Reef sharks??

99.9% of hobbiest do not have the set ups needed to house any species of reqium shark. Black Tip Reef Sharks need atleast 15,000 gallons to thrive. They are very active Sharks and need alot of room. If you would like to view a captive care sheet for one please visit the link in my signature. Other than that, if you already have the 1,500 gallon system, post some pictures, and we will help you find a Shark suitable for it. If your looking for an active shark I would look into the Brown Smoothhounds.

Agree with the last post. I am assuming you don't own public aquaria, and thus, you should forget requiem sharks.

Agreed - all species of small requiem sharks (Like the Blacktip Reef) require lots of swimming room - basically a good size swimming pool or larger.

The online sources that fine stating that Blacktip reefs - can be kept in a 1,500 gallon tank - are wrong. Also requiems require circular or oval shaped ponds/pools/Lagoons. Normal retangular shaped tanks - are very bad for most swimming sharks - especially requiems

It you want an active shark - and have at least 1,500-2,000 gallons - your best off - getting a small smoothhound.

Ya most online stores won't give their full min. tank size. The most I've seen given is about 1000g for a black tip which of course is way to small.

While - gallonage isn't as important - as actual surface area - especially with active swimming sharks - like the Blacktip Reef. Still from what I've found out in talking to shark keepers, only those private aquarists who have large Swimming pools (at least 20,000 gallons) converted to Shark lagoons are capable of keeping a Blacktip reef for it's natural life time. Basically these require a lagoon/pool that's got a width that's at least 3x the shark's max. adult length, and a length at least 6-7x times the shark's max. adult.

This is to allow the shark to swim naturally even when it's full grown. So people say that they only require 1,000, or even 5-6,000 gallons are completely wrong. Unfortunately lots of people get the wrong info- because they may see their LFS keeping these sharks in tanks way to small for even pups. And people have a very bad habit of believeing the employees of LFS are knowledge professionals - when often times they are little more than hired help that is paid only 2-3 bucks more than minimum wage.

I have had experience working with them in an indoor pond custom made. We currently have 6 black tips, one lemon, one bonethead, and eastern pacific horn shark. Pm me for questions.

Wow - how big is the pond & what size are these sharks.

My thoughts are that they must all be small, other wise the lemon would likely eat the bonnet. And the pond must be fairly huge.

I dont want to get into how big it is becuase it is not my pond and I know it is not big enough for their life. The lemon is 3ft. the bonet is the same size the black tips are all around 2ft plus a couple inches. They get fed very well.

Ray77 - The filteration set up on that pond must be pretty extensive to deal with that large bio-load. Care to post some pictures?

Also as you stated you know the pond is not big enough to house them long term, so why not step in and tell the owner this? Did he not do any research before purchasing those Sharks?