freshwater bamboo shark

Moontanman

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dzb912;1974599; said:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lR4fTAMmkOI
i didnt know where to put this
because theyres not many that go past the saltwater section so i put it here
whats up with this?
kinda cruel huh
has anyone seen this in the us?
these are being sold in the philipines

First of all I would like to say that converting a banded cat shark is probably a fools errand. Maybe if you left the water at around 1.005 and put lots of Calcium chloride in the water they might live but the big picture here is the gold fish. Notice how they are swimming? This is a salt water tank that has a few goldfish dumped it for effect. If you watch closely there are a couple of other marine fish in the tank as well. My BS meter is pegged out on this one.
 

water_baby83

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Moontanman;1975704; said:
First of all I would like to say that converting a banded cat shark is probably a fools errand. Maybe if you left the water at around 1.005 and put lots of Calcium chloride in the water they might live...
There are several shark pups which can be born into to low salinity conditions, and may for a short period, spend their time in those waters- however, this is never an area of which they would survive for life. This is because their biological makeup, requiring a marine environment. I can post a novel on that if its wanted, lol, but for now I will keep it simple. There is no way someone could successfully "Convert" a marine animal to freshwater by simply putting this animal in FW conditions - all he is doing at this point is buying his time and the sharks, because it will not fare well as time go on, this animal will not last long.

but the big picture here is the gold fish.Notice how they are swimming? This is a salt water tank that has a few goldfish dumped it for effect.
I would love to agree, trust me I would, but at this point - especially only having this particular clip to look at, it seems more likely that the water truly is freshwater, or at best brackish. The Goldfish in there - who actually, look to be Ryukin Goldfish, could not tolerate higher levels of salinity, and in order to tolerate lower ones, would need to be acclimated slowly, and that would still be a 50/50, but they swim like that naturally. I mean sure the mollies are in there and they can be versatile if acclimated appropriately, but what Saltwater Fish are you seeing in there?? I saw one flash across the screen which was a blue/light green color and thought at first it might have been a Chromis, but then again - it could have also been an Opaline Gourami, I didn't pay too much attention and only saw it like once for .2 seconds. Let me know where you are seeing these other fish.



My BS meter is pegged out on this one.
I would love to agree with you here, but at least for now, I'm not totally convinced. I added my comments in red to your post...
 

dzb912

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"
My freshwater banded bamboo sharks together with my goldfishes and mollies. It is a seawater shark converted to freshwater. The water still has a little salt, ratio 1 tablespoon of sea salt per gallon of water. I feed my sharks with sliced fish 3 times a day. I'v been keeping them since Oct. 20, 2006, and they are all still doing fine, alive and swimming in my 120 gallon tank. i used undergravel filter connected to a powerhead. They are peaceful and they dont bully my other fishes. They are active at night and they love digging up the aquarium pebbles. It's really amazing to see both marine fishes and freshwater fishes swimming together in one tank.
PS: I'd never expected that this aquarium video of mine will generate a contraversy. Peace people!"
 

Moontanman

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dzb912;1976141; said:
"
My freshwater banded bamboo sharks together with my goldfishes and mollies. It is a seawater shark converted to freshwater. The water still has a little salt, ratio 1 tablespoon of sea salt per gallon of water. I feed my sharks with sliced fish 3 times a day. I'v been keeping them since Oct. 20, 2006, and they are all still doing fine, alive and swimming in my 120 gallon tank. i used undergravel filter connected to a powerhead. They are peaceful and they dont bully my other fishes. They are active at night and they love digging up the aquarium pebbles. It's really amazing to see both marine fishes and freshwater fishes swimming together in one tank.
PS: I'd never expected that this aquarium video of mine will generate a contraversy. Peace people!"
Having no other evidence and since this is a not a science site I will believe you but I would indeed like to have some more details. What is the salinity of your tank? Goldfish can indeed live in quite saline conditions. How long did it take to convert them? I couldn't watch the film as one video I had to watch it a few frames at a time and I thought I saw another marine fish, maybe a chromis. Is your tank fresh enough to keep any other freshwater fish? As waterbaby said some marine sharks do indeed go to brackish water but these sharks hatch from eggs and those eggs are laid on the reef not in brackish water so I wouldn't think this would be a factor in this case. Have they grown any since becoming freshwater? Many marine fish can indeed live in freshwater, flounder (other than hog chokers) are often caught in my area in land locked lakes, sheepshead, spots, croakers, redfish, mullet, many damsel fish, It is a long list but the key in most cases is either larvae being pushed into freshwater by storms and or the freshwater has a very high concentration of calcium ions. In these instances the fish often do quite well and often grow larger than they would in a marine environment. In one local lake there are blue crabs that have been measured as 14 inches across their shell. In your case it looks like you are using a high calcium gravel? Give us some more details please. pH, salinity, water change rate, standard stuff.
 

