So you want to buy a shark? (Shark primer)

[jacobzking]

Recent vid of her behavior after returning from vet, shes "burping" or hiccuping...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQoOP1OIEqY

 

[alprazo]

That is very interesting behavior. Sharks lack a diaphragm since thy don't have lungs which makes a hiccup impossible, though it looks identical. It is a muscle spasm, probably from intermittent firing, which is not a good sign and often means pending doom.

I think you will know by tomorrow if you shark is going to make it. I had one floating and rolling in the current wih no ability to swim before only to find him calm on the bottom 12 hrs later, after a baytril injection. Still have the guy.

Good luck and let me know.

 

[jacobzking]

Labored breathing but no more irregular movements. Shes just hanging out at the bottom at the moment.

 

[jacobzking]

She didn't make it through the night

 

[alprazo]

Sorry to hear. Was really hoping for different news. It is difficult to say what happened. My guess was bad food. Either had a preformed toxin from bacteria, such as staphyloccus food poisoning where a toxin is made and makes you sick. It is not an infection. The only treatment is supportive measures. It could have happened before the food was initially frozen. This is the one where you get sick several hours after eating. Or it could be from ingesting a pathogenic bacterium such as listeria. This can take days to weeks to develop, the causes CNS problems, convulsions along with the common GI issues.

I do not think it came in with the tang.

 

[alprazo]

Leopards and nurse sharks should be species of the past. The leopard is now listed under the Lacey act and possessing a shark under 36 inches will draw stiff penalties. The nurse shark is now listed o as a large costal shark and needs to be 54 inches to keep, which is a heavy one. Small pups possibly come in from Mexico but are best left in the ocean. They get rather large and love to consume food. They will eat you out of house and home.
.

As mentioned before, leave the nurse sharks in the ocean. 15 years and a half mil just isn't worth it.

 

[cmdrstoneey]

shark kid

shark kid

hello my name is ian and i have coral banded cat shark hatched from an egg eating 15 ghost shrimp a week seems to be doing will but what else can i feed him? and what is a goo place to find sharks for sale and what is a good recamendation for a shark tank?

 

[jacobzking]

Sorry to hear. Was really hoping for different news. It is difficult to say what happened. My guess was bad food. Either had a preformed toxin from bacteria, such as staphyloccus food poisoning where a toxin is made and makes you sick. It is not an infection. The only treatment is supportive measures. It could have happened before the food was initially frozen. This is the one where you get sick several hours after eating. Or it could be from ingesting a pathogenic bacterium such as listeria. This can take days to weeks to develop, the causes CNS problems, convulsions along with the common GI issues.

I do not think it came in with the tang.

Thanks for all of the follow ups and support. Thinking about selling the tank. Only reason I can see to have a 300 gallon is for a shark and not sure I want to try again. This girl was not just a "fish" but a family pet that we hand fed and loved.

Let me ask you about feeding habits... we would buy frozen silversides, krill, marine cuisine (cubes) and squid cubes. Every three to four days we would take a small container and put in a variety of food and let it thaw out. The shark would normally eat all of the silversides right away, but sometimes there would be a few leftover pieces that would sit in the food/water mixture in our fridge for a few days. Do you think that could have maybe accelerated or promoted harmful bacteria growth.

So basically, instead of thawing food every day for all of the fish, we would make a batch to last for 3-4 days.

 

[alprazo]

Would hate to see you give up on sharks. Many of them do have personalities, my short tails are like pufferfish and allow me to pick them up and hold them. One even spits at me on occasion.

As for the feeding, I don't see anything wrong with what you were doing. Sharks will eat from a carcass that was floating for weeks. I think it was probably food tainted before the initial freezing, but if you are only feeding food specifically for fish, then maybe it was a bacteria that grew while it was thawed. I almost lost one to a bad scallop from the supermarket and the shark was near death within a day of eating it.

Again a vitamin deficiency or viral illness could have also cause these symptoms too

 

[alprazo]

hello my name is ian and i have coral banded cat shark hatched from an egg eating 15 ghost shrimp a week seems to be doing will but what else can i feed him? and what is a goo place to find sharks for sale and what is a good recommendation for a shark tank?

Ian,

Not sure how big your coral cat is, but it will probably take frozen food. I do recommend adding a vitamin with iodine supplement if feeding frozen foods.. Depending on the size, they like squid, earthworms, krill, mysis, conch, table shrimp, and possibly fish. They tend to become more aggressive with feeding as they get around 7 inches. If it just hatched, try frozen mysis or worms.

As for finding sharks for sale. It all depends on what you are looking for. I do not know your tank size, but for the eppies, coral and marbled cats, gray and brown banded bamboos your LFS would likely be able to bring them in for you. I would consider LA DD a reputable online source and I have personally acquired some great, healthy specimens from them. You can even put in a request and they will often get it. You just have to be quick with purchasing it because it is first come first serve. I'm sure there are others. If you are looking into rare and cooler water species, PM me and I can pass on a couple of contacts.

