Naturalness arguments for weak-scale supersymmetry favour supersymmetric partners of the third generation quarks with masses not too far from those of their Standard Model counterparts. Top or bottom squarks with masses less than a few hundred GeV can give rise to direct pair production rates at the LHC that can be observed in the data sample recorded by the ATLAS detector. Real and virtual production of third generation squarks via decay of a gluino can also be significant if the mass of the gluino does not exceed the TeV scale. The talk presents recent ATLAS results from searches for gluino mediated and direct stop and sbottom pair production.