Sharks?

[Hustler]

I cant dig up any info on anyone keeping sharks on here???? all the guys on mfk have info but I feel its skewed.....
How do you guys feel about keeping bamboo sharks, horned jackson sharks and epaulettes? the smaller catfish sized sharks not the nurse or blacktips....
Now Im not jumping right into em as I need some time to get used to keeping marine fish but they are in the back of my mind and I have kept 3 foot catfish/arowanas and 24" disc stingrays that bred in the past alot thicker than these guys but i am curious why there arent too many posts about them this side of the boarder???
feel free to unload if need be.... Im just digging for info :)
Also I have a 300 gallon presently and will be running a 500 plus in the next year or so if things progress well..... not that i will be keeping them..... but still... lol

[paddyob]

Can reach over four feet. High maintenance. High waste levels. Expert only.

Easy to find.

[Hustler]

Ohh i hear you..... but thats at prime conditions in the wild over years and years and years.... If they are in the pet trade its better a guy with 300+ gallons get it then a bio cube right?
your standard motoro stingray gets 39"....... way bigger than a manhole yet people can keep them in a 180 gallon for 10+ years and healthy......breeding even.... and if your willing to feed all the fresh stuff and do tons of upkeep..... Im just saying it is possible with a good routine and a larger setup
I realize the walls built up around larger specimens and being kept in captivity.....Im not looking for a moral battle..... as per google my boxer pup should be living on an acrage with 6.25 acres and not anywhere near the city with a good routine and long walks.... Im looking for info on the true nature of keeping them not just the google caresheets and standard flaming from people with nanos that havent cut down walls or reinforced concrete in thier basement just to keep fish :)
Not trying to be rude.... Ive just done this same dance with freshwater fish for 15+ years and still havent lost one yet unless you count others eating it....

[paddyob]

You seriously misinterpreted.

[Funky_Fish14]

- Just cause you 'can', doesnt mean ya should.
People keep motoros, leopoldi, teacups even.... arowanas, even ID sharks and goldfish, in tanks much too small all the time. Sure they do 'just fine', but it doesnt mean its happy.

- Fish grow to XX size in the wild.
Yeah, and some grow to full size in captivity under crappy conditions, but fish should never be limited in their ability to develop and grow to a full size just because of 'captive conditions'.


So I know you said no flaming (and dont worry, im not doing so)... I used to want a shark a long time ago, but when I did the reasearch, I found it just isnt convenient to have an appropriately sized tank.
From what I recall, the animal needs 5x (the fish's full size) for the length of the tank, and 2.5x (it's full size) for the width. Now doing the math, lets say... even just a 3 foot shark. The tank is:

15ft long
7.5ft wide.

Even at... 36" tall for the tank (which... I dont know but I think thats rather low for a big tank, and a big fish)...

180"x90"x36" (all divided by 231 to get US gallons) = 2524 Gallons.

I even read arguement of 3 times length x 2 times width (again, of body length) (but jeepers thats friggen small for such a big fish)

So we are still talking 9 feet x 6ft and say 36" deep again.

108"x72"x36" (all divided by 231) = 1211 gallons.
And thats a little tank for a big fish.

I just dont think its convenient for the average hobbiest to keep such a 'large' fish.

There is also a difference in water quality requirements, where saltwater fish are much less tolerant of the nutrient buildup rates that freshwater fish can handle. If you think about it, it makes sense, freshwater ecosystems will ALWAYS be smaller than the ocean, and nutrients do not achieve high rates of buildup, or high levels, in the ocean, thus the organisms are not as tolerant of them.

If your willing to go the mile and get a huge tank then Giv'r! But if its not tottaly reasonable for someone, I would suggest different fish. There are a ton of cool critters that can be more interesting to keep than a shark!


Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,

Chris

[lastlight]

Big above ground pool in a garage is about the only decent way to house some of the larger stuff like sharks. You have a massive footprint and a round shape better suited for the creature. And still... I dunno lol.

[Bloodasp]

It's more about their swimming space than anything. Even for a small shark their range of their teritory is huge. Any tank IMO unless it is the size of your house is just too shallow and too small to keep.

