A lil shark talk

[Growurown]

I recently upgraded my predator tank to a 280, all my triggers were outgrowing the 135. Well I picked up a new fish and added him to the new tank without QT in hopes of getting him in before territories were established. BIG MISTAKE. He brought ick to the system. I have lost just about ALL my fish, several were tangs and triggers grown from fingerlings that were TOO big to flush. I had a blonde Naso that I considered mounting

Who do I blame ME ME ME. I have paid a costly price to the Quarentine Gods.

Anyway, since I do now have this 72 X 36 X 25 Tank that is nearly barren. I suddenly have room to consider a shark. After the tank clears (in about three months) I am thinking of adding a shark. question is, for now a 280 will be fine, but in the long run, it will be tight. how do you current shark keepers handle this ?

donate shark to an aquarium, or look to yet another upgrade, and lets be honest, a three foot shark is a three foot chainsaw, so how do you go about long term care?

 

[onereefnotenuf]

my opinion is i wouldn't buy a fish that i know i can't keep long term unless i was CERTAIN i would be upgrading. that said, i don't know if a 280 is too small for all species of shark.

 

[LisaD]

Sorry about your loss. I have also made too many sacrifices to the QT gods.

What a great sized tank. Wouldn't some of the cat or bamboo sharks be okay in a 280? I'd keep a small ray, myself.

I agree with onereefnoenuf, don't get anything you aren't prepared to keep as an adult.

Good luck!

 

[ClamIAm]

That size tank is definitely big enough for a few smaller species of sharks or probably any ray you can commonly get.

 

[bignick]

I am keeping a brown banded bamboo in a 210 and he is fine. Most sharks can live their lives in a 280 as long as its 3' wide you should be fine. I may run into some problems as mine gets older but i have seen adult sharks kept in 180+. Your tank will be a good size for any cat shark. Just a little tip though, No large angels, puffers, triggers or lionfish with a shark.

 

[Growurown]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9845224#post9845224 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bignick
. Just a little tip though, No large angels, puffers, triggers or lionfish with a shark.

Sadly it doesnt appear that will be an issue, I just flushed "Jerome" my dog faced puffer who looks like a bus.

It appears my last Niger trigger is on the way out as a type this, and he is WAY to big to flush ~ pretty sad but it is all my fault.

I will do a lot more reading, but at this point the Bamboo would be fine in that size tank. I think hatching one from an egg would not only be an expierience for my child but the safeset way to get a healthy animal. Thanks guys

 

[justinl]

i second the egg hatching, but please do lots of research first. sharks are not easy to care for. be sure that you have a steady supplier of suitable marine live feed incase the shark doesn't take to frozen.

btw, you shouldn't flush fish anyways. they can block the drain and it isn't very ethical to boot. It's like putting them in a FW dip on a roller coaster.

 

[drunktank]

dont' buy an egg.... many times they dont' hatch, or if they do.. they don't survive. For a tank this large you could get :

Round Stingray
(Urobatis halleri)

Cat Shark, Black Banded
(Chiloscyllium punctatum)

Marbled Bamboo Cat Shark
(Chiloscyllium plagiosum)

Epaulette Shark - Hemiscyllium ocellatum

Woebegon Shark (my favorite)

also, u can consider any eel, many of which are very cool

 

[Growurown]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9845498#post9845498 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by justinl
i second the egg hatching, but please do lots of research first. sharks are not easy to care for. be sure that you have a steady supplier of suitable marine live feed incase the shark doesn't take to frozen.

btw, you shouldn't flush fish anyways. they can block the drain and it isn't very ethical to boot. It's like putting them in a FW dip on a roller coaster.

Yeah I will read up a bit more beforehand, with the tank as it is now, I have the time. and flushing them isnt an issue for me because I have a septic system, and ethically, well the're dead.

Suprizingly my snowflake EEL and all starfish and inverts were unaffected by the parasite

 

[justinl]

ah i was under trhe impression it was live fish you were putting down. I know some people put them down the loo alive... it's sickening.

have you researched on ich yet? Ich is a parasite that infects only fish. Not inverts. Im not sure about eels, but i do know that eels have a slime coat that they continuously shed. This is a great protection against parasites like ich (assuming ich could infect an eel). That's why the quarantine thing works. Remove fish from the tank and the ich has nothing to host. so it dies (yay!). my own 60gal FOWLR (was at least... i guess its just LR now) is fishless at the moment after a recent outbreak of ich. Ive lost two fish, and two surviving now.

 

[TheSaltwaterGuy]

Drunktank: I would be careful on what type of Epaulette and Wobbegong sharks you put in that size tank. For the Epaulettes, you could consider Freycinet's Epaullete and for Wobbegongs you could consider Ward's Wobbegong. Both only reach a max length of around 30in.

 

[LisaD]

are you sure it was ich? you can usually control ich and not have it kill all your fish. did you try hyposalinity? I have had wipeouts from velvet (Amyloodinium) with secondary bacterial infections, but never ich. and triggers and tangs tend to be pretty tough, especially when you have had them a long time - they can usually recover from ich if it's treated reasonably quick.

 

[jck3120]

That size tank will be fine for most species of cat sharks. I personally have a small black banded cat shark that I hatched from an egg in my 168 gal. reef tank. Dim's are ideal for sharks being long and wide but short. If I had to do it again I would only purchase an egg. Very cool experience watching them hatch. Supposedly they are more likely to eat as well because they do not have to go thru the stress of moving tanks. Mine ate the first day it hatched. As far as keeping them with triggers and lions, mine is in with a blue throat trigger as well as a volitans lion and they all get along great. It mainly depends on the individual fish's personality. But whatever you choose to do good luck!

 

[Growurown]

Found an interesting article on sharks
http://www.reeftectonics.com/shark_keeping.htm

 

[Growurown]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9848119#post9848119 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LisaD
are you sure it was ich? you can usually control ich and not have it kill all your fish. did you try hyposalinity? I have had wipeouts from velvet (Amyloodinium) with secondary bacterial infections, but never ich. and triggers and tangs tend to be pretty tough, especially when you have had them a long time - they can usually recover from ich if it's treated reasonably quick.

I just read your post and did a search on velvet (Amyloodinium) I think you nailed what my problem is. This symptoms decribed in this article were like looking in the mirror.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/sp/feature/index.php

 

[LisaD]

I had a major die-off in fall 2005, killed every fish except my zebra moray. I realized what it was too late. I had a case of it later, and was able to control it by dosing the tank with chloroquine, did not lose any fish that time to velvet.

 

[Growurown]

thanks for the excellant advice

 

[bignick]

Don't hatch the sharks. I hatched two and one jumped out of the tank and the other died a few weeks afterwards. Neither one of them would eat well for me weeks after they hatched. The one ended up starving to death. Getting the sharks to eat when they are young can be tricky. I know a lot of people who have had a lot of success in getting sharks to do well after hatching but IMO its just easier to by a shark that is eating and is a few months old. I did that and have had much better success this way.

The eggs are cool but they take forever to hatch and the survival rate is iffy.

JMO