Squid in the home aquarium?

AZ_Reefer

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Hello everyone, I have an idea and need some feedback. I have read and see various information on cuttlefish and octopus, but what about squid? have those ever been kept here?

A long story short I know a distributor who gets the squid species Sepioteuthis lessoniana.

I have seen these at the Waikiki Aquarium and the Maui Ocean Center. (although I don't think they have kept any for quite some time though)

primarily my concerns are tank size, food requirements and multiple specimens together?

I thought a squid species aquarium would be pretty cool w/Live rock idea. :snorkel:

thank you
 
We see occasional bobtail squid on the site but I can't remember anyone successfully keeping a palegic species. Our common East Coast Caribbean reef squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea) are notoriously hard to transport. Robyn did some post doc work in Woods Hole MA last summer and her blog contains information on the the lab facilities and animals that she kept for the experiment using Loligo pealei
 
Squid are pelagic and skittish and tend to kill themselves after bumping into the side of the wall too many times; at least that's what I know of.

If you search the posts, you'll find ceph's account of attempting to raise Sepioteuthis.
 
neurobadger;184194 said:
Squid are pelagic and skittish and tend to kill themselves after bumping into the side of the wall too many times; at least that's what I know of.

If you search the posts, you'll find ceph's account of attempting to raise Sepioteuthis.


You think squid are more dependent on their siphons than the majority of octopus therefore making them jet into glass walls in the aquarium more often? After all very few species of squid are benthic (the only benthic squid I could come up with is bobtail squid).
 
It is worth noting that "bobtail squid" refers to sepiolids (cephalopods in the Order Sepiolida, separate from the Orders Sepiida, which encompasses cuttlefish, Octopoda, which holds the octopuses, and Teuthida, which are what you might call "true" squids) rather than any organism properly lumped in with pelagic squids (unless the term was repurposed recently and I remain unaware).

Taxa (that should be current, although obviously not exhaustive) can be seen here.
 
Well then, I much appreciate you to mention that. So technically bobtail squid is not a true squid then I am much convinced that there are practically no benthic squids therefore demanding more swimming space if anyone would ever try to keep one. And not to mention there are many squids in which tends to be nomads and just burrow into the substrate. Also I've heard that their eyes cannot distinguish the fact that glass happens to surround them.
 
There also seem to be some mysterious issues with pelagic squids and parallel-sided/regular-shaped aquaria -- not sure whether sound/vibration waves bouncing back and forth between the walls mess with their orientation, or what. Steve was only able to keep Sepioteuthis in cylindrical tanks, and only made out of particular materials, like acrylic -- polyethylene apparently also kills them.
 
@Cuddlycuttlefsh: Very welcome. I've actually always been enamored with Sepiolids and the idea of keeping/breeding them, however information on their husbandry has always seemed to me to be spotty at best (not to mention both Euprymna's short lifespan and the fact that its commensal bacterium may have the potential to become pathogenic--I'm perhaps excessively nervous about that). In any case, I would have to agree with you, as I can't think of any benthic squids off the top of my head.

@Tintenfisch: To clarify, do you know if it was that polyethylene is toxic to them, or that squids housed in polyethylene aquaria suffered high rates of mortality? Also, when keeping them in cylindrical tanks, was a strong-ish circular current maintained? I ask because I wonder if a continuous "smooth" current might contribute to their improved survival rates.
 
I wasn't on hand when Steve used the polyethylene tanks -- I think that was during the first baby Architeuthis trials. From that point on, he maintained that squid could not be kept in polyethylene. He also said that they did not do well in glass tanks, but that concrete was actually fine.

The cylindrical acrylic tanks generally had a single spray bar forming a radius across the tank's open top, with the jets directed into the water at an angle to make a circular current. I don't think the current was terribly strong.
 
Hmm...well, maybe I'll pester him for details in a PM this weekend. :razz: That is interesting though, and I wonder if perhaps this might be a venue for further research (always on the lookout for that perfect subject for the independent study requirement for my BS! :heee: Probably a bit too ambitious, though). Do you know if the squids ever exhibited any signs of bumping/rubbing up against the walls during those trials? I wonder if maybe the squid may have had dermatological issues (although I suppose then concrete should have been worse...:hmm:).

I see. Well there goes that hypothesis. Might the circular structure (along with the spray bar) have increased the dissolved O[SUB]2[/SUB] available to them?
 

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