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I "had" a pet squid.

S

sideways

Vampyroteuthis
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Jan 31, 2003
Messages
251
Just in case you guys don't know, I work at the NC Aquarium as an educator. Yesterday, I had a group out in the estuary for a crabbing program. Someone had left a 7 foot cast net on the beach and I was throwing it out a few times before we left. On the last throw, a 7 year old noticed a small blob in the net which I had missed. I thought it was a jelly until I noticed it had two huge eyes. It was a tiny 2" squid. I reached in and picked it up and it bit me! It only stung a little. I put it in a cooler of water where it proceded to ink. Afterwards, it seemed to be a bit happier, darting around. I couldn't resist taking it home and giving it a try. I acclimated it succesfully into truffles' (my old bimac) old tank. It did well all day yesterday, hovering about. It bumped into the glass only a couple times once it got used to it. It had great camo skills and was a blast to watch. It even threw up a threat posture at me when I stuck a stick in the tank. It passed away about 1 am this morning. I guess it just wasn't meant to be, maybe I'll give it another try when I have a 10 foot long tank for one to zoom about in. :D Rest in peace...squidward.
John
 
Thanks for telling us about this experience. Sorry that he passed away so soon, but it must have been very interesting keeping him for a little while.

You have a great job!

Nancy
 
I had a bunch of tiny hermits in the tank. I was going to try to get some baby guppies or something the next day to see if it would attack them. Ohh well. John
 
I collect little prawns for my clowns form a local creek. I quite often get little squid in the net (less than 1/2 an inch long). I usually take them home. They last a few days on average before they become a meal for the clowns. In the meantime they hunt around the prawns which are about twice their size. Very fascinating! they actually mimic the shape of a prawn to sneak up on them!! Love to keep a few in a predator free tank!

Stephen
 
Sorry to hear that John, but thats a difficult way to get and keep these critters.

Squids and Cuttles (partic squids) die much faster than Octis when they're under stress and/or have insufficient food. These are seriously greedy animals as I'm sure Kat and Steve can verify with the appetities of their babies!

I've had juvenile Arrows but they only lasted 3 days and I'm sure it was stress (they has HEAPS of food). One of the other students caught them accidentally and knew I'd be interested so popped them into a tank to keep for me but unfortunately it was in direct sunlight and in an area with a lot of foot traffic and EVERYONE wanted to see the baby squid. By the time I arrived at work (only an hour later) they were swimming eratically and starting at every shadow :(

So don't feel too bad (well silly thing to say I know) it was probably on the way out when you found it.

On another note what sort of education programmes do you run? I take education programmes at the portobello Aquarium here in NZ! (I guess it'd be best to PM me about this...not sure if everyone would want to get into the nitty gritty of teaching at an aquarium! :lol: )

Cheers

J
 
Jean said:
not sure if everyone would want to get into the nitty gritty of teaching at an aquarium! :lol: )
Click to expand...

Dont jump to conclusions Jean... if they do something worthwhile, i might just have a reason to take a trip over to Wilmington....( havent had a reason since my bro got out of UNCW)

thrownet you say? did it look like this? a guy caught this when i was walking the beach last summer just northeast of charleston
 
If your trying to catch squid, a fine mesh dip net will work quite well as you don't get mantle damage but you have to be quick as the little blighters are fast (well at least in NZ they are) also keeping them in fresh flowing seawater (maybe in the dark) as soon as you get them might be a good idea as they do ink a lot and potentially can poison themselves.

Jean education is always interesting!!
 

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