keeping a Nautilus in a reef aquarium

[Joep]

Hi,


I am a rather experienced reef keeper in the Netherlands.
Recently i saw in a nearby aquariumshop the living fossil Nautilus, 5 exactly!.
i was astonished because i believed they were protected animals and living in the dark deep (100 and more metres) of the sea. Not suitable for a standard reef aquarium with HQI lamps.
Am i wrong? what is your opinion of this?.
greetings Joep

 

[Lev F.]

Nautilus should only be sold to people with tanks dedicated to their specialized care. The lights on a reef will effectively blind them. If they didn't and if they weren't brought up to the surface too quickly (like most are) and have buoyancy problems, they would devour all/nearly all of your fish, and most of your inverts. They also cool water, do you'll need a chiller. They don't bother corals, but keeping them with warmwater corals with lighting requirements is all but impossible. You are right, the do live in the depths, if I remember correctly, the Twilight Zone.

 

[billsreef]

They do come up into the shallows during the night, in this case we're calling like 50 to 100 feet shallow This is where they get caught and end up in the aquarium trade. It's perfectly legal, however the care requirements are indeed special and outside of reef tank parameters. Hence, it is very irresponsible indeed to be selling them for reef tanks.

 

[Hormigaquatica]

interesting animals, but even most public aquariums have difficulty keeping them alive for long periods. Luckily they arent collected for the aquarium trade very often (the curio industry is a different story though...)