Shark Eggs (bamboo/cat) ... Hypo-Salinity ... Ich ... ?

jdg

jdg

New Member
Hey all, I've been trying to figure out the answer to these questions and have been less than successful so I thought maybe a post in this forum would help to bring the collective experience and knowledge of the community together.
Basically, have a couple questions on Shark Eggs (and that which comes out of them).
(1) How does the oxygen exchange occur? For example, if you put a Shark Egg in a tank that has an Ich infestation, will the Shark get Ich via the membrane? How about any medications, will the Egg protect the shark from them?
(2) Can Sharks even get Ich? I understand that they absolutely cannot be treated with Copper ... does that mean they're invertebrate-like and cannot get the parasite to begin with?
(3) If Sharks are invertebrate-like, can they be treated with Hypo? I would assume not for the same reasons.
(4) Is there a way of telling, from the egg, whether it's a cat-banded shark or a bamboo shark? Does anyone have a good link/thread to some good pictures of each for identification purposes?
Any and all help/information would be greatly appreciated. Just trying to get all my 'fishies' in a row before moving forward.
Thanks everyone!
Joe
 
jim27

jim27

Member
1) Dont know, sorry.
2)Sharks can get ich, although they are resistant to it. Some sharks can be treated with copper but for sensitive species dont do it.
3)Yes they can be treated with hypo as well.
4)Cat-banded shark? Never heard of it. Would you happen to have the latin name for it? Otherwise I think 'cat banded' is just another name for that shark in my avatar, a brownbanded bamboo shark. Bamboos get a few different names at lfs's like banded cats(or cat-banded in your case) which arent really accurate, since they aren't real cat sharks.
 
jdg

jdg

New Member
Thanks for all the great info! I guess the best bet would be to move any unhatched eggs to a Hypo QT tank to make sure they don't get infected during/after hatching.
Does this sound like the safest route? I generally proactively treat all specimens with Hypo QT to make sure I'm not bringing in Ich (which seems mightly popular in these here parts).
Thoughts?
Thanks!!
Joe
 
jim27

jim27

Member
OK what it sounds like to me is you have some eggs in a tank with "ichy" fish correct?
I dont know if I'd hypo the eggs, I'd be a little worried about how the low salinity would affect there development. Shark eggs cant get ich anyways so I think I'd move the eggs to a new tank and hypo the main tank to get rid of the ich.
 
jdg

jdg

New Member
Yuppers, pretty much that's it in a nutshell. The shark egg is hung from a clip on the side of the class of a 90g tank where I ended up with some 'ichy' fish.
The reason I wanted to move it to Hypo was just in case the egg hatched before the 6-week 'fish-less' period was up.
Also, I like to QT anything new, so what if my LFS tank has Ich in it that I don't know about? Couldn't it ride in on water attached to the Shark Egg and infect my main systems that way?
If the Egg membrane protects the baby shark from things like Ich, wouldn't it also protect it from the lower salinity? Considering the shark can handle the lower SG anyways? I hypo at 1.008-1.010.
Thoughts?
Thanks again for all the help!
Joe
 
jim27

jim27

Member
Just did a little reading on treating ich for sharks and scott michael's book says to bring the salinity down to 1.014.
I guess the ich could ride on the egg case and get into the tank but I think if you just isolated the egg in a small tank then whatever ich came with it would die without a host.
For your last question I dont really know enough about shark eggs to give a definate answer. I've been searching for the past half hour for info on shark eggs and haven't found much. It may be able to protect it from the lower salinity but again I dont know if hypo would even be necessary. If you wanted to try the hypo out and see how the shark fairs I'd be interested in seeing what affect, if any, it has on the embryo.
Just out of curiousity how big is the shark in the egg?
 
jdg

jdg

New Member
Thanks again for the information!!
Although I usually find Scott Michael to be very informative, many other Hypo threads indicate that unless you drop down to 14ppt, the Ich remains in the system and its cysts are still viable ... I wonder if the 1.008 - 1.010 would be too low? That's what all my fish are in at the moment.
I agree with you with regards to the isolation theory ... the only problem is, what if the egg hatches 2-3 weeks in? Since the SG of the water is > 14ppt, and I haven't had the tank 'fishless' for 6 weeks, then wouldn't the ich infect the newly hatched shark?
I might try the hypo treatment of the egg ... looking for more information though. The LFS that sold me the egg recently 'helped' one of the shark eggs he purchased from the wholesaler hatch (my egg's sister/brother), so it could be due to hatch pretty soon.
As far as size, he's about " " this big. :)
Hard to say cause he's all curled up ... you can see the yolk sac, but it's gotten smaller in the week or so that I've had the shark egg. If I had to guess, I'd say he's about 6-7" -- isn't that about hatching size?
Thoughts?
Thanks again for all the info!
Joe
 
jim27

jim27

Member
They hatch about 5"-6" so sounds like yours is due. How bigs the yoke sac?I dont know much about hypo since I've never had to do it(never got ich on any fish) just telling ya what he recommends for treating sharks with ich, they're more sensitive to salinity changes than other fish I believe. But they are resistant to ich so the shark may not even get it at all. I'd be a little conserned how a shark would respond to being hatched in hyposalinity levels. Maybe just hatch it and if it shows signs of ich then treat it? Never encountered this problem before(on the mb or in real life) so its really hard to come up with an answer.
 
