Talk:Squid/Archive 1

OCTOPUS!
I just want to say, it can be a squid or octopus, but make sure the article is consistent. -Sasafras
 * Done, although it seems that Cilibinarii made an attempt while I was doing the same. - SoNick (Talk) 19:35, 13 January 2011 (UTC)


 * It's an Octopus. Squid have 8 arms AND TWO TENTACLES. See?
 * Grazfather 21:36, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Do we have a source for the squid name? If it's in the files as Squid [as I'd assumed] then there's no debate here; Notch intended for it to be a squid and arguing over what it looks like will get us nowhere. If it doesn't have a name in the files then perhaps octopus is correct? Has anyone with a twitter account asked Notch about it yet? - SoNick (Talk | Contribs) 22:06, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Do we have a source for the squid name? If it's in the files as Squid [as I'd assumed] then there's no debate here; Notch intended for it to be a squid and arguing over what it looks like will get us nowhere. If it doesn't have a name in the files then perhaps octopus is correct? Has anyone with a twitter account asked Notch about it yet? - SoNick (Talk | Contribs) 22:06, 13 January 2011 (UTC)


 * It's Squid.png in bin/Minecraft.jar and should people really have their names in the article? Ordona 22:09, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
 * If Notch says it's a squid, then that's what it is haha. I'd say it's a bad call, but I'd say that about a lot of the choices Notch makes. Grazfather 05:05, 10 February 2011 (UTC)
 * You're missing an important point: A squid's two long tentacles are retractable. Many just swim around with eight visible, and the two long ones only shoot out when it's time to capture prey. That, and the fact that their eyes are spaced apart (octopodes have them pretty close together, squid have them on opposite sides of the body, so it's sort of halfway in between).

Spawning behavior
Question: can they spawn if I make an aquarium big enough for em? Grhaal 22:00, 13 January 2011 (UTC)
 * It looks like it, judging by the page and the video[s] linked? Why not try it and report back to us! :D - SoNick (Talk | Contribs) 22:06, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Does anyone know if they spawn at day or night or if they have no preference? Sasafras 02:04, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

I have no idea how they spawn. I have created 2 aquariums. one that is 10x10x10, and has glass on all sides but one(other side is dirt). And one that is dug into the ground that is 2 deep 2 wide, and 1 long. Squids have spawned in neither of them. http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/8214/javaw2011011322145438.png http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6226/javaw2011011322151909.png

In my world, they only spawn in sections generated after the update. Try making your aquariums in new areas. Sasafras 15:32, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
 * They appear in proximity to my pre-Beta 1.2 spawn area, in fact that save contains no post-Beta 1.2 chunks. They'll spawn anywhere in the sea. SteveZombie 20:48, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Has anyone seen them spawn on peaceful mode (singleplayer or multiplayer)? My friend and I looked for ages in deep water for them but didn't find any (server was on peaceful). Started a new single player game on normal difficulty and had 5 squid straight away. Later switched it to peaceful and haven't seen any since. I'm yet to try looking for them on my server with monsters enabled. SystemParadox 14:30, 16 January 2011 (UTC)
 * I have seen them in single player peaceful mode, but I'm not sure about multiplayer Nanotane15:16, 16 January 2011

Addition to Spawning Behavior: If you use a program like InvEdit to give yourself water blocks, and then use those in The Nether, squids will spawn. They will fly around (as mentioned further down the page), and are seemingly unhurt by lava. Edit: Added to 'Trivia' and they CAN be hurt by lava.Suits 17:32, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Spawning conditions - any block of water, source or stream, transparent block above it (water, air, glass, ice etc). Any mode including Peaceful (same code as for animals). Any light level. Spawn rate is really low, only 5 against 15 for animals and 70 for monsters - no spawn attempts if there is already more than 5.6 squid per player. The rest is the same as for other creatures - spawn area 17x17 chunks around player, except for blocks up to 24 meters from player. Up to seven squids per chunk can be spawned, if you really-really lucky or playing in a world full of water. Rpahut 08:10, 17 January 2011 (UTC) Last edit Rpahut 19:07, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

I've heard of many people who have never or rarely seen squids (Myself included). If they can spawn practically under any condition as long as there's water, I assume they can spawn underground. Since there's a limit to how much can spawn, could water inside caves be taking up that limit and therefore prevent any from spawning above ground?--Lunt0er 14:45, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

I know it's never been mentioned in the bug fixes, but I've noticed that before the 1.7 update, I rarely found squid in the chunks of the world which I had previously visited and exterminated the population of these guys. Since that update, I've suddenly seen squid, and they have spawned in small pools. It would seem to me that a unacknowledged bug was fixed with the squid. Any body else notice this change in spawning behavior? GhengopelALPHA, July 3rd, 2011

