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!

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

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

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

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

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?

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...

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

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

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

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

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 :(

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

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 :cry:

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

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?

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

Actually, no, they aren't caught. Argo shells are prized treasures among beachcombers. The drop the shell remember-it's an egg case, not a permanent shell! :D

Cephkid- yep i know. But i worry sometimes. especially with a rarity such as that.

Well of course. :roll: But without evidence I can't go hit the collectors with The Claw!!!!!! :evil:
But I'll get it...
:twisted:
Or maybe not...
:evil:
Then again...
:twisted:
...who knows?
:evil:

LOL well actually come to think of it.... Argo shells wash up on the beaches here quite frequently. Although I have never seen them I read about it in books and such all the time.

REALLY? :shock: PUT THEM IN THE WATER YOU TWIT!!!!!!! THOSE ARE EGG CASES-with EGGS. EMAPHASIS ON 'EGGS'! ARGONAUTS RIGHT THERE! HAhaHAhsHAha!!!!!!!! :bonk:

REALLY!!! DUDE! THAS LIKE AND THE STUFF WHAT THE DUDE!

:shock:

MUST GO TO BEACH! MUST FIND SHELL!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci: :madsci:

oh, i stand corrected. I modified my search on Ebay and I found them.

They vary in price up to 200 dollars.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4838&item=5320692202&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4838&item=2276008094&rd=1

NNNNNNOOOOOO!!!!!! THE FOOOOLS!!!!!! THEVE KILLED THE EGGS!!!!!!

Who knows. maybe the shells were in the water long enough before they were collected the eggs hatched? ...please, god?

We'll probally never know....

The shells that wash up are generally empty of eggs (that much i DO know!) The females brood the eggs and discard the shell once they hatch!


Hey Octomush.....how close are you to the Waikiki Aquarium? (forgive an iggerant Kiwi.....my geographical knowledge of the Hawaiian Islands is somewhat vague!) Cos i know they've bred Nautilus before! you may consider volunteering for them if you're close enough. That way you could get close to the nautilus and learn all their secrets :twisted: plus it would give you a cephy fix (& hands on experience). our aquarium LOVES volunteers!!!!!!! :D

J

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, I thought the females dropped the cases right there, in hopes of catching on a reef, or something?

WOOT WOOT! HOORAY FOR THE NAUTOLOIDES! I am on the opposite side of the island in which the waikiki aquarium is located. Do they let 13 year olds volunteer?

They've bred them there? Have they ever been able to raise those to adulthood? As far as i've known, breeding and hatching young has happened.... but no baby nautilus has successfully made it to adulthood in captivity.

Something to do with the pressure.... deep sea cannot be reproduced in an aquarium. They grow up with their chambers differently-spaced than in wild nautilus.

If so, expect a visit from a strange, ceph-obsessed 13 year old this summer. :wink:

Oh yeah! Jus thinkin the same thing! :sly:

.......I meant me.....

And I meant (SAME THING) lol.... :roll: As in like me as well as u...

I see the Waikiki Aquarium is going to have a lot of new volunteers! Jean's stories from her work at the Portobello Aquarium make great reading. You two will have lots to post. :D

Melissa

Do they let 13 year olds volunteer? Not sure, we've had an 11 year old (although we got her to bring her Mum, for safety reasons) Otherwise we tend to take from 14 up (although I've heard others take volunteers younger.


Cephkid I'm pretty certain the female broods..

J

Dunno about them being full of eggs when they wash up, A. nodosa washes up around northern NZ (Offshore Islands - I've found them at Mayor Is. - Bay of Plenty) in the summer months. All the ones I've seen have been empty.

Hmmm...okay. I could've sworn I read somwhere that they drop them and hope it catches on a reef-like-structure...therefore logic would say that the ones that washed up wouldn't have caught on anything, otherwise they wouldn't be there. :P Guess not though, huh?

There is plenty of information and interesting links to images about argonauts in this thread from last March called, appropriately, Argonauts (http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2259&start=0)

Cool thx!