baby bamboo and 16" bamboo
- Thread starter tdragon
- Start date
novice150
Member
Bamboo's are VERY passive sharks. Some people like to consider them as excessively aggressive, to feed their own ego of owning a "shark." The truth is, they are not very aggressive at all, and in no way fit the stereotypical view of a sharks personality. These sharks tend to "not" show aggressiveness towards other sharks/fish. Typically, they will only hunt down/prey on fish/creatures which they know are food, or are sick/injured.
Their jaws are designed to crush/grasp. Not cut/slice. It would be very improbable that one would exert the energy required to hold onto another perfectly healthy sharks fin/skin long enough to do any damage.
Fight over food? Yes, of course. Until one takes the food from the other. Kill each other over it? Nope.
IMHO, your sharks will be fine together as long as you are cautious while feeding. Don't create a situation where they MUST compete over food.
Their jaws are designed to crush/grasp. Not cut/slice. It would be very improbable that one would exert the energy required to hold onto another perfectly healthy sharks fin/skin long enough to do any damage.
Fight over food? Yes, of course. Until one takes the food from the other. Kill each other over it? Nope.
IMHO, your sharks will be fine together as long as you are cautious while feeding. Don't create a situation where they MUST compete over food.
jim27
Member
Originally posted by NOVICE150
IMHO, your sharks will be fine together as long as you are cautious while feeding. Don't create a situation where they MUST compete over food.
If your bamboo is like my whitespotted bamboo then this will be very hard to do with out a pretty big tank. There's no way in hell I'd trust my whitespotted with another shark that wasnt about equal in size or bigger. During feeding time I've seen him bite my old brownbanded bamboo right on the gills or fins and hold on for a good 5-10 seconds while the bamboo is twisting around trying to get it off. This eventually resulted in the top part of his dorsal fin getting bitten off. I've even been bitten more than once by the shark.
On the other hand, the brownbanded bamboo almost never showed this kind of behavior toward the whitespotted. Like novice said, I think this is how most bamboo sharks are, peaceful sharks, but if you've already seen the larger shark nipping at the smaller one, I'd be cautious.
cbshark
Member
I had this very same situation. I introduced a 4 inch bamboo into my 125 gallon with my 16 or so inch bamboo with quite a bit of weariness. Immediately, the small one found a great place to hide under a rock in between the rock and glass! How she fit in there to begin with is beyond me. I did my best to feed the large one first and then give the small one hers later. I was being a bit overly cautious though as I never had an incident between them ever. If anything, the larger shark seemed to protect her and went out of his way to let her be as she got larger and came out to feed more often. Now they are about 22" and 19" respectively and get along great. The only problem i've ever had was my larger shark getting ahold of my moray ell at feeding time and shaking the begeezis out of him. No major damage was ever inflicted though. Although it looked like it hurt like hell! Now the balance in my tank is perfect. Everyone knows their place and stays out of each others way. I have some recent photos but I will have to get the off my camera and will post them real soon. Sorry for the ramble.
novice150
Member
Originally posted by JIM27
If your bamboo is like my whitespotted bamboo then this will be very hard to do with out a pretty big tank.
On the other hand, the brownbanded bamboo almost never showed this kind of behavior toward the whitespotted.
Odds are that's what were talking about here Jim27... brownbanded bamboo's. Not whitespotted. But it's worth noting that the behavior you refer to, is IMO/E, not characteristic of either. The behavior that cbshark and tdragon are witnessing is. These sharks may nip from time to time, but since their mouths are not designed to "bite" things off, there is "usually" no damage.
Good luck with your sharks guys.
I think you'll find that they coexist peacefully together.
jim27
Member
Yes novice, I did say that in my other post
Originally posted by JIM27
Like novice said, I think this is how most bamboo sharks are, peaceful sharks,.....
The things I posted about the the aggressiveness of my whitespotted was just to show him that they can bite eachother and that certain individuals wont always be able to live in peace with other sharks. His first post sounded to me like there was a chance of there being aggression toward the smaller shark so I thought I'd warn him of the possibility, even though its not very likely.
Originally posted by JIM27
Like novice said, I think this is how most bamboo sharks are, peaceful sharks,.....
The things I posted about the the aggressiveness of my whitespotted was just to show him that they can bite eachother and that certain individuals wont always be able to live in peace with other sharks. His first post sounded to me like there was a chance of there being aggression toward the smaller shark so I thought I'd warn him of the possibility, even though its not very likely.