Yes, there are suddenly dozens of squid spawning around my underwater base, as opposed to maybe one or two before 1.7. If I use the "killall squid" command from SPC, on average it says 28 to 35 squid were killed. And as soon as that happens, the same amount pop up in the same tick. I can't seem to get rid of them, they're really annoying. --Devilquak 08:11, 13 July 2011 (UTC)

Despawn bug
It looks like squids information currently doesn't get updated properly - they don't get despawned as do other creatures when player is far enough, also spawning does not resume after the amount limit were reached once - game reload is needed, probably walking far away will also wipe outdated information from the cache. Rpahut

I'm running an SMP 1.8.1 server with 30 users, the most I've had online at once was 12. The server is 235 days old, has 24,080 chunks in 41 regions and repair region area is 4816x3104x128. Squid do not ever despawn on my server and the client CPU and memory gets maxed logging in near any water where squid are present as there is no longer a single squid being spawned but thousands, if on a server restart they spawn in a small lake, its over 1000 all facing tentacles down tightly packed together. On some restarts, they can spawn in a single underground stream (thousands) and any player entering the area gets extreme lag, my server renders them which causes a condition from 5% CPU and quiet network to ~30% CPU and network spikes. dh66

Sheep and squid
Pulled from the page, moved here:
 * If a sheep touches a squid it will become black (Not Possible)Sheep now sometimes have black wool instead of white. (Discovered by Thebest91238)

The only black sheep I have found are near or around water where the squids are. So it may merit to the myth. Do not have any screen shots as of yet but I will watch for it to happen. (RakkaDaReal)

Can we get a confirm/deny on this? - SoNick (Talk | Contribs) 22:06, 13 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Confirmed False Does not happen, pushed a sheep into a pool with two squid in a pool I made 1 block deep...all the squid did is push the poor little guy around. -Dctrjons
 * Alright, thanks for the confirmation! It did seem a little weird and out there, but I didn't want to remove it entirely until it had been proven false. Also please sign your comments by leaving four tildes (~) after them; it's considered common courtesy to do so on talk pages. - SoNick (Talk | Contribs) 22:56, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Drowning / Suffocation?
Do they die if you take them out of the water?
 * I've heard that they can fly so if that's true then no. Ordona 23:02, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Confirmed...yup eventually they drown.Dctrjons 23:11, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Yet they can still fly... DUN DUN DUUUN! --Cornpopz 02:42, 30 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, either it changed right away or somehow the same test lead to different results. Herded them into a dirt box, closed the wall, cupped the water out and they now don't take damage even after a few minutes. So now confirming false. Dctrjons 02:40, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Squid spawning in shallow water
 According to the article, they spawn in fairly deep water and as little as 2 blocks deep when you're underground, but this makes me think that they just spawn anywhere that has 2 blocks deep water. This happened twice within a few minutes and is on multiplayer

I 've seen 2 in a L shaped cutout of a pool that was 2 deep, apparently 1 wide is enough, might need to be 2 long.

Sound
They don't make dirt sound lol.. the dirt sound is from them colliding with dirt. --Sagouine 01:03, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
 * From what I get they seem to make a dirt sound, the sound they make on sand is identical for me, but I'll make a test of it right now. -St. Fenix (User•Talk) 23:17, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Beached squids
I want to add this image : http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/4885/20110114002742.png to the gallery but I have no idea how to upload it.
 * The Upload file button is in the Toolbox menu to the left.

Moar About Octopus
Octopi actually naturally make ink, whereas squids do not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_sac Despite what the .png says, it might be that Notch was confuzzled (or who-ever programmed it) as really, Squids don't look like that and don't naturally make ink. - Cilibinarii 10:37, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Except that article you linked proves that Squids naturally make, and eject ink. The wikipedia article for Squids also claims this. And Notch's model for a squid in game is totally a generalization of a Squid. If he wanted it to be an octopus, it would be round, and be called octopus.png -Igasagu 10:51, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Though squid do have 2 long arms and 8 tentacles, taxonomy doesn't really matter in Minecraft. If it's called squid.png, it is a squid. Sasafras 15:35, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Aquariums
Cn they spawn above ground in man-build aquariums? does it need to spawn on dirt/sand covered with water?


