Diet of a Squid

A hungry squid is a ruthless and highly efficient carnivore. Its muscular arms are covered along their length by suckers which help the squid first seize, and then envelop, its prey. The squid then uses its beak to chop up the food prior to eating it. This process is assisted by the radula -- a tongue-like toothed strip that moves back and forth like a rasp.

  1. Individual Differences

    • Squid have eight arms arranged in pairs and two longer tentacles.

      The way squid feed is dependent on their growth stage. This is also true for what they choose to feed on. As the squid grows and matures it generally feeds more often and on larger prey.
      The squid's diet includes fish, crustaceans and other squid. However, because there are around 300 species of squid in 25 families, individual diets will vary. While the majority of squid are no more than 60 cm long, giant squid have been recorded as reaching 15 meters in length.

    Red Squid (Ommastrephes Bartramii)

    • The red squid is the only ommastrephid squid with distribution in temperate and subtropical waters worldwide. It is the squid most people are familiar with due to it being the largest squid species exploited for human consumption.
      Scientists from the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero in Argentina found that red squid like to feed mostly on fish, and then each other. Their most popular fish is the lantern fish.

    European Flying Squid (Todarodes Sagittatus)

    • Scientists from the Centre Oceanogràfic de Balears in Spain also studied the smaller European flying squid. The researchers found that the diet of the squid was composed of 58 different varieties of fish and crustaceans.
      They also found that cannibalism was rampant--other squid being the second favorite choice of prey. The squid's diet changed as it grew, with juveniles preferring fish and adults favoring crustaceans.

    Veined Squid (Loligo Forbesi)

    • This commercially important veined squid lives in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea in subtropical and temperate waters. Scientists from University College Cork in Ireland studying the squid's stomch contents found fish in 73.7 percent of them. Crustaceans were the food of 26.4 percent and other squid, 7.5 percent.
      The size of the squid determined what it preferred to consume. The smallest squid favored crustaceans while larger squid preyed on hake, cod and other squid.

    Short-finned Squid (Illex Illecebrosus)

    • Researchers from Newfoundland's Department of Fisheries and Oceans collected short-finned squid over a 20-year period. They found that northern short-fin squid prey primarily on fish and crustaceans, but cannibalism of small individuals by larger females also occurred.
      The smallest and largest squid were found to display a preference for eating other squid. Medium-sized specimens opted for fish and crustaceans. Favored fish include young cod, red fish, sand lance, mackerel, herring, haddock and sculpin.