squid

[delbeek]

Keigo: Since you live in Malaysia you should have access to a wide range of cephalopods including a couple of species of cuttle, squid and octopus. As you discovered none of these will live for long and this is natural so you will need to either replace your animals yearly or more frequently depending on the age of the ones you get.

Squid and cuttles both need a lot of space so for the average home aquarist they are not a good candidate. I have kept the cuttles Sepia officinalis, S. latimanus and S. pharaonis, and the squid Sepiateuthis lessoniana in a tank that is 8 ft long, 5 ft wide and 4 ft deep. All did well in this tank and some even laid eggs. You can only keep a few due to the size they will grow. The other thing with these animals is that they need a lot of food. When you first get them live fish or shrimp are best, but you can wean them onto frozen or freshly dead fish and shrimp. It is best to start with small ones and then grow them up, large adults will have problems acclimating. For cuttles the best is to start with eggs and hatch them out in your tank. Of course, this requires you to have access to 1000's of small live shrimp since they hatch out at about 1 cm in size and eat constantly.

There are several smaller cephs that are perfectly suited to home aquariums like octopus and bobtail squids, but many of these are only active at night but can still be a lot of fun to keep, especially the bioluminescent ones.

I would think that the best you could hope to do is an octopus, but DO NOT collect or handle the blue-ring whose bite is fatal to humans!!!

I would urge you to get a copy of Marn Norman's Cephalopods: A World Guide (its on Amazon.com) where you can find out exactly what species may be available in your area. Its the best book for such.

Aloha!
J. Charles Delbeek

 

[Anonymous]

Saltykirk,
The National Resource Center for Cephalopods (http://www.nrcc.utmb.edu/) captively raises several species of cephalopods but they are only available to universities and such. They used to have a project going to have a commercial outlet for hobbyists IIRC.

Charles, thanks for that book suggestion.

Keigo, if you can't find that book you may also want to check out www.cephbase.com to find out what species are native to your area. You could also contact Dr. James Wood through that site, I'm sure he would be very helpful.

marked for archiving

 

[xKEIGOx]

oh tq! I think I'll get my self an octopus. The only problemn is my tank don't have an overflow... and i can't fix my skimmer in my tank since i have to cover my tank tight with fine plastic net. :\
oh~ i surely don't want to get any where near the TTX poison. kakakakka!!
eh, and I read from the website that the octopus actually still do well in a few hundred ppm of NO3?!?! is it true?

 

[Meloco14]

I dont remember where I read it, but I read that cuttlefish are very good aquarium inhabitants. At least certain species. They can be very docile and they pretty much just hover, not too active. And I have snorkelled with cuttlefish and reef squid, and they are very curious and not scared at all. I think they would be very good pets. There are certian species that only grow to a few inches too, so you dont need a huge tank. I havent the slightest idea where to get them though. But be careful about inking. They could kill themself if you dont have enough ventilation. Octopi are difficult to keep because you need an octopus proof tank, which they do sell. But they are highly intelligent, and they know when they are in captivity, and often become depressed. I know, that sounds ridiculous, but it's true. It's sad to see the octopi we have in our lab on campus because they just stay huddled in a corner, never moving around. So as much as I would love to have a pet octopus, I dont think I could for that reason alone.

 

[Anonymous]

keigo,
I don't doubt it. I don't remeber the exact species that stat refers to, but a few octos can handle (what some reef aquarists would consider) some pretty terrible water conditions. On the other hand, some are incredibly delicate.

 

[Anonymous]

Here is Dr. Wood's site:
http://is.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/index.html

 

[Anonymous]

Hei~ thanks for the reply! I have did some surfing on the net my self and I've found that they don't really live for a long time. Like around a year for most species. And they grow real fast. Most of the species came from the tropical sea so i guest they doesn't need any water chilling. I actually prefer octo cause of the fact that's it have 3 heart, blue blood, shape and color changing, etc. After few years of keeping marine fish only and coral reefs tank, i kinda want for something special. hehehe
The octo also require less space then the cuttlefish or the squid. But the draw back is that the fact they don't comeout much and they are too clever. I have to find something that could prevent them from coming out of the tank. :wink:

we always welcome reef viewpoints from okies! thank you!

 

[Anonymous]

malaysia.....yeah right....i'm thinking more like Tulsa!

 

[khs707]

Bimac's are the way to go for your first octopus. I kept my first one over 15 years ago and while their lives are short it is time well spent. We are learning that keeping them cooler extends their life. Bimac's unlike other species are not nocturnal. They are active during the day and the night.

They are usually thought to be canibalistic but lately that has been in great debate and it seems that if they have enough food and space you can keep more than one octopus in an aquarium.

I don't know what kind of customs requirements there are, but I do know someone who has a ton of bimacs to sell. Let me know if you think it is possible to get it through and I will put you two together.