squid anyone?

[turtle1]

Hi everyone, I'm new here but not to the hobby. I found this message board through a post at about.com. I've been looking for resources on squid and cuttlefish in the direction of getting one someday. I've got several questions for now:

1. squid vs. cuttlefish, what are the differences besides the obvious?

2. What do squid eat? Will they eat my cleaner shrimp?

3. are squid reefsafe?

As you can see I'm biased towards mr. squiddly. I'd appreciate your info, advice and suggestions as there haven't been much on squid. Thanks!!! =)

Shalom
:beachbum:

[Fishotch]

i know next to nothing about this, but i've read that squid do poorly in the home aquarium, but i'm sure someone with more knoweldge than i can tell you with more certianty what the case is.

[turtle1]

Thanks for the reply, I hope someone knowledgaeble drops us a line, I hope its an encouraging one too.

[Jonniefish]

I've been selling marine fish for 10 years and have never had a squid even available to me.That being said your choice will be a cuttle.Cuttles eat crabs,shrimp,snails and fish.If you do keep it in a reef your coral should be fine but don't expect any critters to live:).

[cephalopoder]

Squid are very nervous, active, delicate, short lived and don't do well in home aquariums. If you want one you will have to catch it yourself:confused: They are cool though. I see the egg sacks often when I dive. Some day I'd like to get a tank with a chiller on it and collect some.
It would be exciting to see the little ones hatch.

[OctoMonkey]

Cuttlefish do not bother corals at all. I wouldnt keep anemones in the tank though! They would sting them.
I also keep them with red hermits, turbo snails, britle stars, sea cucumbers and an arrow crab.
They seem far more interested in whats going on outside the tank!

On a slightly sinister note... one of the fish originally used to mature the tank was a neon goby. For whatever reason their suckers on the feeder tentacles couldnt catch it. In fact, it got to the point where the goby even stopped swimming away and would get fired apon and not ebven flinch. After about a month i eventually managed to catch it and give it to a friend! I felt so sorry for it! It was a survivor!!!

I have seen a French importer offering squid for sale to the LFS over here but no Latin name and if I even suggest another tank I'm up for Separation!!!

[jamesbwood]

We are able to raise some species of squid from eggs to maturity in swimming pool sized tanks with a small army of students who collect food and care for them. Squid tend to freak at any stress and will smash into the side of the tank. This damages their skin, which often becomes fatally infected. Squid are simply not used to walls and the largest home aquariums are too small for them.

You can look up what squid and other cephalopods eat on CephBase. Go to:
http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/preydb/preydb.cfm

Any squid that isn’t dying, or any cephalopod for that matter, will love to eat your nice shrimp.

James B. Wood