• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Chambered Nautilus Experiences

Darren I'm not that easy to offend! I actually agree with you. But IMO there are some critters that at this stage should not be generally available. In this I include, Nautilus, Wunderpus, Mimic Octopus, and the blue ring family. There are several reasons, some we simply can't keep in the home environment yet (and they are rare/vulnerable species), students, researchers....whatever need to learn more about them and then get the care info out there! Others I feel are simply too dangerous (BR'S!) small kids will get their fingers in the tank (I reckon they're as good as octis at circumventing lids locks etc) and they often will "forget" instructions to look but don't touch! especially if they'e enthuisiastic and excited by the animal!

I do talk to people about animal care....all the time, I work in a public aquarium ( off until June tho!) and we teach aquarium technology and animal health classes (the latter primarily to vets and vet nurses).

The problem yesterday (apart from me having a REALLY bad day, dog with hemorrhagic enteritis, Mum nearly in hospital, brother in hospital{different reasons} and a lab manual to put together for this semester [all doing well.....except the manual] :biggrin2:) was that this chap rung up for info and what he really wanted was for me to OK his plan. He most certainly DID NOT want to learn anything. Maybe I should have told him to go drink a few glasses of sea water to learn how it differed from FW :lol:!!!

Anyway went home had a few wee :glass: and felt much better!

J
 
Jean,

I sort of like this taste test idea. My grandson (5) is the experimental kind (i.e. a little :sagrin: that gets into everything) and likes to help make the "fish" water. I will have to think on this really hard though as Spencer is likely to sample the aquarium water just for fun if I don't present it right :wink: . The safety of the fish does concern him about what he can and can't do with the freshwater aquarium in their room at home (Xmas present from guess who) but I am never quite sure I make my points clearly. Definitely have to think on this though because, in spite of your intentional sarcasam toward the caller, I think it would really clarify this for the kids.
 
I love the idea of kids having animals and some responsibility, I had fish as a kid too........my main problem was that every time Dad came home on leave all my fish died cos he couldn't walk past the tank without feeding them :roll: I just feel kids should experiment on hardy, common, non dangerous animals and as they get more experience and knowledge move up the scale in terms of difficulty (also tends to be related to how good they are a wheedling money out of Mum, Dad, Granddad......:biggrin2:)

I was totally an experimenter..........still am!

J
 
i am/was a experimenter too, and if it involved animals i haaad to be involved. one thing different about kids like me: we understand that animals need respect and gentleness. i was never a tail grabber or back smacker of cats or dogs. my first reptile was an iguana when i was 5, that i had main responsibility for. the only thing i didnt do was cut the salads up (experimenters are never good when there are sharp objects available, i know that for sure). nowadays iggies are a big NONO as a first herp in the reptile world, but i had a blast and he was well cared for, prolly still alive today. i actually gave him away because of fear of him dying in a fire, because our representative fireman, Fireman Jim, visited my class and mentioned that he wouldnt rescue reptiles, another fireman would have to. scared to death that something might happen to my precious iggy, i gave him to one of the teachers. she ended up becoming obsessed and had 3 or 4 (including mine) when she died, and they are still alive today im sure b/c her son took them.

there is a lfs owner in ocala that has a nautilus. i think its cool that he has one, and it would be nice to look at on occasion, like decoration, but i would be bored by them. they had a few at the fl aquarium when i went and i was disappointed by how boring they were. i'll stick with my octopus, thanks. XD

they had what had to have been a bimac at another lfs the other day, i just about died in pain from not being able to get it! it was being sold as a dwarf for $38 and it was total bimac, the most curious octo ive ever seen and 3 times bigger than the dwarf in the critter keeper next to him! oh, such sweet sorrow.... he was coming over to look at me and would follow my hand and stick his arms through the vents on the keeper to try and grab my finger!
 
Nautilus would probably eat sygnathids. I know on the trappings I have seen (smaller barrier reef varietie - N. pompullius) they bait with chicken of all things so eating a seahorse wouldn't be beyond them.

To reinterate what others have said, a chiller is essential for longer term survival. They inhabit depths of between 150m to 600m (150M being the "shallows" they go to to feed).
 
Finno,
No questions about needing the chiller! I was trying to figure out a way to use my existing setup as the next chiller purchase will go to the octo tank so I can have a bimac ;>).

I am still toying with the idea of adding a "fuge" above the pot tank and lowering the temp. The abdominalis can easily live colder than the 68 I run now and I would make the fuge the first stop after the chiller then cascade into the pot tank. It will be a while before we actually do anything with the setup as I may need a deeper tank for the pot bellies if they get much larger and we would then probably use the existing 2' tall tank as the fuge and add a 3' tank below for the horses.

We have a new saltwater store that has a naut and I had to go visit. It has lived there for a couple of weeks in too warm water and the day I went to visit it developed the boyancy problem mentioned in the thread (store owner, "funny, it usually stays on the bottom" - totally ignored my not too gentle suggestion that 78 was way too warm). If it had not been soooo much money ($150) I would have taken it home and put it in the sump just to TRY to save it. I don't expect this store to be around much longer even though it only opened recently. I am afraid I know more than the whole crew put together (I would rate myself intermediate but collectively novice might be an understatement for the shop personnel and ownership) and don't believe anyone but the hired employee has ever cared for a SW tank (I promise, it is that bad). Neal has agreed to try to go by once a month or so to see if they start liquidating ;>). They are losing most of their corals but there are a couple of acrylic display tanks that we could put SOME PLACE ...:roll:

I have to admit that I fell in love immediately and would eventually like to keep one. People who find them boring would not like my tanks :wink: .
 
oh that's sad! Poor thing. It sounds like its being slowly simmered to death.....

Sometimes they can recover their buoyancy regulation, and I've had animals live long lives while floating about, so it might survive if it got good care ($150 is more than I would pay for an already-slightly-dodgy animal though).

I got six of these guys last wednesday from the Phillippines, via California, and they are starting to recover their neutral buoyancy after floating about for a couple of days after shipping. I think they're tougher than they look.

Maybe there's hope for it yet, although it sounds like the owners of the store are not too promising!
 
Robyn,
Could you keep us posted on how yours do. Are these for a personal or university tanks? It will be a while before I configure something so the more I can learn the better I can redesign my setup.
 
i'm planning to get a couple nautiluses after my bimac project, probably this autumn. the idea of warming the water at night sounds interesting and very doable. i think my setup will work fine. i know my wholesaler has them available as they arrive at LAX. i'll look forward to that article.
robyn, i will get in touch with you as the date draws near.
zyan
 
Mine are in a university tank - I'm doing behavioural research on them (spatial learning and memory at the moment). I will happily provide updates. I've had them since last Wednesday, caught in the Philippines the previous Sunday, so they're still in their settling-in stage. Their shells are beautiful - really pale peach-coloured stripes, different from the normal bright orange we usually get.

Getting them shipped to NY from California was a total shambles - Wednesday here was horrible weather, Fedex lost them for almost 8 hours, despite being in two huge boxes labeled 'live animals', we had to drive to the dispatch depot at 7pm and collect them so they didn't freeze overnight. And by the time we had them here, two had chewed through their bags, which had leaked everywhere, leaving them with no water. They survived just fine - Nautiluses are tough!

Right now they're chewing happily on frozen fish heads. 4 are buoyancy-regulating normally, two are still floating. Often they recover this after a week or so. So overall I am beginning to think nautiluses are much less delicate than most people assume - they are definitely ultra-sensitive to poor water quality, but they seem quite good at surviving stress and long periods out-of-water.

I'll try to take some pictures of them once they calm down a bit.
 

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