Bamboo Shark....

[Ticketyboo]

Does anyone have any experience with this type of fish? i got one yesterday and its a pretty little blighter, about 7 inches or so and i was advised by my LFS that they had it for 3 days and it had not eaten yet.

I took it home, drip aclimitised it and left the blue leds on...... this morning, it was a happy little bunny and was doing a marathon around the tank and ate some krill... however didnt eat that much, but at least its eating...

So my questions is, does anyone else have one? and if they do, what are you guys feeding them?

[justinl]

sweeet! my question to you is: where are the pics?!

okay i have no personal experience with sharks but from what i hear, they need a large tank. like 400 gallons or something. Some never learn to eat frozen food and must survive on live food. it's a good sign it ate krill though. try feeding some more in a 2-3 of days. they do NOT need to be fed daily. at most three times a week, but it seems twice a week may work better.

again this isn't my advise, just what ive picked up along the way.

[Ticketyboo]

ok just for you justin, i took some pics.... what is it about fish that just wont stay still when they are getting their pics taken????

Scuse the scratches on the screen.... but its an acrylic 180 and i have not gotten round to buffeting the scratches out yet and its only the bottom part as the previous owner had large stones in there.....

[justinl]

niiiiiice. you've got quite the beaut there. 180 is going to be quite small for it. You will very likely want to start looking for a large upgrade.

check out some info here...
http://www.grimreefers.com/forums/index.php?showforum=17

[Ticketyboo]

justin justin justin justin ...... this is part of my cunning plan.......

we started off with a 72 gallon for mhy wife........ then i had my predators only in a 50 gallon when they were small.... then i bought the 180 gallon as they grew a little larger... only to tell my wife.... honey..... look!!!! we need a bigger tank as the shark is getting bigger!!!!!! in which she will only agree as its such a lovelly fish and she will fall in love with it in months to come, so she wont have any hesitation into allowing me to get a larger tank........ tactics dear justin... tactics.....

Hey when can i see the mantis you got from hidden reef???

[justinl]

hahaha man you got this ALL planned out eh? lol well done, well done.

well i got final exams until the 18th, so not until after then... until then ill be scrambling realising how screwed i am. for now Im listening to the hockey game ans well... procrastinating. it's what i do best! after that though, come on over any time! Ill be moving trogdor to an 8gal biocube which will become a mantis reef tank over time. the 60gal will probably become a coldwater tank in the somewhat more distant future but will for the moment be a FOWLR.

hmmm... maybe ill get a small volitan from JL and get a 100gal when it grows... muahaha...

[digitalsteve]

that looks like the shark from j&l... cute little bugger

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

I hope you have a huge tank for it. Would recommend at least a 200g with overskimming since these are predators.

In the 80s, I had a smooth horn shark that I taught to eat out of my hands. I trained it to eat squids & smelts, and it grew from 8" to about 18" before I sold it to someone with a much larger custom tank than my 110g (which was the largest regular tank available at the time).

Good luck with it.

Anthony

[Ticketyboo]

Thanks for the comments guys, and im happy its eating some krill, but was looking for advise on other ways of feeding, types of food etc... im turning my 2 power heads off at the moment and using a tube to drop down the krill near its mouth.... it wont touch silver side at present.. here is a question.. regarding the silver side... should i break it down into chunks? or leave it whole? its rather big compared to the sharks mouth at present. I cant use shrimp as when i try and drop that down a tube.... it doesnt sink and stays on the surface.... typical....

I have it in my 180 at the moment Anthony, and i have a 400 lined up for future purchase, but i cant get that until i move, and thats 6-12 months away, so i think until then it should be fine.

:biggrin:

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Great.

You can try using a feeding stick to skewer the seafood on it & then waving it in front of the shark.

Anthony

[BlondNasoTang]

I had a bamboo catshark I hatched it from an egg pouch, awsome sharks. they start off with that cool stripe colouration and it fades as they mature. I had mine in a 180g and within six months he was to big for my tank:( so I sold him to a guy with a 400g FOWLR tank:( I miss the little guy. anyways for feeding I gave him/her squid, I cut it up into mouth sized peices and put it at the bottom of the tank in an open space where he/her liked to swim by. I also gave him peices of shrimp and crab meat in the same fashion. also these are low light dwellers so try to make caves and such for the little guy and try to feed him when your main lights are off.
Things to be carefull about are: your hermits and snails, he will gobble them up one by one.
Another trick I used (but is not good for your invertibrates) is to stuff a little crab meat inside an empty hermit crab shell and leave it sticking out ( I had to do this to try and slow the killing of my hermits and snails) and over time remove it and move it father and farther from the shell untill it will eat the food in the open.
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u142/wfogixxer/000_0235.jpg
http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u142/wfogixxer/000_0228.jpg

[bulletsworld]

So my questions is, does anyone else have one? and if they do, what are you guys feeding them?


I can go on forever about these creatures. :lol:

I had a white spotted Bamboo shark with blue eyes, called him Neo. Later found out HE was a SHE. :lol: Hatched from an egg, in a few months it was already 5-7 inches. They are noctural creatures so they "hunt" at night. If you put some "nemo's" (clown fish), one by one when the lights go out and by next morning you will try to figure out where they went. Anything that the shark can get his mouth on to eat, Ooo he will. Shrimps, damsels. Only thing I found I could have in the tank with this little shark was fish she couldn't fit in his mouth, Tangs.

These sharks will lay on the sand, peak out of a rock until the lights go out. I thought it was super fun to get a blue LED flashlight and watch the Bamboo come alive at night. It's NOT a good idea to feed him everyday but if you have other tankmates you dont want eaten, don't let him go hungry. :lol: If he's healthy, then he's hungry.

By 7-8 months in total, my Bamboo had grown to over 15 inches from an egg. I had a hard time finding a suitable home. She mostly only ate Krill. It took a while to go for silversides. I had to soak them in garlic for a while for her to even think of tasting it. Because I was going through Krill, I went to China town and got a big bag ($5 bucks) of mixed Melody with big peices of Krill, squid, etc in it. Just make sure you buy uncooked. I soaked food in garlic, said to make the picky eaters come.

A couple things to know... As these sharks are blind, a tank filled with LOTS of live rock is NOT ideal. They can suffer infections from rubbing their under belly on the rocks. Another thing, if you decide to add any fish with the shark. MAKE sure you QT all new additions as the shark CAN NOT TOLERATE ANY Copper or other medications.

Even though I loved my Bamboo, I realized I couldn't ever have a tank big enough for her. I ended up selling her to Big Al's here in Edmonton, where she STILL lives in their huge shark tank. I love going to visit her as she's now, HUGE. Too think that from an egg she grow to that so fast. I will see if I can find my before and after pictures of her tomorrow. If you ever want to see yourself, she's the only shark in their with the blue eyes.


Hope this helps. :mrgreen: