Keeping deep water species

[Jens Kallmeyer]

HI there

On one marine expedition to the Arabian Sea we collected deep water amphipods (the giant ones, 6 - 8 " long) in 2000 to 3000 METERS water depth with a thermally insulated trap. The water temperature was 3 to 4 degrees Celsius (do your own calculation how much this is in fahrenheit). Decompression took several days, don't ask me how long. During decompression the trap was actively cooled with large electric coolers powered by deep water batteries. On one or two occasions we got small fishes in the traps as well and we got them to the surface alive. A few of them made it into the holding tanks which were inside the cold room at 4°C. The biologists had to kill the specimen for research, so I don't know for how long the fishes would have survived if one had tried to keep them alive.
The only pet we ever took home was a small pistol shrimp from the Chilean upwelling region, water depth was about 600 m. We shipped it home in a large jar in a 4° cooling container with all the other samples and it lived happily in the darkness of our cold room for over 2 years. Considering the cost of all this, this little shrimp would be worth thousands of dollars, I just don't want to think about fishes.

Still,

 

[Crumbs]

JHemdal, Thank you very much for your time and thorough reply! If you make it to TO ill take you for a round of beers!
It is interesting to hear that you maintained the shrimp successfully for that duration. I was considering keeping Pygmy or Cookiecutter sharks that do not have gas swim bladders but over sized livers. I have bin pointed towards fishbase that has accounts of collection of Cookiecutters being collected at 100'. This is news to me and was very promising information showing that they can tolerate a greater range of temperatures as well as compression. These sharks may even be collected in shallower water.
I have not found a chiller that can go below 10degC 50F. If the sharks could be acclimatized to 50F I think this could be possible.

Jens Kallmeyer, thank you for sharing your experience. It sounds like it would make a great documentary. I will not be doing my own collecting so I would not have to worry about the decompression myself. I would however be concerned with internation shipping.

 

[kydsexy]

haha, i posted on this when it first posted. as i read on and on and on, i think to myself : does anyone really realize how stupid this question really is without proper information? reasons behind it are as follow:

**no one can tell you information about keeping anythign alive based on depth

1. this won't be the first fish collected of the species, i know that because he'd be in the news and we'd all know what he was talking about. someone has done it before. ask them.

2. he's not wild collecting himself. why aren't you asking the person who is catching the fish these questions?
*what exact depth was the fish caught? some fish can only be found within 6 meters of depth and won't leave that depth their entire lives.
*what temperature are they found at? realize that as mentioned ^^^ by crumbs just now, they CAN be caught in 100' feet of water, but you have to be sure when temperature acclimating for your tank. sometimes they can be really picky, 11 degrees not 13 degrees solely because they aren't changing depths much.

good luck with your shark, make sure you have an enormous chilled tank, you can buy and industrial chiller that can drop the water below freezing, it's up to you to make sure the water is agitated enough so that it won't freeze

good luck again!!!

 

[BeanAnimal]

You will likely want a custom built chiller, as the duty cycle will be much higher to maintain such a low temperature. The second option would be to use commercial unit that could be easily modified to produce colder temperatures. The refrigerant charge would need to be modified and the controller modified... not really a big deal.

 

[marsh]

If it's a cookie cutter I'd not put it in an acrylic tank as they have been known to mark up submarines.

 

[BeanAnimal]

not to mention what it could do to an arm

 

[BeanAnimal]

Look here

 

[webbstock]

I found this Q and A that states that cookie cutter shark travels to the surface to feed....

"The diminutive cookiecutter shark, at only 50 cm (20 in) long, travels from the sea bottom to the surface to feed."

http://www.naturalsciences.org/education/deepsea/2005/answers_102705.htm

 

[Crumbs]

Thanks for the comments,

So chilling the water to near freezing would be possible but I need to find out what its upper rage temperature would be. If keeping it at 50F would be possible it would be far more economical.

Its pretty amazing the kind of bite these little sharks can pack. I think if I am going to do this I would build a deep tank using kevlar fiberglass. I dont know what would be any stronger. On the other hand many species of sharks are kept in ponds with a liner that have a more powerful bite.

 

[BeanAnimal]

The shark can not bit something that he can not close his jaws on. The tank could be made of just about anything. It is the contents of the tank and your fingers that would be in jeopardy.

 

[Crumbs]

ya, I guess things like closed loop intakes could be a problem. hmmm....

 

[DrBegalke]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11535180#post11535180 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GreshamH
Many of our "rarer" fishes in the trade are caught below 100'. Baby Clown triggers pop right to mind as do angels, basslets and wrasses.

Also Nemateleotris helfrichi.