Bobtail Squid

[alikatoes]

Aloha,

Has anyone ever tried breeding these guys? I had 6 and they laid eggs then died. I have kept the eggs for about a month now and nothing... Anybody know about these creatures?

[UKnanonoob]

Hi alikatoes,
i see you keep bobtails. I have just posted a thread on this forum , could you provide me, if possible, some info on these animals.

[alikatoes]

I really dont know much about these guys. I found them in a shallow sandy area here on Oahu. I was told of thier bioluminescent bacteria and went looking for them to observe. This last trip I only collected 7 large (2.5in) specimens and some shrimp. I assumed the shrimp were thier prey and certain enough they were hunted down and eaten. After about 2 weeks I had a cluster (4inx3in) of white egss stuck to plastic mesh inside thier holding tank. The eggs look like large grains of white rice. All of the adults were dead within 3 days after I found the eggs. I have had the eggs for nearly a month now and I have seen no growth. Not too sure what to do now.

[UKnanonoob]

Do you have any pics of the bobtails along with the eggs? Also i know you collected these your self but are they frequent in your LFS?

[alikatoes]

Not frequent at any LFS that I know of. I have sold some to a private company that was breeding them but they are short of specimens right now. Other than that I havent heard of others keeping them.

[Sen]

I found this page about breeding bobtail squids:
http://www.theculturedreef.com/squid.htm

[UKnanonoob]

That is an interesting story. Do admire the guy. Sen have you ever kept one?

[Sen]

No, unfortuately I didn't kept one. But I'm very interested in keeping one. I think they are really fascinating.

[alikatoes]

I guess my eggs still have about a week or 2 left before they hatch. Do you know whats best first feed?

[UKnanonoob]

I ahvent a clue alikatoes. Have you tried on tonmos site?

[marinebio_guy]

I've kept and breed two species of Euprymna they are not that hard to keep but it is a little difficult to raise the hatchlings.

[morayeelsrule]

wow any interest in selling the hatchings if they live if so let me know thanks

[TankFabricator]

Ditto!

[Kinetic]

it's been awhile, any news on these eggs?

[alikatoes]

They never hacthed and i'm not sure why. I had sea cucumbers, shrimp, hermit crabs etc inside the same tank so i'm thinking that they were eaten. I could still see the egg sacs but they seemed empty.

[Echidna09]

It's not likely you will find much help on this subject. Squid are hard to keep and have special needs. Likely they died because their environment wasn't sufficient. If they are like other cephs sometimes the females will lay a "blank" set of eggs as they go into sescenence (sp >.>).

[Opcn]

Bobtails are relatively easy to keep and breed in laboratories, they are not like squids in husbandry matters.

[alikatoes]

I am going to try and set up a seperate system to hold this species. First I need to get my live feed set up (for other sp. too) then I can hold the species much easier. Here in Hawaii I truck in prefiltered saltwater so water quality should be doable especially in conjunction with basic filtration. I will report progress for those that are interested.

[ryan_paskadi]

I work in a lab that keeps bobtails....They are solitary animals if you keep more than one make sure you have a large tank. They need a sand bed around 3" deep and should be kept without lots of live rock and other decorations. Males and females should be housed separately from each other. The females can lay multiple sets of eggs. If you put a male and female together they will breed. They should be fed 2-3 shrimp every day. Babies will eat mysid shrimp. Make sure to wound the mysid when introducing to young squid.

A newly hatched Euprymna scolopes is inexperienced at hunting. If they fail to many times at catching prey they will give up and die. It helps to mame the mysid shrimp when feeding juveniles.