Post from a non-shark forum (exp. of poster unknown)

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Reefmike

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 4, 2008
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Fort Worth, TEXAS
Ok, I really want to help you guy, so im going to give you the best advice I can give which is DONT!!!! Dont keep a shark, dont keep a ray because unless you have an advanced degree in Marine Biology then chances are you dont have the experience neccisary to keep these beasts of the sea. These animals are extremely sensitive to electrical currents because they depend on an uninterupted magnetic field to stay healthy and even low levels of electrical current interrupts the magnetic fields polarity. The root cause of this is because these animals have pockets of a gelatinous substance just past the frontal lobe of thier brain to the tip of thier nose which picks up on the earths magnetic field and tells them where they are in relation to the earths polarity so what they have is an extra sense which is similar to sonar which also effects thier equalibrium because it also tells them at what depth they are at. If this is interrupted it drives them insane because it would be as if you were blindfolded then spun around in a circle and forced to spend the rest of your natural life in such a way. The only way you could possibly keep an of these animals to the end of thier natural life expectancy is by dedicating half of your basement which is below the electrical current of your house and closer to the magnetic field of the earth with very dim lighting only because of eletrical concerns and not because they hate light which is the opposite, so the best situation would be to knock out one side of the foundation of your house and extend it so your could create the tank and plumb it for filtration and water flow and cap the whole thing with a skylight so during the day you can view them and they get thier proper lighting needs. Do not keep these animals unless you have both the knowlede and a crazy amount of cash needed to undertake this monumentous task. 99.99999% of these animals die in captivity because they dont belong there, and anyone that buys these animals run the probability, not possibility but probability that they will kill these animals!
Is there anything to any of the above statements?
 
Most of it is uneducated ranting. Where did you find it? It would be nice to educate the poster of this information.

The truth is found in the tech talk about how they can sense magnetic fields.
However, the rest is more or less not. A LOT of shark species do very well in captivity. 95% of the sharks species in the world aren't the giants we all picture with the word "SHARK". They are smaller animals that hide all day and hunt small inverts. The comment about 99.99999% die do bleh bleh bleh - FALSE. Keeping them in the basement to avoid electrical current... wrong. You have electric in the basement to. Closer to Earth? 8 feet won't matter. That guy is on crack. If you want to get technical with that - all sharks live below sea level in the wild -or at least I would hope so. So why are they found doing well in aquariums in places like Denver and Saltlake City? Oops. Made up facts again. Dim lighting? What does that have to do with the amount of electrical feild in the water? Made up facts yet again. I keep some shark tanks very well lit. Some not so much. A GOOD tank will have bright areas and dim areas for the animals. The part about having a sense like sonar is very false. Marine mammals use something similar to that - NOT sharks.

Some of it sound like a person who watched too much Animal Plant and thinks he/she is an expert now. They took facts and linked them together incorrectly with an end result of very bad info.
 
I do not know who posted this, but my guess would be that either this person has never actually kept a shark or had a bad experience and is now totally turned off. Way too much emphasis is placed on their sensitivity to electrical fields and metals in and around the tank. I have kept many different species of sharks over the last 20 years in a variety of different aquaria. I've never had sharks go insane or have equilibrium problems because of electrical currents or metal in or around the tank. I've even had electric heaters break under water and dump lots of voltage into the water and the sharks were fine (doing alot better than me when I stuck my hand in the water). I've also had above ground pools with metal walls and/or metal frames and none of the sharks have ever had any difficulty nor did they behave abnormally. The times that I have lost sharks the causes were pretty clear (aggression, internal injury, equipment failure, etc.) and I can honestly say that the aquaria itself were not to blame. I have had some sharks for over three years before they outgrew my facilities and were given away or sold to larger aquariums. I would think that if what this person was saying were true then none of my sharks would have made it past a week. In fact, I would say that my success and failure rate at keeping sharks is no different than would be expected when one keeps regular fish. You'll win some and lose some. The only thing you can do is set up something as well as you can and take good care of your sharks. There are some good sources out there regarding the keeping of sharks and rays in captivity. I have found "The Elasmobranch Husbandry Manual" a very good source of info (a little technical for a novice) or you can get some really good info from others here on MFK and at Shark and Ray Central. If you're considering keeping a species of pelagic in captivity (great white, mako, blue, etc.) then I would say "Don't do it!"
 
I pretty well figured it was BS/un-educated ranting as I have been doing tons of research leading up to eventually raising a shark and have run across very little even close to any of what was said. I just had to throw it out there and see.
Here is the forum/thread it was quoted from.
Thanks y'all.
 
Quote:
99.99999% of these animals die in captivity

That is hilarious! So far, 100% of the fish that have died under my care have died in captivity. Must be my wrist watch in the water causing electrical disturbances :)
 
Personally - I tend to agree with Matt & Sharkdealer's Statements on this.

I know of dozens of private aquarists that have successfully kept and in few cases even breed sharks and rays in private home aquaria. Many do this even without have a degree in Marine Biology. But they all tend to be experienced private marine aquarists.

Naturally the species of sharks that they seem to keep are the "aquaria friendly" species such as Bamboos, Eppies, Catsharks, & Horn sharks.
 
krj-1168;1578378; said:
Personally - I tend to agree with Matt & Sharkdealer's Statements on this.

I know of dozens of private aquarists that have successfully kept and in few cases even breed sharks and rays in private home aquaria. Many do this even without have a degree in Marine Biology. But they all tend to be experienced private marine aquarists.

Naturally the species of sharks that they seem to keep are the "aquaria friendly" species such as Bamboos, Eppies, Catsharks, & Horn sharks.

I agree with you on the degree. Marine Biology and Aquarium Science are related, but very different. Someone could have a degree in Marine Biology and multiple PhDs but that doesn't mean they know crap about how to keep sharks alive in a tank. Some of the people that have taught me the most about animal care don't have one. IMO, experience means more than a degree.
 
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