Hawaiian Bobtail Squid

[skywindsurfer]

Just slip some laxtatives into her bedtime drink and subtly move the squid tank between the bedroom and bathroom lol. I think you could make a killing on these squid if you could get a large amount of them breeding. I'd buy at least ten. (My wife doesn't have to know lol, it generally takes her a few days to notice a new animal in the tank anyways.)

 

[Reef Geek]

I think you could make a killing on these squid if you could get a large amount of them breeding. I'd buy at least ten. (My wife doesn't have to know lol, it generally takes her a few days to notice a new animal in the tank anyways.)

Well I'm certainly not trying to make money at it. I'd love to breed them and help make them more available to the hobby, but I doubt it would be a money-making project. These guys would be more of a niche market than even cuttlefish or octopus. Heck, I don't even care about breaking even. I never made money scuba diving or with my sailboat, so why expect different with this hobby. (oh god never EVER made money with my sailboat!)

I mean, it is the most boring tank I have during the day. Just bare sand and no performers to entertain me. :-( Though last night I did almost get some pics and video. Well I did but I don't think it came out very well. Photography in low-light is a new thing for me so I've still got to iron out a few things.

So far these guys are pretty skittish. They will come out if the light in the same room is off but an adjoining rooms light is on. So it doesn't have to be complete darkness. But as soon as they see someone they freeze and will slowing dig into the sand again until you leave. I've dug them up a few times to try and get pics but they keep a layer of sand on their back and will ink then fly away if you irritate them too much. The only time I've caught them displaying any cool coloring is when I came in after dark and caught them out hunting. I put 6 - 8 one inch shrimp in every night before bed and they eat them all every time. So it seems when they are hunting the greens and teals come out and they're very pretty to observe. Though to do this you have to hit them with a light and in a matter of moments they'll be buried again. It's like elusive artwork.

 

[neurobadger]

It'll take them a while to warm up. Treat them a bit like dogs - if you keep feeding them and acting nice they'll think 'oh, this human is nice'.

Also, bobtail squid are nocturnal.

 

[skywindsurfer]

Even if you are not in it for the profit, I would still pay for shipping at least.

 

[Reef Geek]

Well first things first, let's see if I can finagle more squidses from the program. It'd be nice if someone had some more contacts in Hawaii that could help us out. The more the merrier!

I know BTS are nocturnal. Just thought it interesting that it doesn't have to be full darkness for them to come out. I had a nocturnal octo before that wouldn't come out even in partial light. So at least these guys are easier to catch than him.

 

[DWhatley]

An oddity I have observed with several of my nocturnals at somewhere past half life is that once trained to a feeding time, they will come out with the room lights on as long as the tank lights are off (often but not always).

 

[Reef Geek]

That's pretty much where we are now. When I throw food in they will come out with the room lights on and tank lights off. However if they see you they'll freeze and the shrimp can walk on their head but they won't move.

Hopefully we'll move past that next and they'll hunt with me watching.

 

[Reef Geek]

Well last night one of the squid surprised me. I threw in a batch of shrimp and he immediately burst out of the sand and chased one down with me standing right there. Nothing slow or stalking about it, this guy was very aggressive.

I've been feeding them large ghost shrimp but since I've kept regular shrimp from the bait-shop in the "food" tank I'm now finding baby bait shrimp that are a good bit bigger than the ghost shrimp. For as small as they are the squid have no problem going after these larger shrimp, some of them 2" long.

I'm going to try this again tonight with the camera in hand and see what I can get.

The other thing I've noticed is that when I dig them up myself they keep a layer of sand on their back but when they come out on their own the sand is gone and they are blue-green colors. Very interesting. I'm going to have to read up on how they hold the layer of sand on like that.

 

[skywindsurfer]

My guess would be a layer of mucous that maybe they wipe off of themselves if they don't feel threatend.

 

[Reef Geek]

Just caught someone out and about and he didn't hide fast enough!

 

[skywindsurfer]

Lol lucky us. Great picture.

 

[devi]

Those colours are amazing, beautiful!

 

[Reef Geek]

Woke up this morning to find one of the squid dead. I didn't see any evidence of fighting and I doubt that happened anyway since these guys always stayed within a few inches of each other when buried in the sand.

I did noticed that the tips of the tentacles would stick to anything! I used my tongs to fish him out and the arms weren't holding onto anything, as expected but the tips of the tentacles were like super-glue. Just an interesting observation.

Since these guys have such short life-spans (6-10 months depending on the articles I read) I knew that their stay in my home was going to be very limited. Hopefully more will be available soon.

 

[DWhatley]

Are you saying that the tips stick to anything they touch even in a dead animal? If so, can you see anything (or possible look when the second one passes if you did not look at this one under a magnifying glass/microscope) different than normal suckers at the tips, something more velco like perhaps?.

 

[OB]

I haven't studied Euprymna scolopes in detail, but a Northern species, Rossia macrosoma has as much as 10 rows of suckers on its tiny clubs, not unlike... velcro