• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Sepioteuthis Sepioidea/Lessoniana

ceph = squid God

Got it. lol I really hope he's willing to share his articles. I'd love to read about his methods and everything.

What kind of vibrations will damage the statocyst chamber, and what would creat such waves?
 
Ceph =’s learn things the hard way!

While I’ve published several papers using captive squid data, I’ve not raised squid from eggs. Others have, that work was going on at the NRCC while I was there. My ceph aquaculture claim to fame is being the first to breed and raise deep-sea octopuses in captivity. They were challenging but the issues were different than for squid.

While keeping squid – and deep-sea octopuses for that matter – is logistically challenging, I and others like Richard Ross started out as hobbyists – just like many TONMO members. For this reason I try to encourage hobbyists and try to make my work available online. However, I also do not recommend keeping squid. My intent here is to paint a realistic picture of what worked for me and the level of difficulty so that you can make an informed decision.

Like Jean, I was also using large tanks in a flow through system. "Large" means hot tub to swimming pool sized.

Many of my papers are already available on The Cephalopod Page, specifically here: Dr. James Wood's Curriculum Vitae

While there are some good tips on keeping cephalopods in captivity in some of the papers, especially the first VIE tagging paper, the scientific paper format doesn’t lend itself to including lots of animal care tips. A lot of what I’ve learned was through trial and error. Popular articles, TONMO posts and mentoring seem to be better vehicles for transferring “how to” animal care knowledge. In the future, videos could help improve knowledge transfer.

Dr. Roland Anderson and I will be publishing a low level paper on keeping squid in captivity. It basically says that squid are difficult. . . which is a common theme here also.
 
In the near future, my wife and I are planninng on having a house built for us near the coast. In this house I am trying to get a room dedicated as an entire aquarium (15' deep x 12' wide x 3' high[water level]){aquarium will reack the ceiling} I estimate this to be roughly 4.5 thousand gallons. I know it's still not as large as most people have used for rearing squid, but if I were to get my hands on a few animals how do you think my chances would be for success with this? I'm planning on having a sun roof for natural lighting, mangroves near the far back wall with a strong pump on either side of the mangrooves and maybe some small plants scattered across the rest of the tank leaving it mostly bare. The idea is so that when my stingray that I currently have gets fully grown(roughly 12" disk diameter) He'll have a more comfortable environment than my 24" x 25" x 96" tank.
 
And let me just clarify that I know stingrays are natural predators of squid and that I would not have them in the same tank. I just wanted to stay that because of what I've kept with my octopus before and I don't want anyone thinking I would do the same. If I ever kept squid they would be completely by themselfs except for prey items.
 
That would be some tank! Does this mean you'll be moving to the coast - guess so, because a tank like that would need daily attention.

Please keep us updated on your tank plans.

Nancy
 
If everything goes as planned; my family and I will have a house custom built somewhere between Corpus and Rockport. Its going to take up the entire room, wall to wall and floor to ceiling. 15 feet long by 12 feet wide and 3 - 4 feet deep. Like I said previously, this tank will be primarily for my stingray. It'll have some mangroves centered against the back wall with a large pump on either side aimed diagonally inward across the tank. It will have a deep sand bed between six and twelve inches with small grass like plants. I'll cover both pumps with rocks to not only hide the pumps but for shelter for smaller animals. It'll have a sun roof for natural lighting and day/night cycle.
 

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