cat shark tank.

[fishguy194]

Hello all,
Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m a little nervous about posting this because I have noticed quite a bit of flaming going on, but you guys are the bestââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ so here goes! I am setting up a cat shark tank. I am looking at the brown banded, white spotted, coral cat, or a combination of. It will be between 125 and 220 gallons, budget permitting. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m looking through local ads for any good buys or deals. The filtration will be a wet/dry filter and hopefully a protein skimmer. For substrate Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m using 4-6 inches of sand. And a few caves for the sharks to hide in. my real question involves tank mates. I know the list is very small so I am looking for guidance by the wise and smart mouthed, hehehe. I am looking at maybe one or two hippo tangs, a couple of lionfish (fu-Manchu, or dwarf), a marine betta, and a pair of clownfish (tomato, Clarkââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s, saddle-back, or maroon). And if I get clowns, could I get an anemone? Possibly a Haddonââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s carpet or something? Would their sting be enough to keep the clowns safe or would it be too strong and kill the sharks? Another thing Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m contemplating is constructing a rock formation above the substrate. It would be suspended midway below the water level, by using glue and fishing line attached to egg crate or PVC pipe above the tank. It would create a place where the fish could sleep, safe from the bottom dwelling sharks. And then create a small patch of reef up there! Say, soft corals only, such as leathers, colts, and mushrooms. For lighting I could use power compact over the rock formation and a metal halide pendant over the anemone. I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t want to put a lot of lighting over the tank though; I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t want to keep the sharks hiding constantly. Ok, Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m done talking your ears out and your eyes and brains are sore from me pecking at them. Thanks you guys!!

 

[hunter04]

Ok I hope that I can help you. First thing, you have to have a protein skimmer and it needs to be good. It has been recommended to me not to have lions, but the tangs will be fine. I have a Naso with my 18" bamboo. I did have 2 clowns, but they did get eaten. I personally don't have corals, and from what I see people don't recommend it. The reason being is water quality. With the rock work, I have as little as possibly. More swimming room for my shark. If you are going to get a combination of sharks, I would get the 220 or bigger. HTH

 

[Nocturnal]

First decide on the shark. I had a Marbled Cat shark and they get about a foot shorter than a Bamboo. Choose your tankmates carefully. Sharks WILL prey on smaller fish. Stay away from anemones and clowns, triggers, and some large angels, although I have never noticed my angels bothering the shark. Larger tanks will be more beneficial and as stated keep the rock work to a minimum with places to hide and lots o' filtration because they are messy. Vary their diet as much as possible with mixed foods such as: squid, clams, shrimp, fish, scallops, krill, etc etc.
Most of all, good luck and enjoy!

 

[Dragon Moray Eels]

fishguy194 , Nocturnal forgot one little thing to tell you. The cat shark doesn`t swim around during the day, but they do swim all night. If you go this way and get a cat shark, you will see line markings on the gravel bed surface and they not see well, they eat what they can catch when they hit it with their nose. Some years ago i had one and the only way it would swim out in day light hours is if they smell food, they even would snatch food from a trigger when hungry.
Buddy :fish1:

 

[Nocturnal]

Dragon Moray is right. I totally forgot about that. Mine actually didn't even like coming out for food during the day. I would have to dim all the lights and then she would come out for food. She was a character though! Beautiful animal.

 

[pantera4203]

Hello,
My shark has done well in a similar enviroment as you are desrcibing. I have a coral catshark (Atelomycterus Marmoratus)
I did a lot of research on what kind of shark to get. I picked the coral catshark for there size and natural habitat. The good thing is that they don't get large like the bamboo, they only get about 24-27 inches. also, there natural enviroment is in the coral reef and he can manuver himself whrough the rock work. I have a a 150 G with a purple tang, blue eyed tang, two Cin clowns, wolf eel, clown trigger and a racoon butterfly. I set my tank up as a partial reef on one side and I have mis corals. Plus, I have a LTA, BTA and a green carpet anemone.
1st be ready to stand up corals again they run into them.
My shark has ran into the carpet anemone and doing this once cured him of running into it. Not too sure what would hapen with a lion. I don't think it would work.
They will eat anything that they can catch, but all of the fish know him very well and keep out of his way. He is too slow to catch any of them. He has bumped into them and tried yet too slow.
I am in the proccess of geting a new 240G tank set up for him to rome at night. a 125 might be ok if there is very little rock so he can roam at night.
You will have to have a skimmer there is a lot of junk in the tankfrom feeding and so on. When picking sand make sure that it is fine sand course sand or CC with scatch up the soft underbelly of the shark.
My shark is far from a bottom dweller he swims the whole tank night. One bad thig is that the sharks that you like will hide during the day. I have large pice of base rock that he hides at night and is out of the shine of my 150W MH (new tank will have 400W). The only thing that I don't like about the Bamboo is that they lose there stripes as adults and can get 3-4 feet long, I don't plan on geting a tank that big.
sorry for the random comments just trying to answer as many ?'s as I could think of.
Best
Brandon

 

[Crevalle]

Pantera, where did you get your coral catshark? I'm very interested in such a small shark.

 

[pantera4203]

I got my shark from the one of the LFS here in Vegas. It took me about 3-4 months of searching to get one. I know were on is now but they want 190 bucks for it. I got mine for $130, same size. I can get you there information if you like, plus there is a LFS here that might be able to do something for you.
Best
Brandon

 

[paulfromero]

Hi guys,

My 300g has a course sand bottom, and I'm wondering how my baby banded cat shark will survive. Is there a good chance that if hes healthy that the course sand may not be fatal?

thanks,

Paul

 

[NaClH20NMYVEIN]

Sharks tend to bump into lions and get stung. It is also recommend not to keep with any kind of anemone, they can be stung by them. My sharks knock my corals down about every other night. Scott Michaels sharks and rays book will be the best tool for you!

 

[BJJ]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6614018#post6614018 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by paulfromero
Hi guys,

My 300g has a course sand bottom, and I'm wondering how my baby banded cat shark will survive. Is there a good chance that if hes healthy that the course sand may not be fatal?

thanks,

Paul

I wouldnt recomend just 'swaping' out your existing sand as you run the risk of loosing benificial bacteria. However you will want to add fine sand soon. It wont take long before the shark starts to show signes of irratation (red blotches)on his belly, potentially leading to stress and death. Maybe you could transfer some of your sand to the sump (isolating the sand to make removal easy) leaving a small amount of sand in the display tank. Cover the course sand with new fine sand - for example if you have 1/2" of course sand , add about 1 to 1.5" of fine sand on top. The sand you transfered to the sump is there to seed the new sand and prevent a possible crashing of your bio system.

The sooner you can do this the better.

 

[paulfromero]

Hi,

I will look into adding more sand to the 2 1/2 to 3" sandbed. This would have an added benefit of creating a DSB, which will help with nitrates. I dont have a sump or wet dry filter, so this option out.

Thanks,

Paul