Nautilus pompilius
- Thread starter mr_x
- Start date
aquaknight
Active Member
Long term, is a novel concept with these guys. Only the 'big' aquarium have been successful, like Waikiki. Some of the inheret problems, first is temperature. Generally around 60° is the target. For most of us, that's a MASSIVE chiller. They need a larger aquarium as well that tall and deep, 3' on each.
Over time most of them seem to either development buoyancy issues, problems with their shells developing, or cracking their shells from banging into the ends of the aquarium. They range of the shallow deeps of the reef, to one was tracked down to 1500ft. and they regularly traveled to and from those depths. I suspect that has a lot to do with their floatation issues.
I would normally be upset at the thought of keeping these guys, but I'm not. CITES hasn't done anything to protect these guys since little research is known. Nautilus's don't reach sexual maurity till about 5 years old, and once that old, they only have about 10-12 offspring per spawn. Almost every other type of Cephalopod rarely lives more then a year, and has numerous offspring. 10,000's of Nautlius are mined/killed every year just for there shell from the Indo-Pacific. They pop up every now and then, and are sometimes even available on that bay of e. If you feel like you want to give it a shot, I'd say go ahead. I've seriously considered doing one myself, the only problem is heat. You probably could get away with a smaller tank, 55-90gal'ish and about 70°, but for me, even 70° would be a massive chiller in the summer.
There are tons of vids on youtube if you want to see Nautilus's in captivity.
Over time most of them seem to either development buoyancy issues, problems with their shells developing, or cracking their shells from banging into the ends of the aquarium. They range of the shallow deeps of the reef, to one was tracked down to 1500ft. and they regularly traveled to and from those depths. I suspect that has a lot to do with their floatation issues.
I would normally be upset at the thought of keeping these guys, but I'm not. CITES hasn't done anything to protect these guys since little research is known. Nautilus's don't reach sexual maurity till about 5 years old, and once that old, they only have about 10-12 offspring per spawn. Almost every other type of Cephalopod rarely lives more then a year, and has numerous offspring. 10,000's of Nautlius are mined/killed every year just for there shell from the Indo-Pacific. They pop up every now and then, and are sometimes even available on that bay of e. If you feel like you want to give it a shot, I'd say go ahead. I've seriously considered doing one myself, the only problem is heat. You probably could get away with a smaller tank, 55-90gal'ish and about 70°, but for me, even 70° would be a massive chiller in the summer.
There are tons of vids on youtube if you want to see Nautilus's in captivity.