Crossword Genius

A small amount of money for a sea creature (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

squid

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'sea creature' is the definition.
(squids live in the sea)

'a small amount of money' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'small' could be 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size) and 's' is present in the answer.
'amount' could be 'quid' (quid is a kind of amount) and 'quid' is found in the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'for a' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for squid that I've seen before include "Marine cephalopod" , "Tentacled marine creature" , "Eight-armed creature" , "Edible eight-arm mollusc" , "Ten-armed mollusc" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Independent.
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