Nautilus
- Thread starter Magikarp
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Grandreef 2
New member
They live hundreds of feet below the surface of the water where it is cool, not much light (eyes not as complexe as their relatives) They are relativly slow and cant really defend themselfs good.
Best left for the ocean or public aquariums. They are interesting to look at for awhile, but don't move much and need cool water and so on (as stated above). Few people have had any real success. Best to keep them by themselves. By the time they reach the hobbyist, they are pretty "beaten up" and just waste away quickly.
It is my suspicion that within a short time you would either have a dead nautilus or a nautilus only with live rock tank as nautili eat fish.
I would advise agist keeping as we had a professor that maintained a tank of them when I was in grad school and after the first hour of "WOW, these are neat!!!" they were quite boring to watch them float around the tank being moved by the currents of the filtration system.
StanD
I would advise agist keeping as we had a professor that maintained a tank of them when I was in grad school and after the first hour of "WOW, these are neat!!!" they were quite boring to watch them float around the tank being moved by the currents of the filtration system.
StanD
tahoe61
New member
Bad lfs
Bad lfs
Unless you have a public aquarium with a 8000 gal tank in your house, do not buy a Nautilus. It is sad that this animal is even for sale, it is doomed to starving to death and all the while trying to escape its small enclosure by banging against the sides. I would let the LFS know the facts regarding this animals husbandry and not give this LFS another dollor of my money. Research.
Bad lfs
Unless you have a public aquarium with a 8000 gal tank in your house, do not buy a Nautilus. It is sad that this animal is even for sale, it is doomed to starving to death and all the while trying to escape its small enclosure by banging against the sides. I would let the LFS know the facts regarding this animals husbandry and not give this LFS another dollor of my money. Research.
Ok, now this thread is getting out of hand. Yes, nautilus are very hard to keep, yes, they are EXTREMELY boring, but no, they need not be left only to the public aquariums nor enormous aquariums, nor are they likely subjects to starvation. An ideal size for these would be a tank that's something like 2*2*4 feet tall. However they can be kept in different size tanks, and even in standard tanks that aren't extra tall, though I wouldn't suggest it. You will need the tank chilled down to a pretty low temperature, and I wouldn't suggest fish or any other tank mates for that matter. Their eyes can only "see" night and day. You should easily be able to get them eating live foods if you meet all of the above requirements, and they should also go onto frozen pretty well. Many people/places that keep nautilus will end up with eggs at some point, however they take a very long time to hatch (can't actually remember how long), and once they do, so far, no one has raised them to maturity, though I think some have gotten them to about the 100 day mark (this may be incorrect, can't remember). If you are dedicated and do your homework, you can do it, however I would because, as stated, they're boring, hard to keep, etc.
tahoe61
New member
Nautilus
Are for the very advance hobbyist. Keeping one for a 100 days is hardly a success. And yes they need a vertical tank at least 150 gal for one speciman. They also need a chiller and they must remain in the dark, otherwise they will go blind ( not that they can only see in the dark ). The Nautilus are slowly becoming endangered and to take them from the deep oceans so someone can have a trophy pet is an impulse buy at the expense of the Nautilus. I imagine most have what you stated is hear say. Please provide valid scientifc information and pics, before you suggest that anyone can keep a Nautilus. L 8 2 Rise
http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/Npompil.php
Are for the very advance hobbyist. Keeping one for a 100 days is hardly a success. And yes they need a vertical tank at least 150 gal for one speciman. They also need a chiller and they must remain in the dark, otherwise they will go blind ( not that they can only see in the dark ). The Nautilus are slowly becoming endangered and to take them from the deep oceans so someone can have a trophy pet is an impulse buy at the expense of the Nautilus. I imagine most have what you stated is hear say. Please provide valid scientifc information and pics, before you suggest that anyone can keep a Nautilus. L 8 2 Rise
http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/Npompil.php
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Arkayology
Active member
I am not sure why someone would want to keep something that advanced. It really has no business being in a home aquarium.
romsoccer12
New member
^ we were saying that about corals 30 years ago.
its gonna die anyway in your LFS so try giving it a better chance and go for it. i dont think they are boring at all! very interesting looks/acts and can be a very cool attraction for some people
its gonna die anyway in your LFS so try giving it a better chance and go for it. i dont think they are boring at all! very interesting looks/acts and can be a very cool attraction for some people
tahoe61
New member
Nautilus
A Nautilus is not a sps or a lps. While some filefish are now being kept with success most perish in the home aquarium. The point is this particular item is almost endangered, so you are encouraging people to go for it. I hope people of the future will be able to see them in the wild other than public aquariums. There is an extensive list of animals both marine and land animals that can no longer be seen in the wild. They are kept in zoos where they have very limited chances of breeding successfully. Why not just take what we want from the oceans and see if they survive in the average home aquarium. Lets start with leafy sea dragons. I have been diving all over the world and the population of wild sea horses is dismal at best, but lets just keep harvesting them.
