Anyone have experience with reef sharks?

westmoorenerd

westmoorenerd

USN Avionics Technician
Premium Member
I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience/tips raising a black tip reef shark in their tanks?

I went to the LFS today and noticed they had a black tip pup, probably 14" or so in a 75g tank or so. Feeling bad for it and realizing that the next person who was going to buy it was probably going to stick it in a overly small tank and kill it, I decided to purchase it. I put 1/2 down on it and will be picking it up in 5 days.

Before you flame me, I realize that it will rapidly out-grow my tank, and is questionably too large for it right now. But I do know my tank is better than, sadly, what the LFS provides... Fortunately the local zoo and public aquarium both said they would purchase it from me once it got larger. They prefer not deal with the LFS due to their bad fish keeping practices...

Any advice would be appreciated, especially growth rate! Also I'm hoping my 6" groupers and yellow tang will do alright with the beast in there, but I'm already prepared to have a 1 fish tank... Right now I'm moving my rockwork to the corners of the tank to keep the shark from running into the corners...

Here's my wife with the shark at the LFS:
77160_168467653171848_100000258421341_490402_2763769_n.jpg
 
Your heart's in the right place, but he'll outgrow your 540 in 6 months, potentially damage your tank/system, and die a miserable death. Next time you go in there, punch the store owner in the face for me.

Edit: Just to be clear, he is far to large for your tank now, and if you buy him you're just encouraging the ******* that owns the store to get another one. Friendly advice - never go to that store again.

If you're into sharks, as many people here are, your options are pretty open with carpet/cat/bamboo sharks. Just don't buy them from that dick.
 
helicoprion said:
Your heart's in the right place, but he'll outgrow your 540 in 6 months, potentially damage your tank/system, and die a miserable death. Next time you go in there, punch the store owner in the face for me.

Edit: Just to be clear, he is far to large for your tank now, and if you buy him you're just encouraging the ******* that owns the store to get another one. Friendly advice - never go to that store again.

If you're into sharks, as many people here are, your options are pretty open with carpet/cat/bamboo sharks. Just don't buy them from that dick.
Click to expand...

+1 The zoo won't buy them from the LFS because if he can't sell the sharks he will quit ordering them. By "rescuing" this one the LFS sees that there is a market for them and will order more.
 
I have to agree that the tank is already undersized for this shark. The 3 foot width is an issue not to mention that it has rock in it.

If you wish to house the shark for any period of time, I would recommend starting with a round stock tank.

http://barnworld.com/sa/p/Round_Poly_Tank_9_diameter.htm

I wish you the best of luck. It is an expensive venture for you to buy it and then hand it over to an aquarium. I am sure others will soon chime in and disagree with me - and they are likely correct; even the stock tank is too small.
 
Okay 1st off -Blacktip reefs are ORV(Obligated Ram Ventilators) sharks - in other words they need to contantly move in to breath.

And keeping one in a 75 gallon - is down right cruel. A 540 gallon tank is a much better option - in the short term. However ORV sharks really don't do well in typical rectangular shaped aquariums. A round or oval shark pond is much better option.

The best bet for this shark. Put in your 540 gallon - then set up a shark pond for it. A pond 9' diameter pool from your local Agriculture supply store would be a good option for right now. But a better option for keeping longer than a year or so would be 12-15' above ground swimming pool. Or you could build your own pond (like a Koi pond style with saltwater). But in either these cases - the best you could do is keep it for a couple of years(until it about 3-3.5' long).

A fully grown - Blacktip reef will be about 5-6 ft long and require a tank or lagoon of more than 25,000 gallons - in order to keep it for life.

As for the basic dimensions that a Blacktip reef requires to swim in it's normal pattern - for an oval pond/lagoon or tank - should be about at least 6-8 times the shark's length, with a width of about 3-4 times it's length. For a round pond -it should have a diameter that is roughly equal to about 4-5 times the shark's length.

And when planning use the estimated size of the shark at the time you plan to move it to another tank or give it to the Aquarium. In other if you plan to keep the shark until it about 3 ft long - then you will need a pool that about 12-15 ft in diameter, or about 18-21 ft long x 9-10 ft wide.
 
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Thanks for the advice guys... The shark will be kept only short term in my tank, no worries on that. I plan on clearing all but maybe 50lbs of rock from the tank, right now there's only about 100.

Also the not buying the shark isn't an option... The owner will always find a buyer out here on this little island, but luckily only gets them every few years... And she doesn't order them, it's just whatever the local fishermen get.
 
If you have the room a 9' round blue ploy tank is only around 300 and is near 1000 gallons, but you have to have room of course
 
salty....i would buy one of those in a heartbeat, but they dont have any for sale out here in Guam. Shipping on one of this is ridiculous too btw....
 
saw that at w@ngz, couldn't believe they had it in the store..... when i was there there were 2 pups in the tank. Told the workers that they were KUKSIKA.
 
Hey man...Nice to see another person from Guam on here! Yeah they had 2 in there.... someone else bought the larger pup. I talked to the zoo and they said they'd be more than willing to take it, so thats good. She's doing alright in my tank right now though, suprisingly not aggresive to my other fish... Heck, my small puffer swims right next to her all day. Probably due to that fact I just put the small fish from when I go spearing in the tank as food.
 
thanks chelu....nice to see someone on guam here as well. i saw both in that small tank and i told the dude that worked there they needed a huge tank for those, but he insisted that a 150 gallon was alright for a black tip reef shark. it was just unreal seeing such an elegant creature in a pet store. I try to stay away from getting fish from there, because as you can tell they don't do much to take care of their saltwater livestock. almost every fish i've gotten from there has had some sort of disease and died. have you checked out red dragon? i went to the school with the owner.....a really cool dude who will go out on his boat and collect any fish you ask him for. i recently got a shepardi angel from him.....its awesome. you should check him out if you're lookin to buy fish.
 
Nah, I've never even heard of Red Dragon.... where's it at? Yeah tank was ridiculously tiny, the shark I got (Lamia) just swam in a tiny circle when I put her into my tank, used to the smaller tank.
 
its a small pet store in the compadres mall......but he doesnt keep his saltwater fish stock there.....i can give you his number if you like. i just call whenever i want i fish i cant get myself, and he usually has it in a week. btw, that pup must look disgustingly cool in your 540.
 
This guy aint out to get rich....... so his prices are a lot cheaper than what you would pay at the other place, plus his fish are in a lot better shape. i got an adult emperor angel for 35 bucks, the shepardi angel for 80, and a lemonpeel angel and 2 small blue tangs for 15 each. his name is Jean-Pierre, and his number is 688-3364. tell him the tall white surfer looking dude sent you.

esta laters
 
I'm planning on adding two Black Tips to my new tank or "ocean" as I should start calling it. I asked my LFS if they have ever had any and they gave me the right answer... we can't support a fish that large. Cudos to them.

Your LFS should be shut down. Stores like that are the reason there are so many people out there who don't know what they are doing.

I agree that it will only encourage the idiot owner to buy another BTR shark, but the only other option would have been to let it die in the store. I would have done the same as you.
 
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