 * Stevezombie please sign your posts with a series of four Tildes, when you make them so we can make contact with you much easier, as well as attribute edits to you. Otherwise, I've been trying some personal tests, but short of really deep water, I've not seen any spawn in larger man-made reservoirs. -St. Fenix (User•Talk) 22:48, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Wasn't me. As for the topic question, that'll be a tough one to prove. For all we know they spawn on water blocks themselves. SteveZombie 23:27, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
 * whoops my apologies, but you do have a point, I'll just see if I can get them to spawn at all in a man-made reservoir both completely made and made out of natural terrain (I.E. A Caldera) and then try to figure out something of an explanation, either way we get some data out of this. -St. Fenix (User•Talk) 00:49, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

I have had one spawn in 1 block deep water in my farm on top of a mountain. Yes, they can. Bobbobbob 01:07, 6 July 2011 (UTC)bobbobbob

Milking Squid
I have a few squid trapped right now and using a bucket on them does not seem to yield any ink. It does do the bucket animation (which doesn't work on other non-cow mobs like sheep) but I don't get anything. I've tried this on both swimming squid and squid stuck on dry land.


 * Thank you for testing this. I'll revert until we get proof that an Ink Bucket exists, which, looking at the /gui/items.png, it doesn't appear to exist anyways... Shay 00:39, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Just confirmed you can milk squid, and you get milk. The same technique as for cows, be one block below them.Dctrjons 02:42, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Not Squid?
Both squid and octopi have beaks for mouths. Our "squids" have a circular mouth lined with teeth. IKaleb 00:36, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
 * creepers don't exist, so it's likely these are what pass for squid in this world. -St. Fenix (User•Talk) 00:47, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, this is getting silly. They are going to be called squid.  Otherwise, we cannot call cows cows since they bounce and don't have knees.Dctrjons 11:58, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Yet, I've seen people point out that TNT does not contain sulphur and lava and magma are not the same thing. Pointing out that this isn't a squid is no different. Not going to start a war about it; if you want, I can go remove all trivia about technicalities from their pages. --AntonImaus 19:24, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Ordona said at the top of this Talk page that the image in the actual minecraft.jar is named squid.png. Because it is named so, the name will remain as Squid. Shay 19:44, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
 * There are squid with teeth. The radula can come in many shapes. I'd provide a link but it's not letting me save the page if I do.. Google squid radula and it's the seventh picture, desmoteuthis pellucida.

squid spawning
--MrWundrful 19:22, 15 January 2011 (UTC) im not sure but in one of my worlds i moved to a new chunk and i found a colony of squid do they spawn that way

No. Same spawning rules as any other passive, except in water and light dosen't matter Bobbobbob 01:07, 6 July 2011 (UTC)bobbobbob

Spawning details from the decompiled source
I've been looking through the decompiled (but still obfuscated) source, trying to get some clues about spawning behavior. Here is what I believe I've found:


 * Lighting is not a factor.
 * Depth is not a factor.
 * Surrounding terrain is not a factor.
 * There is no space requirement except to fit the 1x1x1 bounding box of the squid itself.
 * The block it spawns in must be a liquid. Liquids include both still and running water *and* lava. Yes, it appears they can spawn in lava, although I haven't seen this yet in-game. If one does spawn in lava, it will just burn to death.
 * The maximum number of squids that may exist at any given time is 5, times the current number of eligible chunks for spawning. For reference, that number for hostile mobs is currently 75, and the number for other animals is currently 15. Note: this does *not* mean that only 5 are allowed in a given chunk, it just means that the number of chunks is used as a factor.
 * The spawning behavior does not differ between pre-1.2 chunks and post-1.2 chunks.

Dhammond 06:36, 16 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Didn't noticed someone already did this.
 * There is also 'transparent block above' requirement, or rather limitation.
 * To the number of squids - the code is very unclear about that. Now I can see there 'break labelXXX;' instructions, which should cancel further spawn looping altogether, unless there is four creatures were spawned in four attempts at the prevous chunk. Rpahut 11:26, 17 January 2011 (UTC)
 * OK, tried different decompiler, and there is actually 'continue', not 'break'. Rpahut 13:41, 18 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I made a castle, with a reservoir inside of natural water, 10 x 8 x 8 and there is no light but the torches, and a squid always spawn there, the water is 8 block deep from the very same level of the sea, so transparent block ontop or direct sun light source is a myth, but also, very deep is not a factor, they randomly spawn anywhere as long as there is water. I can not confirm if they can spawn in the water above the sea level, but they should. FuzzyWuff 05:02, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

They do spawn above sea level. I've had some spawn in a farm on top of a mountain. Bobbobbob 01:07, 6 July 2011 (UTC)bobbobbob