jdg

jdg

New Member
Thanks again!
Yah, looks like this is going to be a tough one ... especially since you agree this little guy is due to pop out into the world pretty soon. The sack doesn't appear very big ... dime-sized at best ... and getting smaller.
I don't want to stress the little guy out, but at the same time, I don't want to have ich in any one tank ... I've got 5 systems running and all the fish are in QT right now because one of the systems was infected months ago and my gf (who, granted, meant well) unknowingly transferred ich from one system to another, to another.
In order to prevent it from happening again, I wanted to make sure I erradicated it all from the system. I called the LFS to see if they would take the egg back and they said no, not until it hatches at least.
Do you have a link to the thread where they talk about sharks being more sensitive to SG changes?
... I wonder how good/bad it would be to hatch him in hypo ...
Hmmm ...
If you have any other thoughts, please share. I'll keep you up to date on a status either way. :)
Thanks again!
Joe
 
novice150

novice150

Member
My .02:D
I believe tha once the gills begin to function, the baby sharks breath the water that is in the tank. What I mean by this is the water is transferred in and out of the egg, through small holes at the ends of the casing. This is why you can gently apply pressure to the egg if there are bubbles trapped in side to remove them.
I personally would seriously recommend that you not subject the shark to hypo. IMHO it would be unnecessary at best, and maybe even do more harm than good. The egg case will not protect the shark from hypo.
In personally have never seen a shark contract ick. I've even had a bad case of it break out in one of my tanks which contained sharks, including a bamboo. They are VERY resistant to it. The ick was bad enough that I had to remove and treat all of the bony fish. But I left the sharks in the tank, and they never contracted ick.
JMHO, but I also would not recommend helping the shark to hatch unless absolutely necessary. If you decide you must, then wait until the yolk is gone, and just umbilical cord remains. If the shark is born with a yolk sack and it rips, the chances of infection are very high.
 
jdg

jdg

New Member
Thanks so much for the comments!
Just to confirm, when you had the Ich outbreak, you left the display system with sharks only and pulled the other fish and treated them separately? You then left the tank with just sharks for 4-6 weeks for the lifecycle of the parasite to expire (no 'cure' was used in the main display system)?
If so, this might be the route to take then ... if the parasite cannot infect the shark, the lifecycle is broken.
Also, I agree with you on the premature hatching. I believe that if they can pop out in nature, they should be able to pop out in aquaria. There's still a little 'black sack' in the egg, so I guess he's just not ready.
Question though, if the sack disappears, and he hasn't come out ... how long should I give him before lending a helping hand? I understand just strong waterflow over the egg and maybe 'gentle squeezing' ?
Thanks again!
Joe
 
novice150

novice150

Member
jdg: That's exactly what I did. It worked for me, and I think it may worth a shot in your case. I actually gave it a bit longer just to be sure. Also worth noting is the fact that I fed my sharks food soaked in garlic during this time. I'm not sure that this had any affect, but figured it couldn't hurt.:)
As far a helping the babies, that's a touchy one.:) I cant say "Dont Do It" under any circumstances, because I have done it. Did I make the right decision by doing so? Well, my shark is still alive.... On the other hand I have heard horror stories about the sharks being removed too soon and developing a number of problems.
In the case of my shark, the sack was gone as well as the umbilical cord. She had stopped moving (prolly lack of space) so I decided to give her a week. When nothing changed after the week, I removed her. Out she came, and began feeding 2 days later.
 
jdg

jdg

New Member
The Egg Shell is covered in 'stuff', so I can't really get a good view of the whole shark but he does 'spin around' an awful lot. I guess I'll just wait it out until I see no more sac, give it another 7 days, and then start to worry.
No matter what though, no cutting, right?
Thanks for everything guys!!
Joe
 
novice150

novice150

Member
jdg: You can use your thumb nail to gently scrape off any algae or other "stuff" from the egg case. If you clean both sides, the egg should be semi transparent, which if the lighting is right, allowing you see right through/inside it.
Ummmmmmmmmmm cutting?:eek: Do you have steady hands?
Not that I recommend it ... but I cut mine open.
All things said though, these sharks did not evolve by developing in eggs from which they could not escape. Odds are you'll just come home one day to a baby shark.:D
 
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