A Nautilus is not a sps or a lps. While some filefish are now being kept with success most perish in the home aquarium. The point is this particular item is almost endangered, so you are encouraging people to go for it. I hope people of the future will be able to see them in the wild other than public aquariums. There is an extensive list of animals both marine and land animals that can no longer be seen in the wild. They are kept in zoos where they have very limited chances of breeding successfully. Why not just take what we want from the oceans and see if they survive in the average home aquarium. Lets start with leafy sea dragons. I have been diving all over the world and the population of wild sea horses is dismal at best, but lets just keep harvesting them.
romsoccer12
New member
i didnt know they were close to being endangered. if a LFS has already bought one, its going to die anyway by torture in there misserable tanks. why not try to save it? i understand by buying it your encouraging the collectors to get more, but where is the line crossed? save an animal now, kill more in the future. kill an animal, save more later on. its a tough choice and i was just stating my opinon. maybe give a word with the LFS saying this is wrong and the only reason im buying it is to try to save it.
Iwishihadgills
New member
From what i know is that they come from the deep at night to hunt on the reef. A chiller would be needed and a tall tank with dim lights. They were actually on my lfs wholesale list this week for about $100. I think if you have the time and dedication to get it to eat and give him a comfortable home you should do it. Maybe get two and see if any sparks fly :love2:
you should try if you have the setup to keep it alive, but dont buy the one your LFS have. if your LFS willing buy this animal without knowing what it takes to keep it alive. you buy it, that will be a sale. well, to them a sale is a sale. they will end up bring in more to see if they can sell more of them. sometime you just have to let the LFS learn their lesson. just like the white/pink/yellow seabae anemone, it's best let it die in LFS's tank so they will learn or at least the smart one will not to order them again.
Koshmar
The Hardy Mongolian Pony
http://www.reefaquariumguide.com/forum/general-reef-aquarium-discussion/97657-nautilus-care.html
Never have kept one and don't intend to. The aquarium I do volunteer work for should be getting one in sometime later this year though so I'll have to check out the tank set-up when it's up and running.
Never have kept one and don't intend to. The aquarium I do volunteer work for should be getting one in sometime later this year though so I'll have to check out the tank set-up when it's up and running.
No one knows about their populations in the wild as they live so deep, etc. however, yes, their populations are most likely declining. This however cannot be for sure rested on the aquarist industry. People collect them for their shells which can be and are sold as ornaments, they are caught in nets, etc. I never once said anyone can keep a nautilus.
I did, however, say that the thread is getting out of hand and no, they don't need thousand gallon tanks and zoos, etc.
What's the problem with encouraging someone dedicated and truly interested in these animals to go for them? There's plenty of other cases in this hobby where people do/ encourage the same type of thing with other animals. And as of yet, no one has bred nautilus successfully, not even zoos. Who's to say that the first person to do it won't be a hobbyist? Again, there's plenty of examples of this out there, and without people in this hobby, I can guarantee you there wouldn't be half the captive bred salt water animals or capabilities to breed these salt water animals out there that there are now. It's illegal to collect leafy sea dragons, and if you haven't been watching the hobby, the market for wild caught sea horses has gone WAY down with the amount of captive breeding of them that's been going on. That's not to say that we can't do more, but we're getting better!
Look, I'm not trying to turn this into a flame thread or anything, just trying to bring the thread down to earth.
Thales
Active member
It does look like Naut populations are declining - at least locally. In places where they used to be collected easily, they are no longer collected easily.
IMO, Nauts are not an animal that should be tried on a lark or whim. They have specialized needs and are not the most interesting animals most of the time, so you really need to be interested in them in particular if you want to keep them. I wish LFS would only special order them instead of trying to stock them for impulse buys.
There is plenty of misinformation out there regarding nauts, both about how hard they are to keep and how easy they are to keep. Please before thinking about Nauts (or any ceph) do some real research. TONMO.com is a good place to start, as is the TFH cephalopod issue from a year or two ago, and Cephalopods: Octopuses and Cuttlefish for the Home Aquarium ( http://www.amazon.com/Cephalopods-Octopuses-Cuttlefish-Home-Aquarium/dp/0793806585 )
IMO, Nauts are not an animal that should be tried on a lark or whim. They have specialized needs and are not the most interesting animals most of the time, so you really need to be interested in them in particular if you want to keep them. I wish LFS would only special order them instead of trying to stock them for impulse buys.
There is plenty of misinformation out there regarding nauts, both about how hard they are to keep and how easy they are to keep. Please before thinking about Nauts (or any ceph) do some real research. TONMO.com is a good place to start, as is the TFH cephalopod issue from a year or two ago, and Cephalopods: Octopuses and Cuttlefish for the Home Aquarium ( http://www.amazon.com/Cephalopods-Octopuses-Cuttlefish-Home-Aquarium/dp/0793806585 )
Couldn't have said it better!
tahoe61
New member
Fact versus you have absolutely no point!
Fact versus you have absolutely no point!
http://www.aquariumpros.com/articles/badfishlist.shtml
Fact versus you have absolutely no point!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826501.700-nautilus-chambers-of-secrets.html?full=true
http://www.aquariumpros.com/articles/badfishlist.shtml
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