Squids extinct?
I had a bunch of squids near the spawn for about the first two days after beta 1.2 came out. during those days, I ended up "farming" (for lack of a better word) all of those squids at once and now they don't spawn there anymore. Infact, I can hardly find squids anywhere anymore after those two days except for in an aquarium that someone built on the server I'm on. Oh yeah, by the way, this is in multiplayer. Did I cause the squids to go extinct in that area or is there something causing them to spawn less frequently now?
 * The same thing happened to me, over a pack of ink sacks during the first day, and not a single one on the second. Then, next improvement update has decreased spawn rates. Check 'Squid farm' thread on MC forums. Rpahut

Never Despawn?
I've been playing around with the squids a bit, and trapped a couple of squids on land. I left them there and worked on some stuff and find they never dissapeared. I left them there for nights on end, but they all just sit there, flailing their arms. I also hacked a ton, like 90 squid into my map and they just sit there and take up space. Do they despawn for anyone? Flish 13:49, 5 February 2011 (UTC)


 * We've observed this on our SMP server as well. Someone had a squid spawn in their 3rd-floor, 1-tile-deep hot tub, weeks ago, and it has been there ever since. However, I have not found any official source verifying that squid never despawn, or whether the behavior is intentional. Jamieson630 18:15, 3 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Im pretty sure they dont despawn or respawn ever.Toadbert

I think they despawn if they are in minecarts though, I had one in a minecart, died, respawned at a bed far away but not 300 blocks away, came back squid was gone. (Render Distance was on Far). Any idea what that's about? Bobbobbob 01:07, 6 July 2011 (UTC)bobbobbob

Squids Use (or attempt to) use minecarts?
I launched a few mine carts into a body of water and a couple of squids swam up to them and each seemingly got into one much like a regular mob. I also tested it to see by pushing the carts around if the squid would become 'unstuck' but they move with the cart like they are riding it. I haven't confirmed how well things would go if I managed to get the carts above water as they are pretty deep and minecart tracks cannot be placed underwater. I have several Screen shots of this and will gladly add them if anyone can back my claim or if they want to see it. Oldphilip

Back your claim. I got a squid in a minecart into my house as decoration :D You just have to get them in a 1*1*1 square of water, remove the water, put down tracks where the squid is, and push a minecart in. Bobbobbob 01:07, 6 July 2011 (UTC)bobbobbob

Promachoteuthis sulcus
from the fact that it has teeth, is it possible that the mincraft squid is based on this one? http://tolweb.org/tree/ToLimages/promachsulcusoral.jpg Raiu tree 03:30, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

My information about squid.
Constructed an aquarium with the express purpose of putting squid in it (not spawning them there). Here's some info I found out (mostly trivia):

1. Squid will suffocate under sand or gravel. 2. They can be pushed up stairs. 3. They take no damage but move up and away from the player if struck with an egg. This method can be used to remove them from the water. 4. They behave like any other mob in a minecart. I was able to push two up a 1:1 grade with one furnace minecart.Glothek 15:16, 8 April 2011 (UTC)

Squids eat chickens?

 * It is possible for squid to consume Chickens.

I have NEVER seen this happen. Can anyone confirm this, or is it false? Jensgh 23:12, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

I removed this. I'm pretty sure it's just trolling. JesusChrist666 01:09, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

No Squids Spawn
I've been playing for about a week now. On my brother's computer, squids spawn everywhere, but on mine there are never any squids. Is there a bug or something on some types of computers?

Spawn Overkill
On my server I was working on recreating Rapture, so I used worldedit to create a massive ocean from bedrock to sky. Unfortunately, the fps quickly got low and task manager told me I was maxing out my internet connection, and then I disconnected from my server. After a while of attempting to stay on, I decided to use the /butcher command, and bam, it told me that over 600 mobs had been killed. There was nobody else on, and it was just me in a massive ocean with no land in sight, so I'm pretty sure they were all squid. The lag didn't vanish though so I did /butcher again, and another 600 squid were killed. Apparently, creating a massive ocean lets them spawn so quickly that in a matter of seconds I'm able to get 600 squid. This was all using the latest 1.6.6 without any modifications to the spawning algorithm. Any thoughts? Retep998 02:31, 11 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes: Holy crap. --HexZyle 07:45, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

Tests and results.
I see some of the things I started testing have already been removed from the wiki.

Findings: -You can't milk a squid from any position at all ever. -Squid die from falling damage. -Squid burn just like other animals do. -Squid don't take damage from dry land/air/sun. -Squid can be frozen into ice without water. -Squid can spawn in non-spring water blocks. -Squid spawn face-down I think. Not that it matters.

I made a fountain with one spring block at the top. 3 Squid spawned in the shower. I removed the torch on the fountain and the spring froze, killing the flowing water and leaving the squid helpless on land.

