .... hope you're watching!

Well, I saw the excitement from up top; obviously someone was watching from their desk, because when I returned the squid was zoomed up to the max, with 8 arms and 2 tentacles stuffed chocker-full of shrimp!!

There was a ton of food for it anyway ... guess it just wanted something different (we cannot have steak and beans every night can we :sad: )

Just a couple of pics; someone else is chasing it around the tank right now.

Wow, this is great! I'm currently battling for control of the camera! This is very interesting.,..

The problem with shrimp and a naive squid is all the spines. I saw him a couple of times attack a shrimp, only to shoot backwards, aborting the attack, with a spine or two in its arms. That's the gamble. Squiddy will learn, but at what cost. Cross fingers yet again.

I remember dropping a crab into a octo den while i was scuba diving, the crab won... the octo went white and swam away

I missed it!!! :sad: Do you feed that time every night? Last time I checked in was at 1AM EST....

Hi Carol; I'm glad you slept!! No, I don't normally feed them at that time - the tides were right for me to get to a 'secret spot' and collect numerous glass shrimp, and I had a little time up my sleeve to do it. Usually I just saturate the tank and let the squid feed themselves when they want it; this early US am timing was pretty much a one-off.

It was pretty incredible.

So I'm curious....Tide being right for me when I collect is dead low, during slack! I also collect tons of grass shrimp at that time. Any pics of your "secret" spot, or would that mean it wouldn't be a secret anymore??? Shame I missed it!!! Please post again when you have another opportunity where we can watch!!!

Carol

Shame, someone kept looking at the fishes intead of the squid...while I was battling for control of the camera

sweet...

Sweet!!!!!!! :shock:

Fed him a swag of shrimp again today .... he's a pig, and he's certainly growing!

aww.... what a lil cutie.

I would love to keep a squid, too bad I can't :cry:

I just noticed, squiddy is 4 months old today. Yesterday I thought he was sick (I was a little nervous), but in fact I don't think he is. He's certainly hovering around the bottom of the tank more than he used to, so for long periods of time he might be out of camera frame. I also got told off today, 2 months after doing it, for moving the camera around Christmas time; I guess someone has just returned to work after a nice 'wee' vacation.

Where did you move it? Like before and after since I don't really get this. Too bad I can't see the squid.

Will definitely have to move the camera, hopefully today; I haven't seen it online for a couple of days, but he's alive and well down the bottom, munching on shrimp.

A little later today, 11am, I'll drop a ton of shrimp in there - should be a feeding frenzy, and we'll probably see Mr Squid move higher in the water column.

A couple of things could be responsible for the descent in the water column; natural ontogenetic drop, extra light (very sunny days of late, and this is next to a window), or shrimp around the bottom of the tank (and this fella is hunting them down). We'll see soon.

We'll se Master O, we'll see....

Here we go....Is that 11Am your time or our time? We figured out last time there's 6 hours time difference so it's 7:18PM EST now..... :mrgreen: So...is it 1PM there so I missed it yet again????

Carol

Sudden change of plans; last-minute call-out to sea, so had to dump a ton of sprats in instead, at an earlier time. REAL sorry!!!!!! Will try and do the shrimp in 2 days; am at sea again tomorrow.
O

aw..ok. I don't really mind. Call out to sea to do what? Tell us when you come back.

Some rather exciting things happening at this end; will know more in ~ 3 weeks.

Something terrible just happened .....

I accidently knocked the camera and couldn't quite figure out how it was placed before ....

Unfortunately the lower part of the tank (my expensive tanks!!!!) is scratched something shocking (the problem when working in confined spaces with lots of gear). At any rate, you can see the squid more often .... I slap myself for knocking the camera! Naughty me.

Popped on tonight and holy cow!!

The little guys were "zinging" all over the place. They wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a long look at them, let alone a photo.

Has anyone noticed them reacting to the camera movement before? For some reason, one of them slowed down and came close. It seemed to be "looking" at the camera. Do they react to the movement?

I've got to make some changes to the system, and to do it through some proper channels. One thing I'll have to do is lift the tank and place some black cloth beneath it (it is presently on polystyrene slabs, for obvious reasons, and the white of the tank base reflects a lot of light - hence the poor illumination (bright) at the tank bottom). The second is a good tank clean! The third is to rotate the tank so that we have no scratches in view (the back of the tank must be at the front). Then the camera must be moved properly, so that we can see this animal in focus (right now it is very blurred). It definitely hangs out around the bottom of the tank now - no doubt about it - so I have to adjust all settings to take this into consideration. Darn squid - inconvenient beasts to keep you know!

I really am sorry about the poor view right now, but it is something that we'll get sorted out over the next week (when I get some time).

I'd like to add one thing. The site has had near 500,000 visits since it started - something spectacular (lots of people have tuned in) - and a lot of these are through TONMO (I assume - I know a fantastic number of viewers are from the States), so I would ask you here that when you have finished viewing could you please return the settings to the bottom of the tank, and to low light (as in PLEASE reduce the magnification to the lowest level (right hand sliding bar), and turn OFF the little illumination icon (lets more light in to the camera)). It really does frustrate me when I check them out, only to find the magnification right up and the 'extra-light thing' on, and I stare at a screen of nothing. It will probably frighten a novice away.

