Sharks

[corvette]

Hi do any of you have much information on Smoothhound Sharks. I've seen them, and they look pretty cool, and they only grow up to 4 feet long which isn't too bad. Have any of you kept them or know if they are suitable for the home aquarium? I intitially wanted a Leopard or Black Tip, but seeing that they will quickly outgrow my 175 I think I'll stay away from them. Would it be possible to keep a bamboo, epaulette, and a horn shark in a 175? Thanks alot!

 

[jim27]

Smoothhounds, my favorite kind of sharks. I only know of 3 varieties that are good in home aquariums. They are the Gray Smoothhound(Mustelus californicus), Brown Smoothhound(Mustelus henlei), and Leopard Shark(Triakis semifasciata). Adult Grays need a tank about 1,800 gallons, Browns need like a 1,200 gallons, and Leopards need 5'000 gallons. They are all reletivly hardy. The only person thats keep smoothhounds here that I know of is risc but I hope to eventually keep one also. As for the 3 sharks I would say no. If your keeping them into adulthood I'd look into something along the lines of 400 gallons. You might be able to keep something like a bamboo and a coral or marbled cat shark in that tank, they stay pretty small.

 

[triggs]

Like jim said, smoothhounds get 4 feet, but are always swiiming so they need much larger tamks. In your tank (the bamboo and coral cat), you can also get a lot of other sharks. There is a wide variety of them but these two are the most frequently available, other examples are marbled cat sharks, wards wobbegong, and other sharks.

 

[triggs]

O, forgot to say only keep one of these sharks.