I pushed one squid into a 2x2x1 square of water, where it swam happily. Then that water froze. It stayed there, thrashing. I thawed and removed the water, then punched it to death while holding an egg. I suspect that in order to move it with eggs and without damage I was supposed to be throwing them (I since have used snowballs this way.)

Squid two I surrounded with planks and then lit with flint and steel. He caught fire and burned to death quickly.

Squid three I dug under until I could rightclick a bucket on it from any position. No result. Then I walked into it, pushing until it fell off of a cliff I had prepared. It died from the fall.

For what it's worth. User:Feylias

Spawner bug?
When I placed squid spawner (hacks) and I surrounded it with dirt (spawner was the middle of the floor), squids sometimes spawn in the floor, take damage from being inside the block and die. Is it a bug? I didn't observe it with land creatures. Xeoxer 19:31, 11 July 2011 (UTC)


 * When squid normally spawn, they spawn in water blocks. I assume they were spawning in dirt blocks based on the same code.  I doubt this is a bug, as you hacked the spawner in the first place, creating the spawning issue.  Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 19:43, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Grammar note - Octopuses or Octopodes
Although the issue of squid vs. octopus has been beaten to death, I wanted to note that no matter which is these is right it is never correct to pluralize Octopus as octopi (which has been put into the article on multiple occasions) - this makes the false assumption that octopus is a latin derived word, and uses latin pluralization. In reality Octopus comes from the greek ὀκτάπους, and thus if you're going to use any sort of original pluralization, Octopodes would be most correct - although this sounds pedantic, and it is more common to just say octopuses. Source The more you know! SartresWaiter 17:26, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Merriam-Webster disagrees. "Octopi" is a valid pluralization of octopus. --Warlock 18:39, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
 * In almost all cases "Octopi" is listed as the third most used pluralization after Octopuses and Octopodes, and this does not change the fact that while Octopi may find its way into dictionaries because it is a frequently used pluralization, that it is etymologically incorrect. SartresWaiter 05:12, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
 * You said "it is never correct to pluralize Octopus as octopi" - I'm saying, Webster disagrees with you :P --Warlock 05:16, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Octopi sounds nicer. – ultradude25 ( T at 02:08, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
 * It's a bad case of the tail wagging the dog for a dictionary to reflect common speech. "Octopi" is confusing Greek with Latin. -i is the plural of -us, -podes is the plural of -pus. Octopodes. It's octopodes. For the record it's also penes, pelves, rhinocerotes, and hippoipotamus.

Spawners don't work?
My squid spawners stopped spawning squids in 1.9.5 (it worked fine in 1.9.4) Why is that? Xeoxer 14:23, 28 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Help? Xeoxer 19:06, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

NO SQUIDS
Unlike all others with a similar name, i'm not asking how to find squids. I'm asking the opposite, because squids won't stop spawning in my farm's waterways no matter what i do! is there any way at all to prevent this? -Wiebejamin
 * maybe build a large water pool close to the farm, then they will spawn more often in that pool because there they have more room that pass their spawn conditions. Xeoxer 14:46, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

Missing size specification
I noticed that there is no Recording about the size of squids. Does anyone know the exact size? If not, could someone - with more Java-knowledgeable as I - extract and list it? This would benefit primarily Tutorials (and of course the knowledge about the game). Thanks and regards, -Valares

Not Moving
"In RC 2, if the player stands far away, squids will shift so that their heads point straight up and float in place until the player gets closer again."

I don't think that is actually a bug. Mobs run their despawning code while standing still, according to the spawn page. Before the update, squid were almost always in motion and it use to take forever for them to despawn; they often stayed swimming back and fourth in the same area for several Minecraft days. I think that the reason that they stop moving when the player is far away is so they can easily despawn and and other squid can spawn elsewhere. --Trollrilla 07:41, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Not spawning in tundra biomes?
Squid do not appear to spawn in tundra (snow) biomes. After finding a curious lack of them in a challenge map set in one, I tested in a void creative map by creating a large (17x9x4) body of water in a tundra biome and sitting 28 blocks away (far enough away for them to spawn, not far enough away for them to despawn), then going AFK for a few hours. Upon return, still no squid. Same test in a forest biome, squid within minutes. - Miraglyth 23:27, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

Squids are hostile
Squids can be hostile or not? Let's find out. --MinecraftandFriends 09:51, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Moving in three dimensions
I've just been playing in creative with the new spawn eggs, and when I make a huge tank of water and put squid in it, they swim down to the bottom and stay there. Running version 1.1, is the old 'squid can't swim' thing back?