Thanks
Me

pretty annoying thing for the extra light to go on and the camer moving around.

I have a 56k modem :cry: ...

The one thing in life that is not fair to me - Squidcam!

Ha, it's blurry on my computer on all the time. :razz:

That's one happy squid!!

A face full of shrimp

Did I miss it yet again??????????

I saw him!!! I'm sooooo excited!!! He looked like he was darting all over the place after all those shrimp. Kept looking eyeball to the camera!!! I called my son in....He thinks I'm nuts!!! :mrgreen:

Sorry Carol, I had an hour and seized the opportunity to collect them ... didn't notify anyone ... :oops: Now it's back to burying my head in thesis reviews .. :sad:

Above pics = absolutely awesome

Face full of shrimp, hm...looks like me eating sushi. Any thing in common between humans and cpehs?

I put a tiny ~ 1-month-old friend in with him today. BIG gamble!!! Could be munched. The two had a 2-second standoff, and then big guy darted back to the bottom, little guy to the top.

So small (he's not actually - it's just the other one is so big (bigger than you'd think, looking through the camera - it's got gonad devloping)!! Can you find the little fella in the pic? Doesn't seem that long ago.

Just be careful, the big one might feel a bit hungry and chase after the lil one....
I hope nuthin bad happens...

Interesting; the large fella is quite disinterested in the little fella, so we put another one in yesterday (and the two little chaps hang out together at the top of the tank, whilst the big one remains at the bottom, all blurry [frustrating really, but we are on to a solution]).

One new problem caused by admitting these two new squid is that they're messier eaters than the large one (that devours the entire fish). I didn't vacuum for a couple of days after adding the first little fella, and the bottom of the tank was littered with partially eaten/filleted fish. Had to do a rather serious, near-complete water change or the entire system (and both squid) would have crashed (it did smell somewhat). Water quality is improving, but it's still a little cloudy.

The big squid seems to prefer shrimp to fish, and the shrimp are added for the secondary purpose of cleaning the bottom of the tank. There's a bit of a food chain established in the tank right now.

food chain? Wow, that's kinda neat...maybe a self sustained eviroment eventually?

Food Chain for thought: Hold the seals, hold the sperm whales! Hold the the Giant Squid and the humbolts! Don't you dare put the over large prdedators in there yet, Eric!

Have watched him devour ~ 10 fish over the space of as many minutes this morn. He cleaned out the tank last night - his appetite is fantastic!

The other two squid are doing just fine, although they spend all of their time at the very surface and are hardly visible. Big fella was eyeing them up this morn, so I thought it best to catch some more food.

Have watched him devour ~ 10 fish over the space of as many minutes this morn. He cleaned out the tank last night - his appetite is fantastic!
next: Students! :goofysca:

Yes sir! i'm working, sir! I'm being productive, sir!
Nooooooo...not the squid tank!!!

TPOTH

Poor TPOTH, good thing I soaked him in copper solution.
You here that Steve? You here that? You better not put poeple in the squid tank. No...wait. that's not copper solution, that selco!
NOOO!!!!.......
( Chrono is currently unable to type since he is submerged underwater, if you want to see him, he can be seen on SquidCAM)\ :lol:

I checked in tonight! My he's gotten sooo big!!! I still swear he knows when someones' watching him!!!

I think Carol and myself were wrestling for the controls.

For an experiment, someone should put together a small submersible joystick interface that the squid could use to watch itself on a SquidCam monitor outside its tank. It would be interesting to see if the little guy ever caught on.

--Carl
:squid:

Heavens; it has just dawned on me that this fellow is over 6 months now (~ 6.5 months). Last week he devoured the two smaller squid, within the space of 3 hours (I was caught up doing something else, desperately trying to catch more food .... but wasn't quick enough).

He/she is looking very good (from the topside of the tank); no visible sign of cloudy eye, or mantle lesion. And it eats like a pig!

(That's 6.5 months of my life that this little sod has stolen.)

I still swear he knows when someones' watching him!!!
Hi Carol,

I've had the same impression. The last time I checked in on the squid, it seemd to a) find the camera before I could find it, and b) stayed in the middle of the frame as I traversed and depressed the camera. Odd and slightly creepy.

:goofysca:

Clem

Hi Carol,

I've had the same impression. The last time I checked in on the squid, it seemd to a) find the camera before I could find it, and b) stayed in the middle of the frame as I traversed and depressed the camera. Odd and slightly creepy.

:goofysca:

Clem

Starting to feel like prey, Clem?

M

Melissa,

Between that squid and the hawks that loiter outside my window, yes, I do.

Clem (running out of mice)

THere are only a couple of fish left in the tank, after a fad feed this morn. Sigh. Thank heavens I'm close to the coast!

I swear he follows the camera.......You move it away from him and it's like he's dashing after it! How big is he now? Did I catch someone standing near the tank? He (squidlet) seems really hyper tonight!

