Keeping Squid Live In A Fish Tank

[instyle2015]

hi as the topic says has anyone tryed keeping squid alive in a fish tank if so was it hard and how long did they last and any helpfull tips will be great

thanks michael

[framedtrash]

hi as the topic says has anyone tryed keeping squid alive in a fish tank if so was it hard and how long did they last and any helpfull tips will be great

thanks michael

Nope they will die

they need fresh circulating water to survive

[lambo]

gday

we have a large plastic barrel - abt 100 litres when full, with a bilge pump which pumps the water in the bottom and a drain near the top. will keep tham alive for about 8 hours but u hv to keep the water circulating all the time.

cheers

[Juzza]

I have a marine tank at home and have read quite a bit about keeping generally cuttlefish and occys. Not sure how squid would fare. So...you could always set up a marine tank =] which is quite alot of work/maintainence and may cost a bit. You'll need good circulation like all marine tanks have, and adequate filtration system. Compared to fresh water tanks, salt water tanks (especially ones with coral and susceptible animals like cephlaplods)...waste products in the water need to be maintained in low concentrations and removed these include include nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, protein etc.

The filtration system processes the waste products and this is assisted by water changes and various other add on (like a protein skimmer). Therefore...i guess the final thing to say is that. Its quite impossible to keep cephlaplods for expended periods of time unless you can supply pristine water circulating water to them consistently the cephlaplod will die from waste products, disease and/or stress....

Most tanks recirculate about 15-30x of their volume per hour in a standard marine tank...composed of filters and powerheads etc..

So keeping them at home is a expensive and time consuming process...most dont even live for a year if you want to keep them for extended periods of time.

Hope this helps,

Justin

[wttmrwolf]

My mate put a couple of squid in his marine tank to use the next morning for live bait. Went out for a few hours and on his return could smell the stench before he even opened his front door. The squid had died and the power heads and pumps had turned the tank into a squid foam bath. Squid foam all over the carpet with stench to match.

[archilles2]

Mate, i kept a cuttle fish alive for 2 days in a mayo bucket - we called him Columbus and was

only 10cm long.

I caught him on the Thursday night, let him squirt his ink and changed water

5 times before i left , i don't let squid sit in inky water at all. I left him in the

garage in a half filled bucket of sea water ( with no ink ) i had taken from the spot.

I left him out overnight ( garage ) because i didn't want to vacuum seal him alive ,

the next morning i got up ready to vacuum seal him but guess what ? He was still alive lol.

No aerator, same water.

That night on the Friday we were going jewwie fishing, so i decided to put a simple aerator

in the bucket to see if he lasted till the arvo. I didn't think he would make it but guess what he did.

We took him to our spot on friday night, with the same water from thursday night.

Then on Saturday morning when we were about to use him we open the lid and guess what,

still alive! We felt so sorry for columbus that we released him unharmed, he lived to to fight

another day hehe.

I think the reason why he stayed alive was because the water had no ink in it.

Also another reason is because he was in his bucket alone. If i had put him in a bucket

with another cuttle or squid, i'm sure he would of died, less water to swim around ,

less poo and less disease. If one gets sick , the other will soon get sick and die also.

Finally, water temp was kept fairly constant because i had the bucket indoors.

My advice, is get 3 mayo buckets , catch 3 squid, let them squirt all their ink out and

keep them in seperate buckets with aerators , my mate suggested i even use a cheap heater

to keep water temp constant .

See how they go, if kept squid alive for 2 days using this method also. Try keep buckets

indoors and make sure your bucket is big enough for them swim around in. I don't know

about feeding them , i only keep mine alive for 2 days before i go fishing.

Edited October 5, 2009 by archilles2

[instyle2015]

thanks for the input guys

i will try it and see how i go

[adzzy]

Hi i think it would be possible as Sydney aquarium breed cuttle fish there in a 4 ft tank and have done so for years let us know how you go

[DerekD]

I suspect cuttlefish are easier to keep alive than squid.

I chase both when looking for bait and put them both in the same esky and change out the water reasonably often. Even if I catch the cuttlefish before the squid I always find that the squid die on me at some point and the cuttlefish are still alive at the end of the day. Not really a problem in my case as I use the squid as strip bait and put down whole cuttlefish. I don't aerate the water so that could be a contributing factor in killing off the squid.