The nautilids have pinhole eyes.

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It's not just us humans that find our everyday living space too small after a while. The obvious strategies for increasing space are relocation or building an extension. The same happens also for the Nautilus, a cephalopod, considered to be a relative of ammonites, which populated the seas up to 65 million years ago. Today, their spirally wound homes are admired as impressive fossils – which are also on display in the MEERESMUSEUM.

Unlike its relatives, the octopus or cuttlefish, the nautilus is the only cephalopod still living with a fixed outer casing, which it never leaves. When it grows, a new living chamber is formed at the end of the symmetrical spiral. Each is twice as large as the previous one. An adult animal can have about thirty of these dwellings, whereby the old, rear chambers are closed after each move.

As can be observed well in the Tropical Aquarium at the MEERESMUSEUM, nautilids are not very mobile. They usually float upright in the water, where they control their ascent and descent using gas pressure in the deserted chambers. Thus, especially at feeding times they can also rise to the surface of the tank.

Another striking feature of the Nautilus is the high number of tentacles, with which one can distinguish the sexes. Males have up to 90 tentacles, females around 60. They use them to catch small fish or crabs. In the aquarium they are fed with shrimp.