How difficult are sharks & rays?

[stacyt]

I was talking with a freind last night about going with an aggressive in my 240 instead of a reef. He advised against it saying that sharks, and rays are just to difficult to get to eat. Are they really that difficult to get to eat? I plan on getting sharks that are already hatched, and medium sized. As far as rays I was planning on getting the common yelow rays. Anything in particular that I should look for when picking out specimans?

 

[gibbus]

Some rays and sharks are difficult to keep.
Most sharks are easy to get to feed on frozen foods. equalette sharks,bamboo sharks, catsharks, hornsharks do really well in captivity, aquariums have actually breed bamboo sharks and starting to release them back into the wild. A 240 gallon reef tank would be nice but i am a huge predator fan. If you provide good water quality then keeping sharks isnt difficult.

 

[florida shark]

Before buying a shark I would strongly suggest buying a book called The Essential Gide to Keeping sharks and Rays by Scott W. Michael. Unfortunately there are very few sharks except for some bamboo and epaulette that wont outgrow even the largest tank. Most sharks like Leopard's, Nurse,reef sharks need a 4,500 gal or larger to keep them till maturity. I myself have been wanting to start a 600 gal for a couple of leopards but after reading this book I am not sure. I live in Ft Lauderdale and have contacted the 2 local aquariums to see if they would take a leopard once he outgrew the tank and both said no!! It's sad really when I hear about all these people with leopards and nurse sharks because what are they going to do when thet outgrow their tank? I havent met anybody who has a 4,500 gal tank or larger even for nurse sharks

 

[splash1914]

luckily for me I have a place here.......

 

[jim27]

Too difficult to get to eat? Hmmmm. I guess thats why my horn and whitespotted bamboo both began eating the first time i tried to feed them. The same goes for the brownbanded bamboo and yellow ray I used to have. Some sharks and rays are difficult to get to eat but not all are.

 

[stacyt]

Does anyone no anything about the banded cat shark?

 

[jim27]

banded cat shark=brownbanded bamboo shark
Very hardy species that grows a little over 3ft max and can live out its life in a 240. Do a search in this forum for them. They've been discussed a lot.

 

[stacyt]

I thought the banded cat, and bamboo where the same, but when visiting a couple of places in LA they had sharks listed as banded sharks, that looked nothing like the pics of bamboo sharks that I've seen.

 

[jim27]

In most cases when an lfs has something labeled "banded cat shark" its the brownbanded bamboo shark. Did the sharks you're talking about look kinda tan in color with very light bands? Thats how brownbanded bamboos look as they become adults. A pic would be helpful in identifiing the sharks if you can. Remember there are a few varieties of bamboos also that may all come under the label "banded cat" at lfs's.

 

[stacyt]

I don't have a pic, but they where tan in color with light bands. I didn't realize that the brownbanded changed as it turned to an adult. Thanks for that info. Clarifies things a bit.

 

[tvan]

Sharks may not eat if they're stressed. And they may never eat once captured or hatched. Most problems stem from a limited understanding of how these creatures thrive.
JMO
Tom

 

[bandcamp]

pbs/nova did a program on sharks recently, if you check out their website & look around they have sharks broken down into different families & have them listed by scientific name, i think i saw 2 completely different species named brown banded cat shark, but i don't remember completely the one i have in my office tank is Chiloscyllium punctatum & that's the one that is discussed here.
ps to mods. i hope it's ok to mention pbs here since they are not a competitor if it's not, i apologize.