LETS KILL ALL NAUTILIUS!

[adamsaquatics]

Quite a headline. I saw my first a couple of months ago, and I thought it was the coolest animal, but $100 for something I knew little about was being foolish. I asked friend about them and they said,"the only die, because of the harvesting method messes their air sacs up".
So when recently in Daytona I saw a fish store with six in one tank, selling for $125 each. All were floating on top, indicating death was near.
Why do are stores allowed to sell such a thing? Is there any tank raised available? GEORGE

 

[Anonymous]

Ridiculous. I've never heard of one being kept successfully in a home aquarium. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened, of course, but my understanding is that they are off-limits for us mere mortals.

This is the sort of thing that gives the hobby a bad name - not much you can do but pass on them and hope the LFS has to eat the cost of their mistake.

 

[Anonymous]

Because they are uneducated in the animals they buy. It seemed like a good idea at the time is one reason. Another is the ignorance of many/most hobbiests, or their lack of concern for life.

 

[SPC]

Posted by adamsaquatics:
I asked friend about them and they said,"the only die, because of the harvesting method messes their air sacs up".

-This is incorrect, one of the amazing features of these animals is their ability to self regulate pressure, thats what the chambers are for.
The best thing we can do is speak up and tell the LFS or on line vendor that we find this sort of practice unacceptable. Let them know that times have changed, many people are more educated about marine life than in the past.
Steve

 

[Mouse]

Was the tank they were kept in cold enough. They like it really really cold. You woudl know because the tank would have been "sweating". If not then you have more ammo as to why the gibbons who own the shop cant stock them.

 

[adamsaquatics]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Mouse:
<strong>Was the tank they were kept in cold enough. They like it really really cold. You woudl know because the tank would have been "sweating". If not then you have more ammo as to why the gibbons who own the shop cant stock them.</strong><hr></blockquote>

NO, I bet it was at 78 deg. I thought that these came from the cold deep depts too. GOOD POINT!
George...

 

[Chucker]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by SPC:
<strong>Posted by adamsaquatics:
I asked friend about them and they said,"the only die, because of the harvesting method messes their air sacs up".

-This is incorrect, one of the amazing features of these animals is their ability to self regulate pressure, thats what the chambers are for.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Steve, there is truth in what you say, but I don't think the statement is quite accurate in this context. It is my understanding that while they can deal with pressure changes, they have to do it at their own pace, not that of the collector raising them to the surface from the point of capture.

 

[SPC]

That is true Chucker if the collector is getting them from the depths. I know that they come to the reef tops each night and just presumed this is when the collectors would nab them.
Steve

 

[JohnD]

I was at the Waikiki Aquarium with my wife a couple of years ago and remembered seeing a nautilus exhibit. I cut and pasted this from Waikiki Aquarium's website:

The chambered nautilus is a living fossil with an ancestry reaching back nearly 500 million years. Nautilus does not occur in the Hawaiian islands, and our specimens come from Palau, American Samoa or Fiji. Waikiki Aquarium was the first aquarium in the U.S. to maintain nautilus and the first in the world to breed them. From time to time, the hatchlings are on exhibit. The nautilus lives in a world of darkness, at depths of over one thousand feet. At night, it may ascend to shallower water of a few hundred feet. While nautilus is believed to be a scavenger, much of its behavior and life style remains a mystery.

There is a picture and this caption at gallery 1, tank 1.

A few hundred feet is a far cry from a 30 inch deep tank!!

[ April 25, 2002: Message edited by: JohnD ]

[ April 25, 2002: Message edited by: JohnD ]</p>

 

[sfla_pb]

We have a LFS that has about six of them and has had them more than a year. They are not for sale because he says most people could not keep them. His tank is kept very cold and it is not a huge tank. He said he was breeding them.
adamsaquatics I went to west genesee high in Camillus.