 

[alprazo]

Not only do you have to know what you are buying when it comes to sharks, you must know where it is coming from and how the seller obtained it. Doesn't appear that ignorance is bliss.

 

[wlyon]

Since this was brought up I've been wondering. I see people catching black tip pups all the time on rod and real, how much trouble would you get in if you kept them in an aquarium (large proper size aquarium of course)

My dream tank is about the size of the room, and once I finish college I plan on working in florida and was hoping to set up a biotope of only fish I could catch myself if possible which included 3 black tip reef sharks. In a tank much like your new build but with a large acrylic viewing window instead of just a top down view.

 

[alprazo]

It looks like they can be taken in Florida. At least for the moment. The have extremely high oxygen demands so a pool on the boat deck, would be a must. Getting them to your aquarium is Not an easy task.

http://m.myfwc.com/fishing/saltwater/recreational/sharks/

 

[wlyon]

Good to know, Thank You! That was part of the reason I am not to keen on having them shipped to me once I'm ready. My plan was either a couple of the battery operated aerators, or I've heard if people taking a couple buckets of water from where the fish was collected and half way through the trip do a water change to both help oxygen levels and keep down ammonia in the transport tank.

I still have a year and a half till I finish my PhD so hopefully I can use that time to work out some of the major bugs and flaws before I even begin.

 

[alprazo]

I hope you realize that the shipping container would need to be a minimum of 6 foot dia round tank for a blacktip of around 30 inches. It would also have to cover the shark by several inches. These are not hardy like a blacktip reef. They need to constantly swim with very very little down time. You are talking about a couple of hundred dollar setup, probably at least $500 minimum plus a truck rental. You would also need the same container on the ship deck with pumps to add fresh seawater. Even with the right setup these are very difficult to transport.

Here is a schematic

 

[wlyon]

Thanks for the heads up, I'll have to add that to my list for sure.

How on earth to whole sale places transport them to stores then. When I worked at my LFS two of our suppliers had baby black tips all the time but I never remembered to ask how they would ship them half way across the country.

 

[alprazo]

You are talking about two totally different sharks. The Atlantic blacktip, Carcharhinus limbatus and the blacktip reef shark Carcharhinus melanopterus. The Atlantic blacktip is much more difficult and will not be found at the LFS.

 

[wlyon]

You are talking about two totally different sharks. The Atlantic blacktip, Carcharhinus limbatus and the blacktip reef shark Carcharhinus melanopterus. The Atlantic blacktip is much more difficult and will not be found at the LFS.

That explains a whole lot, thank you for pointing that out. I feel slightly silly now for missing that bit of info in my research...

 

[griseum]

hey Alprazo! and everybody else too!!
Ive been working with a breeding group of C. griseum. The grey bamboo shark. In my opinion this species is THE most suitable aquarium species that should be much more available than other carpet sharks i.e. Brown-Banded Bamboo, White-Spotted Bamboo, Common Eppies (even tho their low activity levels make them suitable, but their 3ft average length can be a problem) etc. Without getting to in depth, unless anyone is interested in hearing the info, Grey Bamboos are extremely hardy. Partly because of their natural locales and their endemic regions, which span quite far throughout the Indo-Pacific. Anyway, they average a usual 24" in captivity. Max. size ( keep in mind this figure may be the largest individual ever caught in the wild, which in statistics is called an Outlier, an anomaly compared to the majority) is 28-30". You will probably never see this size C. griseum unless it is collected at that size or is in public aquaria. Needless to say, with most mass production aquariums being at their widest 24" a juvenile and even subadult Griseum would be perfectly suited in such tanks as standard 180 gallons (6x2x2). As with all adult sharks and especially pairs and or groups, a larger or custom tank is much more suitable.

Im extremely happy to see a Primer for sharks. And i hope everybody reads it before making that first impulse purchase of a shark egg or hatchling Brown-banded bamboo that are "so cute" and so commonly available. Hopefully, knock on wood, my group will be producing viable eggs well within the next 3-4 months. Im extremely excited and Im really hoping that the more suitably sized carpet sharks become more available than the usual 4 footers+.

Any questions, definitely ask, and props to Alprazo, hes definitely the man to ask anything regarding Elasmobranchii. Thanks!

 

[jr_83]

First off, thanks for the awesome thread. Very informative. I have been out of the fish hobby for years and I wanted to get back into with sharks. It sounds like the Mexican Horn Shark would be a good option for what I'm trying to do thanks to the fact that they live in warmer waters. As far as temperament goes, would they be able to be tanked with say a Lionfish, Porcupine, etc? Also, how hard is it to find them? How much do they typically cost? I attemted to Google this info but found very little answers and just more questions. Thanks again for the excellent info.