[gzsick]

even on the cat sharks there's not a whole lot because aside from the maintenance aspect, most people here dont think big time (about real fish). i had an 18 inch cat shark and that was fairly hard 2 find.

[paddyob]

Call BA's in Edmonton. Ask them how fast a dead shark wiped out there shark display.

Was it 3 or 4 sharks that died over night because ONE died during the night and polluted the tank?

And their tank was huge. I went to the Edmonton Journal about it and they said the LFS refused any comment. And BAs "knew" what they were doing. Baloney.

Good luck.

[Hustler]

I remember BAs wipeout... I was picking up gars the following day i think.
Im not looking to keep anything insane for sure... I know nurse sharks are way too big for even large home aquaria. Im just curious about the small species. I noticed alot of people keeping blueline triggers in smaller tanks with positive responses accross the board.... they get 24" and a 24"trigger would be what 12-14" tall and 6-8" thick weighing 20-30lbs where as a 3 foot catshark is 75% tail and at the most 3" in diameter weighing 2-6 lbs.... Im just missing the logic here a bit

[lastlight]

Call BA's in Edmonton. Ask them how fast a dead shark wiped out there shark display.

Was it 3 or 4 sharks that died over night because ONE died during the night and polluted the tank?

And their tank was huge. I went to the Edmonton Journal about it and they said the LFS refused any comment. And BAs "knew" what they were doing. Baloney.

Good luck.

The sharks in the Calgary LFS were also disappearing (and I noticed replacements too) and was told that the sharks will sometimes invert their stomachs to wash'em out or something. I think one of the sharks would then attack the others when they did this killing them. The policy seems to be to replace sharks that died with more sharks that will die all for the sake of their branding. There's been only one shark there for some time... I hope there are no replacements to be honest.

[StirCrazy]

.Im not looking for a moral battle..... as per google my boxer pup should be living on an acrage with 6.25 acres and not anywhere near the city with a good routine and long walks....

not flaming here and not a moral battle but this is a pour comparison.. your talking about a domestic animal that is happy in smaller areas with regular exercise.. comparing it to a non domesticated animal just doesn't cut it.

for the shark argument if you have enough room for it to swim freely and feed it properly it isn't a problem, but the cost of such a setup and proper filtration is beyond the budget of 99% of the people you are going to be asking for info from so really we can only give you back feed back from what we have read and been told.

best bet if you want a shark go to a board that specializes in sharks and find out from "experienced people"

not to say there isn't anyone here with some experiance but in the last 12 or 13 years I can count the amount of people on one hand I have seen with sharks and they all ended up badly from my memory.

Steve

[Hustler]

no i agree totaly, I wasnt saying the dog and the shark as a comparison at all just how the google searches yeild some very far off results from time to time and usually from people who have no first hand experience.
Ive found some great info on the smaller sharks (im going to call them salt catfish from now) in the usa aswell as a guy in vancouver that are on other boards that have had great sucess with them so I will leave this be on here :)
rest assured though you will not see a blacktip or nurse in any of my tanks till i win the lotto or figure out how to waterproof drywall ;)

[StirCrazy]

no i agree totaly, I wasnt saying the dog and the shark as a comparison at all just how the google searches yeild some very far off results from time to time and usually from people who have no first hand experience.
Ive found some great info on the smaller sharks (im going to call them salt catfish from now) in the usa aswell as a guy in vancouver that are on other boards that have had great sucess with them so I will leave this be on here :)
rest assured though you will not see a blacktip or nurse in any of my tanks till i win the lotto or figure out how to waterproof drywall ;)

if you do go this way, and are sucessfull make some posts and share your set up and work that went into it with us. or do a running post on the build so others can learn from it also.

Steve

[Hustler]

If i muster up the confidence and tech toys to try it out I sure will post it on here.... it will be a long while down the road for sure.....and really I dont know if Ill end up in the predator section of reefing either way as those corals are some kind of cool.....and I havent had a smaller fish community tank since my african chiclids 10 years ago.... Im just so used to 3 foot fish, massive filters, water changes and weekly trips to the market for fresh seafood its hard for me not to try and find what Im really really good at even in a new hobby like this salt Biz :)