Everywhere I've researched says this is a no no, as Leopards need cold water. Yet I'm now finding more and more pics/vids of Leopardsbeing mixed with Bamboo's, black tips etc. So what's the real deal here?
I'm not interested in buying one, just curious as to if it can actually be done and why/how?
The vast majority of leopards do very, very poorly in captivity. It used to be that fisherman would catch pregnant females, cut out the pups and they would be sold as adorable baby sharks. Since there's a 36" minimum I think that's been reduced a bit, but you still see videos of morons keeping these things in tropical 240's (I'm pretty sure there are ways around the laws).
To directly answer your question, the water they come from is temperate... everything I've read says they stress and die if one were to keep them at tropical temps. My two cents.
Thanks for the imput buddy. Any particular reason Leopards don't do well in captivity? This is turning out to be an interesting fact finding mission for myself on my research.
They actually do excellent in captivity given the proper conditions... it's more that keepers don't care for them properly. You'll find there are some very serious shark keepers on this forum, but I don't know if any of them have leopards. Your best bet for keeping them would be a decent circular above ground pool and an awesome chiller. Given the proper environment, they'd do very well.
Ah ok. My local stockists send me emails through of what wholesalers have what sharks/rays they have available. This is the first time I've seen Leopards come up on it. I only really check what cat sharks are on there and rays.
I'd never get a Leopard anyway and I prefer the tropical sharks. Was just curious as there seem's to be some debate on how they can be kept.
If the o2 levels are good they can do quite well in the mid to low 70's and they will make it in the upper 70's for short periods of time. They are also pretty easy to keep. IMO much easier than a smoothhound.
I would add that like Smoothhounds - Leopards are very sensitive to desolved O2 levels of the water. If the desolved O2 levels are high then yes - it's possible to keep Leopards in the low to mid 70s. But if the desolved O2 levels are more like a normal aquarium - then it would be best to keep them at water temps below 70F.
But if you look at the public aquariums that keep Leopard Sharks in their collections. Most of their tanks with Leopards tends to have water temps below 70F.
Right the O2 is key. I try to keep mine above 90% at all times and normally its about 93-95%. High DO levels are so important for sharks and really help when trying to keep them.