Zoodiver

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I think he was just quoting from the video.

This was posted before. That guy and I went rounds off of this site. I laid out the science/biology behind his cruelty. He told me I had no clue about keeping sharks and that I should leave him alone. Oh well.
 

Moontanman

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Zoodiver;1979196; said:
I think he was just quoting from the video.

This was posted before. That guy and I went rounds off of this site. I laid out the science/biology behind his cruelty. He told me I had no clue about keeping sharks and that I should leave him alone. Oh well.
I'm not sure it qualifies as cruelty but it is definitely reckless to say the things he has if they are not true. If a fish lives well under certain conditions doesn't mean it cannot adapt to others. Like the cardinal tetras i keep in lower 70's instead of mid 80's like a lot of people seem convinced they need it's a trade off. Cardinals kept at in the lower part of their temp range live much longer and show better colors than ones kept in the 80's. Is it cruel to keep them at lower temps? I don't think so and I can show that in the wild they live in areas where the winter temps are in the low 70's even high 60's. so does this shark ever occupy habitats where the water is low in salinity? as far as i know, No. I'm betting this is not a case of what is best but more a case of a fish that is very tough living in less much than ideal conditions. or more likely (to me anyway) a misrepresentation of the conditions. probably low salinity (not fresh) hi calcium ion, hi pH water. I would have to see some real data before i believed a shark with no ties at all to freshwater could live in freshwater but I am open to the possibility if some real data is presented.
 

serafino

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I think its a trick. One time I was at a LFS and they were feeding an eel a feeder (after which I told them not to do) anyway the feeder was too buoyant and kept floating upwards so it was always having to swim downwards. The goldfish in that movie kept having to swim downwards as if they are more buoyant. )In saltwater you have a much higher sg than in freshwater. So if you are a neutrally buoyant fish in freshwater you are going to float like crazy in saltwater. What I think they did is left the bamboos in saltwater and put a bunch of freshwater goldfish in there to make it seem as though they are freshwater. Did anyone else catch that?
Either way what they are doing is cruel.
 

dzb912

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Moontanman;1976205; said:
Having no other evidence and since this is a not a science site I will believe you but I would indeed like to have some more details. What is the salinity of your tank? Goldfish can indeed live in quite saline conditions. How long did it take to convert them? I couldn't watch the film as one video I had to watch it a few frames at a time and I thought I saw another marine fish, maybe a chromis. Is your tank fresh enough to keep any other freshwater fish? As waterbaby said some marine sharks do indeed go to brackish water but these sharks hatch from eggs and those eggs are laid on the reef not in brackish water so I wouldn't think this would be a factor in this case. Have they grown any since becoming freshwater? Many marine fish can indeed live in freshwater, flounder (other than hog chokers) are often caught in my area in land locked lakes, sheepshead, spots, croakers, redfish, mullet, many damsel fish, It is a long list but the key in most cases is either larvae being pushed into freshwater by storms and or the freshwater has a very high concentration of calcium ions. In these instances the fish often do quite well and often grow larger than they would in a marine environment. In one local lake there are blue crabs that have been measured as 14 inches across their shell. In your case it looks like you are using a high calcium gravel? Give us some more details please. pH, salinity, water change rate, standard stuff.
its what the guy said
this isnt my tank or my animal
 
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