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Question on squid as a healthy food source

eirelav

Pygmy Octopus
Registered
Joined
May 15, 2003
Messages
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I've been trying various frozen foods with my little bimac, Andy. She's refused scallops, mussels, shrimp and crab so far. I tried putting the thawed food in an old snail shell and she was so mad at me for tricking her she hid in the back of the tank for two days, normally she is very friendly. On my quest to find a readily accessible cheap food, my local bait shop guy suggested squid, apparently it is like candy to most fish. I tried it and she loves it!! My question is whether it is a healthy primary food source? Also it seems kind of cannibalistic to give her another cephalopod. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
We used to feed the GPOs at the New England Aquarium a variety of crabs (live) and dead fish, shrimp, and squid, and the ones I fed did seem to like squid second best to live crabs. Many species of squid, at least, are cannibalistic anyway (interspecies) and there are even a few recorded instances of intraspecific cannibalism (Architeuthis for example) so I wouldn't worry about it being too unnatural.
 
some octo's eat each other, you'd be surprised at what you see lol.No problem with feeding them squid, it might actually get his/her attention and he/she might go for it, it's definetly worth a try, what other choice do you have right, it's not like if squid are harmful to other ceph's so it's not a problem. :smile:
 
As an interesting aside on squid and nutrition, they apparently have about three times the cholesterol you'd find in a similar-sized serving of beef. For an animal that doesn't do much with lipids metabolically, that's a surprising figure.

Ref:
Okuzumi, M.; Fujii, T. (eds.) 2000. Nutritional and Functional Properties of Squid and Cuttlefish. National Cooperative Association of Squid Processors 35th Anniversary Commemorative Publication. 223 pp.

:squid:
 
My own ecperiences of using squid ended in dissaster...

when i used to have 7 cuttlefish they would ocassionally grab each other for a few seconds and then let go, sometimes with a small bite mark left on the mantle. After feeding them squid they realised that cuttlefish tastes a bit like squid and one of my cuttles got eaten because of that!!!

I stopped feeding squid and they seemed to 'forget' pretty quickly
 
Colin said:
My own ecperiences of using squid ended in dissaster...

when i used to have 7 cuttlefish they would ocassionally grab each other for a few seconds and then let go, sometimes with a small bite mark left on the mantle. After feeding them squid they realised that cuttlefish tastes a bit like squid and one of my cuttles got eaten because of that!!!

I stopped feeding squid and they seemed to 'forget' pretty quickly

Wow you have some pretty weird experiences lol, I understand that octos might eat each other more voluntarily if they are hungry but I definetly would not expect that from a cuttlefish, it's not in their nature to so, they are not the usual suspect's in this matter but they can be dieceving lol. :roll:
Squid and octo's share similarities in the cannibalism department, they are usually more willing to eat each other, not cuttle's though(well not usually).
 
shows what you know about cuttles... if you ever get to work with them you might be surprised what you learn from experience.
 
Colin said:
shows what you know about cuttles... if you ever get to work with them you might be surprised what you learn from experience.
hopefully I'll gwt to work with cuttles soon, i've handled one at my uni but i've mainly been dealing with octo's lol, you know how it is lol. :smile:
 

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