- Joined
- Jul 27, 2013
- Messages
- 65
(hmm, no appropriate prefix? 
started a thread on Nautilus feeding earlier, and have decided to start a journal thread here instead.
First and foremost - the name. My 21 month old daughter is fascinated by all animals. Additionally, her favorite thing to watch on TV is "Scooby Doo", which she excitedly called "Doggy". "Doggy" has now become her name for any animal she sees and finds interesting, but doesn't know what to call it. Hence, we have a canine-named ceph in our tank now.
I had a 120G tank without any display species, as our last generation of bandensis had finally kicked it and we hadn't any viable egg hatches (or so we thought, but I can get to that later).
I went to one of the LFS to buy some various supplies and saw the Nautilus there. He was being kept in 78F water and under high lighting. According to the staff, he was improperly shipped to them by a vendor and they hadn't had any intentions of buying him in the first place - but didn't seem overly concerned about the care and conditions. Since my 120G needed some life and it was maintained at 72F, I decided to bring him home and lower the temperature on the tank even further.
My decision to purchase him was based upon my belief that I could at least give him a better quality of life than what he had at the LFS, and not being overly optimistic on his longevity. I just hate seeing something needlessly suffer - I thought I'd just invest some money and give him a chance.
Doggy is currently living in a 120G tank with 100lbs of live sand and 150lbs of live rock. Additionally there is about 40G in the sump with healthy populations of various macros under higher lighting. The display itself only has blue lighting, and I have half the tank covered with cloth to provide even more of a lighting buffer.
We also run a Phosban reactor, and obviously skim heavily. I have also recently added a cannister filter (no foam/sponge, just chemical media) with Purigen, Phosguard and just today added some Cuprisorb. The latter due to seeing a penny in a tank at an LFS and just getting paranoid.
We have had Doggy for two months now, and he seems to be healthy.
When he first came into the tank, he couldn't submerge although he was a strong swimmer. We initially fed him live shore crabs and minnows, which he has always readily accepted. He actually devoured a crab during acclimation - no reservations about eating whatsoever. 2-3 weeks after being in the tank (and I'm sorry I didn't keep a better record about this) he was submerging much better, and now he has no trouble whatsoever.
For feeding - I have been buying fresh market shrimp and soaking them overnight in Selcon before feeding, three day a week (M/W/F). I cut the shrimp into two segments and make sure he eats the tail (more shell, more calcium) before he eats the meatier top. I also give him the occasional minnow, or crushed shore crab (I remove them from the 75G tank I maintain for food only and crush their carapace, so they remain fresh but have no chance of escape). He does get most excited for the minnows but it is important to keep the calcium intake high.
Other recent additions to the tank include adding a 10 decent sized clumps of codium to help with nutrient absorption/export. For those not familiar, codium can thrive in lower temperate and lower light settings (fairly unique traits for the more common macro on the market) and aren't palatable to most tank inhabitants.
I had planned on gradually lowering the temperate to 55F or so, but was surprised one day to see baby sepia bandensis swimming around the tank. Since I'm told 65 is a healthy temperature to keep Doggy at, albeit low for the cuttles, I've decided to keep the temperate at 65 for now and see how the cuttles do. Their diet, since hatching, has been 100% off the amphipod population in the tank as I was never aware that they were present. They should be about 3 weeks old now, and still seem to be doing fine and growing (slowly!).
Pictures and updates coming soon...
started a thread on Nautilus feeding earlier, and have decided to start a journal thread here instead.
First and foremost - the name. My 21 month old daughter is fascinated by all animals. Additionally, her favorite thing to watch on TV is "Scooby Doo", which she excitedly called "Doggy". "Doggy" has now become her name for any animal she sees and finds interesting, but doesn't know what to call it. Hence, we have a canine-named ceph in our tank now.
I had a 120G tank without any display species, as our last generation of bandensis had finally kicked it and we hadn't any viable egg hatches (or so we thought, but I can get to that later).
I went to one of the LFS to buy some various supplies and saw the Nautilus there. He was being kept in 78F water and under high lighting. According to the staff, he was improperly shipped to them by a vendor and they hadn't had any intentions of buying him in the first place - but didn't seem overly concerned about the care and conditions. Since my 120G needed some life and it was maintained at 72F, I decided to bring him home and lower the temperature on the tank even further.
My decision to purchase him was based upon my belief that I could at least give him a better quality of life than what he had at the LFS, and not being overly optimistic on his longevity. I just hate seeing something needlessly suffer - I thought I'd just invest some money and give him a chance.
Doggy is currently living in a 120G tank with 100lbs of live sand and 150lbs of live rock. Additionally there is about 40G in the sump with healthy populations of various macros under higher lighting. The display itself only has blue lighting, and I have half the tank covered with cloth to provide even more of a lighting buffer.
We also run a Phosban reactor, and obviously skim heavily. I have also recently added a cannister filter (no foam/sponge, just chemical media) with Purigen, Phosguard and just today added some Cuprisorb. The latter due to seeing a penny in a tank at an LFS and just getting paranoid.
We have had Doggy for two months now, and he seems to be healthy.
When he first came into the tank, he couldn't submerge although he was a strong swimmer. We initially fed him live shore crabs and minnows, which he has always readily accepted. He actually devoured a crab during acclimation - no reservations about eating whatsoever. 2-3 weeks after being in the tank (and I'm sorry I didn't keep a better record about this) he was submerging much better, and now he has no trouble whatsoever.
For feeding - I have been buying fresh market shrimp and soaking them overnight in Selcon before feeding, three day a week (M/W/F). I cut the shrimp into two segments and make sure he eats the tail (more shell, more calcium) before he eats the meatier top. I also give him the occasional minnow, or crushed shore crab (I remove them from the 75G tank I maintain for food only and crush their carapace, so they remain fresh but have no chance of escape). He does get most excited for the minnows but it is important to keep the calcium intake high.
Other recent additions to the tank include adding a 10 decent sized clumps of codium to help with nutrient absorption/export. For those not familiar, codium can thrive in lower temperate and lower light settings (fairly unique traits for the more common macro on the market) and aren't palatable to most tank inhabitants.
I had planned on gradually lowering the temperate to 55F or so, but was surprised one day to see baby sepia bandensis swimming around the tank. Since I'm told 65 is a healthy temperature to keep Doggy at, albeit low for the cuttles, I've decided to keep the temperate at 65 for now and see how the cuttles do. Their diet, since hatching, has been 100% off the amphipod population in the tank as I was never aware that they were present. They should be about 3 weeks old now, and still seem to be doing fine and growing (slowly!).
Pictures and updates coming soon...
). I fretted for more than week but decided not to encourage the store with a sale even though I have a 3' deep tank with a chiller that would probably handle the high temp range for a naut.
