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nautilus help

Hi - do you have a nautilus already? They are usually uncommon in the petstore trade, and for good reason - their population health is heavily pressured by shell collecting. Generally we discourage their presence in the pet trade. Or are you at an aquarium or other institution? Since I'm not sure I'll give you some general info about how I kept them (at a research institution), with the caveat that if you've just seen one in a fish store and you're thinking about it, please consider not purchasing it. Many animals in retail stores are moribund from poor handling and incorrect shipping temps, and will die within a few days. A waste of your money, and since it sold, an incentive for the store to get another one in stock. With that said:

Anyway - I kept mine at a constant 17 C; 55 F is about 12.5 C, which is pretty cold. Nautiluses can certainly withstand cold temps, and certainly much moreso than warm temps (above about ~22-24 is usually lethal). At that temperature though you will most likely see pretty minimal activity. Feeding once per week or less is probably fine. I don't have experience maintaining them that cold, so maybe someone else can help you more.

How's the rest of your setup? Nautiluses need a lot of water volume (>50 gallons, in my opinion) and should be housed in near constant darkness. Because they are deep water animals they don't do well in bright light, and I have seen eye damage from prolonged light exposure. They make pretty boring tank ornaments, since they're minimally active and need to be kept in the dark.
 
I have no interest in keeping a Nautilus but just for curiosity sake would you be able to keep them in a red light like with some Octopus'? They are fascinating creatures even if they are quite boring.
 
We have two that were sent to us at The Idaho Public Aquarium we have them in a 55 gallon temporarily...but we have a 2000 gallon cold water display that they would look great in but just wanted to make sure the cold temps between 49 and 55 degrees wouldnt be to low. i know that they are found in a large range of depths so i didnt think it would be a problem....just want to know thanks.
 
its not completly dark but has a lot less light than the other displays. no it is not a cylinder more natural smooth rock formation and viewing windows.
 
Aha, so you ARE at a public aquarium - in that case, obviously please disregard my previous bit about retail trade.

I think the tank you describe sounds quite good - what other specimens are in there? Nautiluses are quite vulnerable to fish predators and octopuses. I assume like many cephalopods, they can be injured by stinging anemones and corals, although if you have them in a dark tank I doubt these would be likely tank mates. Any type of tough-mouthed fish (like parrotfish) can kill them very easily.

They are certainly vulnerable to abrasions from being bumped against sharp or rough edges, so if the tank is very high flow this might be a problem because they are weak swimmers and get tossed about by turbulent flows. Otherwise rock shelters are fine as long as there are no small nooks where the might get trapped - nautiluses are not the most maneouverable of swimmers.
What is the lighting spectrum? They can see blue light well but are pretty insensitive to red. A low white light will certainly be enough for them to see as well as they are able - they have very sensitive eyes. Very dull blue light is probably the best lighting conditions to give them enough light for regulating normal diurnal rhythms, but not saturate their photopigments.

I can't think of anything else that might be a problem with the setup you describe. Can you post a pic of the display when/if you get them in there? I'd love to see it!

BTW, I would go very slow on temperature acclimation if the 55 gallon is warmer than the main tank - a couple of degrees per day if possible if you have an adjustable thermostat on that tank. They are pretty grumpy acclimators in general - slow is better.
 
I do have one more concern, and that is there are some crabs in the tank and being a ceph are they going to consider them dinner? and the other tank mates will be a medium Red irish lord (grouper like) and a wolf eel that is pretty small. We keep them well feed so i dont see those being a problem. Main concern at this point is if we should remove the crabs.
 
No, in my opinion Nautiluses are too slow and their tentacles too weak to really wrangle a live crab. However, one of their major food sources (and calcium carbonate sources) in the wild is crustacean moults. So leave the crabs, I think. I don't know much about the other two species you mention and how they behave toward slow moving, conspicuous, protein-packed snacks (like a nautilus) in captivity. If they are pretty unmotivated to hunt when fed well, maybe they will be ok. I really don't know though.
 
I could see the wolf eel trying to take some nips at the nautilus but the irish lord shouldn't be a problem. And from the underwater videos I have seen, even larger groupers (>1m) were unable to eat or crush nautiluses. Sounds like a cool setup!

Greg
 

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