ARGONAUTS QUEST!

[Octomush]

Lately I have been reading the Cepholapods of the World book and have been steadily increasing my understanding of the magnificent cepholapods! But a certein lil ceph has caught my attention and I have got it into my head that I must have an Argonaut! Particularly a male Hians.... U gotta love those lil buggers! Although not as cool as squid I suspect they are by far more easy to keep because of their size. But looks can be deceiving. Once I obtain a squid however I shall release the Argo (assuming I catch one lol) which brings me too my point! Does anyone know in what kind of area I might find one? Sand flats, reefs, magroves? also if I should catch one how should I set up my tank? Thx!

 

[cthulhu77]

Hmmm...to be honest, I don't know. Have had some experience with nautilus, but they were from Sri Lanka...those were in a 400 gallon tank with a chiller, and did quite well. Didn't know argonaughts occurred in your area, either...nautiloids are typically pelagic, so I would imagine your dad, out fishing, might be more likely to see an argonaught...imagine that Phil or Archy would know, since that one of their areas of interest...
good luck, keep us posted!
greg

 

[cthulhu77]

ran across this and thought is was appropriate...1911...

http://64.1911encyclopedia.org/N/NA/NAUTILUS.htm

 

[Cephkid]

If your talking about argonauta nodosa I am hanging up my brain...(dont ask for an explanation please.)

 

[Octomush]

All very intresting.... And ceph kid dont hang up ur brain quite yet cuz Im after a Hians. So they are pelagic? How far out do they go?

 

[Cephkid]

Yeah.....Argonauta nodosa is a Pelagic OCTOPUS and the females (ONLY) get shells. But if your after a nautilus, then my brain is fine....for now...

 

[Jean]

Word of warning.......open ocean pelagics are VERY difficult to keep. They usually need an ENORMOUS tank. I wouldn't have a clue about water temp food etc etc......!

J

 

[Cephkid]

I'm not suprised! EXTREMELY little is known about Argonauta nodosa...

 

[NickA5582]

I remember reading that the longest someones kept a live arogonaut was like, 2 weeks. :?

 

[Cephkid]

EXACTLY!!!!! The pelagic octopus is so rare, they don't even know how old they get, what they eat, max size, etc.

 

[fluffysquid]

I've also heard they are extremely rare... and not very much is known. I suppose if you ever managed to find one, it would be best to let a professional keep it... or let it swim about it's merry way and make more argonauts.

as for other shelled-cephalopods..... nautilus are not so rare. However, they require rather cold water. You would need an expensive chiller. They also need low light conditions. One more thing, for a nautilus that has been in captivity for any amount of time, all the new shell it grows is knarly and sickly looking (I used to work at a place that had them). After a long time in captivity, they have issues with controlling their boyancy and often stay at the surface of the water

 

[Octomush]

So what ur saying is that if I caught one I could sell it to an aquarium or somthing?

 

[fluffysquid]

On a side note.... about a year ago i was surfing the internet for information about the argonaut... and i found quite a few shells for sale on ebay! :x

i just remembered and looked them up and happily, there is no longer a single one for sale.

 

[fluffysquid]

Octomush- hmm... i'm really not sure about that. Since the track record for keeping them alive in captivity is so poor, I would reeeeally say you shouldn't. But if you did, uh.... i dunno.... call them and ask them?

 

[Octomush]

Argo 2 greedy money grubbing argo murderers from ebay 0! Oh yeah! 8)