Carol

Big tank clean and massive feed today (I'm off for a couple of days for a tiny wee holiday). Looks a lot better; is too large for the tank; and the tank is still scratched terribly. All rather frustrating really.

http://www.tonmo.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=601

is the color round his eyes a bit blueish green?

He's developed a rather nasty lesion at the back of the mantle - the skin is torn (probably from hitting the plastic mesh covering the drainage pipe at the top). So, I'm a tad worried.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can put in there (some antibiotic) that's not going to hurt him? I don't really want to lose him to infection after all of this time.

Will do a full water change early next week; cannot do so today or morrow for other reasons.

Sorry to hear! What about Erythromycin?

Carol

I am a bit out of it, what kind of squid is this?

also, about that adopt a squid program..as a school teacher, classes often do this. they raise money and adopt highways and whales and all kinds of things. Kids love making money, even if they are not directly benefiting from it.

gaetan

something we called broad (or big) finned squid, I fink...

You finked well Chrono, aka Grasshopper; tiz Sepioteuthis australis (Broad Squid); we have plans to bring you something more sensational soon. Thanks Carol, and Gaetan (wish I had a highway on offer). Something a little unusual (on the webpage) might happen soon, if I can duplicate myself (and time).

Whoa!! I haven't checked in a long time but boy has it grown!

u can say that again...

I checked in tonight. Happy to see he's still with us. How is the lesion? Did you decide on a course of treatment?

Carol

Haven't done the treatment yet Carol; have been a tad preoccupied with other things. Gave it a substantial water change tonight (~ 50%), and will do the same again in 2 days (tomorrow is a writeoff). As a consequence it might be a tad murky for a couple of days.

We'll be moving SQUIDCAM from its present website to another in the not-too-distant future, and at the same time, hopefully getting a bigger tank also; we'll have to adjust a link. Poor fella has long-since outgrown this one.

how big the the tank now?

8-)

the squids getting bigger by minute! :lol:

They anywhere near full sized yet?

rephrased as: can I eat it yet?

I just tuned in to the squidcam, and the saw the squid put on a bit of a show... maybe it does this when it's ready to hunt; I haven't seen it eat a fish before, but it put on some striking vertical stripes on the sides of its mantle, and waved its arms in several different gestures, including curling them back over the top of the head, and sort of curling them out wide then back in...

I think it went after one of the fish, but I couldn't track with the camera well enough to see for sure...

Anyway, maybe it does this frequently and I've just only looked when it's bored and just going back-and-forth as a plain yellow-brown, but wow, I was really impressed this time.

It looks like the scratches on the tank are starting to confuse the auto-focus, though; sometimes it prefers to focus on the front of the tank rather than the squid... hopefully this will be resolved by the new tank.

I got one good snapshot of the spectacle, but I accidentally overwrote it before I could save it to disk....

rephrased as: can I eat it yet?

You most wicked fellow!! Squiddy is 'affectionately known' as Sh*thead around here - he has developed a bit of a personality.

LOL.

Are you sure Squiddy's a he, not a she?

I think you'll find that sh*head is gender neutral.

um...ok

Hi everyone,
The squid camera is the great thing!!!
You cam control the camera and zoom in and zoom out.

:smile:

Squiddy or sh*head is looking good! What's the appetite like now? Translation "How often do you have to go fishing at some ungodly am to feed the ungrateful wretch? :twisted: "

J

Ungrateful wretch gets fed near daily (two days at max) ... you can kiss goodbye an hour or two every couple of days - and his/her appetite is insatiable!

his appentite is even bigger than mine! :lol:

... and his/her appetite is insatiable!


You can't tell from gross morphology? Males and females look the same from the outside?

Wondering just how big is Sh**head these days? :confused:

My girlfriend would like to know what exactly the squid did to deserve this monicker-- was it just the "eating the siblings" thing, or something else?

thanks

- M :confused:

I'm not the most creative when it comes to names, that's all; I've got three cats that are also called 'Shi*head'. Re Shi*head's size, it's not the most obliging of beasts (keeps moving), but it's about 18cm long now - a little smaller than I'd thought, but then that's with a ruler hovering above him when he's half-way down the tank.

I put him to around perhaps 25cm long :wink:

RIP Sh*thead

:sad:

I don't know why; it was alive and extremely well this morning, and fed some nice fish. This comes as a bit of a kick in the guts ... rather unexpected ... but we've just got to start all over again, and this time be a little more vigilant.

Hopefully by the end of June we'll have more squid (or at least eggs; we're coming into spawning season again). As a bridging solution we might put an octopus in there, but I'm not so keen on this (maybe I should have a wee break). The upside, I'll be able to clean and polish the tank wall in the interim and bring it back new and improved.

No!!!!!!!!!! :angelpus:

No!!!!!!!!!! :angelpus:

Unless the aforementionned was playing possum, I can only confirm the sad news :(

TPOTH

"You are both pretty weird, but You are weirder"
"There is ... PANDEMONIUM in your head!!"

TPOTH ... are you collecting all of my accusations in your signature? If I'd only known!! I've a few more .....

Tragically true... I have seen the sad little carcass (well, not so little) pickling on Steve's desk. He really did look good this morning. :cry:

It is a sad loss