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Captive Squid

Joined
Oct 26, 2015
Messages
10
Location
United States
I found this interesting little video on the great youtube.


What I find most interesting about the video though is how long he managed to keep them alive for. According the the YouTuber he caught these squids on the North Shore of Oahu. He managed to keep them alive in that tank for several weeks where he feed them feeder shrimp and according to him they only died when he tried to feed them fish. I find this interesting seeing how he managed to keep the little buggers alive for a long time in that tank (small and non circular). And guessing from the setup it was probably home aquarium too.

His comments made on regards to his video
"thanks guys, these squidz were caught out on the North Shore of Oahu."

Untagged reply a youtuber "if you are on Oahu & u want to buy one I have one. send me a message or whatever. i dont really do YouTUBE much."

"these were actually pretty hardy. they lasted the ride home without an airpump. and lasted a few weeks while on a diet of saltwater feeder shrimp...but the second i tried feeding them saltwater feeder fish ...they died."
 
Without knowing anything about the "feeder fish" my first thought is that they were likely purchased at a pet store where virtually all fish are treated with copper - lethal to inverts. Additionally, a recent article about Caribbean Reef squid (Sepiotheuthis sepioidea) suggests that fish are not a normal diet (at least for the subject animal).

The only squid I know about that have been successful for their natural lifespan in an aquarium are the little bobtail squid. These are nocturnal, bury in the sand and live more like an octopus. Since they are not pelagic, they have been successfully kept (not easily) for more than one generation but they only live about 6 months. Here is a little info about them from one of our members to successfully keep them in a lab followed by a few scientific articles.
 
Bobtails shouldn't count though they more more cuttlefish then they are squid. But I like that setup you linked. Apparently Bamfield Marine Sciences Center had a pdf on Cephalopod care that according to ehow (sketchy) had info for caring about squid. However the pdf is no longer available and I'm struggling to find a version. (Animal Care – RESEARCH | Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre) From the pdf that are still their they seem to be only a simplistic care sheet.
 
I think their "care" sheets are more of an ethics guideline (number collected, euthanasia, pain) than actual conditions for caring for an invert.
 
I guess that's a better way of describing it. However it still would be intriguing (for me at least) to see what they had. Curious though do you have a gander of what type of squid was in the youtube video (some sort of native Hawaiian squid perhaps bigfin). I'll see if I can find anymore video's of captive squids.
 
Nice video find @IkaMusuko. I added it to our Cephalopod Videos thread. It would be interesting to learn if they adapted to hand feeding like cuttlefishes and octopuses often (but not always) do.
 
Pygmy Squid (Idiosepius pygmaeus) hatch at Reef HQ Aquarium


Published on Aug 31, 2015
Staff were excited to find fertile eggs laid by adult Pygmy Squid (Idiosepius pygmaeus) in an experimental Plankton system. The eggs have now hatched into tiny miniatures of the adults. The babies at only 1mm long already can change colour to camouflage themselves. Adults are approximately 2cm long fully grown. Aquarists are now raising the juveniles with hopes of displaying them in the future.
 

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