Nautilus Eggs

[Carl J. Bobrow]

The Nautilus at the National Zoological Park laid a series of eggs (five I think) recently, the event took place about a month or so ago. The intent of the staff is to remove them and place them in a special holding tank, as the water temp needs to be higher than that which Nautilus are normally kept. As to whether or not they are fertile that remains unknown, hatching times vary in captivity, from 10 months to a year plus. More details later, in the meantime here are a few images.

 

[cthulhu77]

Interesting stuff, Carl...thanks for posting that...
greg

 

[atticus_finch]

Interesting stuff, Carl...thanks for posting that...
greg

what he said... thx for this.

 

[corw314]

Is this the Baltimore Aquarium? If not where is the National Zoological Park? I am due a trip down there after the holidays, as I am a member at the aquarium. I didn't realize it took so long for the eggs to hatch! Fascinating!!!

Carol

 

[cthulhu77]

Indeed, has this been done before in captivity??? That is one heck of a long gestation period!!!

 

[joel_ang]

Thanks for sharing this A year is a long time to wait and see if they're fertile

 

[marinebio_guy]

There are a few places that have had nautilus lay eggs and have gotten them to hatch.

 

[cthulhu77]

MBG... do you have any links to the info? Would be a fascinating read...

 

[Architeuthoceras]

a paper in "Paleobiology" from the fine folks at Cephbase

http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/refdb/pdf/7621.pdf

 

[fluffysquid]

I've heard that some places have successfully hatched nautilus eggs, but none survived to adulthood?

 

[cthulhu77]

Thanks Kevin...an interesting read. Lots of speculation though...had not realized that Nautilus were so researched in regards to reproduction...seems odd in light of how "in the dark" we are with so many cephalopod species reproduction events...

 

[marinebio_guy]

The only place I know for sure is the Waikiki aquarium but I think they did it in Japan too.

 

[Architeuthoceras]

From the introduction in the paper referenced above:

The first embryos of N. belauensis were obtained in 1985 at the Waikiki Aquarium (Hawaii) (Carlson 1985; Arnold and Carlson 1986). Hatching of this species was attained in 1988 at the Kagoshima Aquarium (Japan) (Okutani 1990), and in 1990 at the Waikiki Aquarium (Carlson 1991; Carlson et al. 1992). Hatching of N. macromphalus was also observed in 1993 at the Toba Aquarium (Japan) (Uchiyama and Tanabe 1999).

There may have been some since.

 

[Ceph Roy]

Nice pics, thanx for the info.

 

[Andy Lister]

They've been hatched in indonesia before I think in captivity but I dont hink that any have been brought on successfully. It's all in the Mark Norman book, Cephalopods, a world guide somewhere!