Getting a tank/pool big enough to house these sharks shouldn't be a problem as I believe I've found a manufacturer who builds tanks/Pools big enough for them and I've found two websites that sell the sharks I'm interested in and more and how you said they're notoriously hard to keep I've heard although all sharks are sensitive to bad water qualities blacktip reef sharks are fairly hardy, is this not true then? And i'll look into smoothhound sharks further
I've seen the smaller bottom dwelling sharks like the bamboo sharks but I've always been more interested in requiem sharks and the leopard shark seems to be the sort of in between requiem and non requiem shark since it spends 10-15% of its life on the sea bed while still being more active than non requiem sharks so that might be a good introduction to requiem sharks.
OP I am not sure if you're still around but... I'm bored and want to talk sharks, lol. I'll give you some advice you're not going to hear from many others - make what you will of that.
Sharks themselves as a whole aren't difficult to keep. They take up a lot of space, and a lot of money, but give them those things and they really aren't difficult to care for themselves.
I won't tell you to get an animal you don't want - if you truly want to get into requiem sharks, go for it. No sense buying an animal that you don't want, just to use it as a "learning source". That's inhumane, IMO.
You have two requiem sharks that show up commonly in the trade - blacktip reef sharks and bonnetheads. Bonnetheads do well provided they're kept in a small group, and are already adapted to captivity (either you buy established animals that are living in a system currently, or captive bred babies). Blacktip reefs can be kept singly, but they get larger. Last I checked, BTR were around $2,000-$2,500 and bonnetheads were under $2K, depending on where you are. Most of the cost of these animals is the price of shipping them across the country or even the world - if you're along the east or gulf coast, bonnetheads will often be a good bit cheaper.
There are other species, but they are what I would consider difficult and usually don't adapt well to captivity, or get too large for even the largest private systems.
You don't have to get a requiem shark to get the "true shark" look, though. The "true" sharks you're talking about are what's known as ORV sharks - obligate ram ventilators, means they have to constantly swim in order to breathe. Benthic sharks are the ones you're saying you don't like, where they mostly sit on the bottom. They can breathe like a normal fish, and don't need to swim to force water over their gills. These are your bamboo sharks, catsharks, wobbegongs, horn sharks, etc. They're actually quite active at night, but you are correct about them during the day. The most active of these are horn sharks and cat sharks, but even they will spend a good deal of time just sitting on the bottom.
You have another category in between these two, though. Usually called "semi-ORV" sharks. These are sharks that swim a good deal, but don't need to. Smoothhounds, leopard sharks, banded hound sharks, whitetip reef sharks, even lemon sharks are in this category.
Smoothhounds are the smallest, followed by banded hounds, leopard sharks and whitetip reefs. These are the best bet for most people looking to get into keeping sharks - they're active, but don't require the tank sizes that blacktip reefs and bonnetheads do.
For a quick reference, these are the GENERAL recommendations I give for shark tank sizes:
-An 8x3 tank (375, 450, or 540 gallons based on height) allows you to keep most catsharks and wobbegong sharks
-An 8x4 tank (600 gallons) opens up most bamboo and epaulette sharks
-A 10' diameter or 15x6' oval pool opens up the horn sharks and smoothhound sharks (around 1500 gallons)
-A 12' diameter or 20x8' oval pool opens up the banded hound shark (around 2000 gallons)
-A 15' diameter or 25x10' oval pool gives you room for leopard sharks or whitetip reef sharks (around 4500 gallons)
-A 24' diameter or 35x15' oval pool gives you room for 1-2 blacktip reef sharks or a small group of bonnethead sharks (around 15000 gallons)
I don't have time to type up advice on a setup, but check the most recent shark thread in this forum. I've got a big writeup in there on building a shark pond on a budget. It's really not got to be that complicated, just keep it big and simple.
Ask away with any questions.
Sharks themselves as a whole aren't difficult to keep. They take up a lot of space, and a lot of money, but give them those things and they really aren't difficult to care for themselves.
I won't tell you to get an animal you don't want - if you truly want to get into requiem sharks, go for it. No sense buying an animal that you don't want, just to use it as a "learning source". That's inhumane, IMO.
You have two requiem sharks that show up commonly in the trade - blacktip reef sharks and bonnetheads. Bonnetheads do well provided they're kept in a small group, and are already adapted to captivity (either you buy established animals that are living in a system currently, or captive bred babies). Blacktip reefs can be kept singly, but they get larger. Last I checked, BTR were around $2,000-$2,500 and bonnetheads were under $2K, depending on where you are. Most of the cost of these animals is the price of shipping them across the country or even the world - if you're along the east or gulf coast, bonnetheads will often be a good bit cheaper.
There are other species, but they are what I would consider difficult and usually don't adapt well to captivity, or get too large for even the largest private systems.
You don't have to get a requiem shark to get the "true shark" look, though. The "true" sharks you're talking about are what's known as ORV sharks - obligate ram ventilators, means they have to constantly swim in order to breathe. Benthic sharks are the ones you're saying you don't like, where they mostly sit on the bottom. They can breathe like a normal fish, and don't need to swim to force water over their gills. These are your bamboo sharks, catsharks, wobbegongs, horn sharks, etc. They're actually quite active at night, but you are correct about them during the day. The most active of these are horn sharks and cat sharks, but even they will spend a good deal of time just sitting on the bottom.
You have another category in between these two, though. Usually called "semi-ORV" sharks. These are sharks that swim a good deal, but don't need to. Smoothhounds, leopard sharks, banded hound sharks, whitetip reef sharks, even lemon sharks are in this category.
Smoothhounds are the smallest, followed by banded hounds, leopard sharks and whitetip reefs. These are the best bet for most people looking to get into keeping sharks - they're active, but don't require the tank sizes that blacktip reefs and bonnetheads do.
For a quick reference, these are the GENERAL recommendations I give for shark tank sizes:
-An 8x3 tank (375, 450, or 540 gallons based on height) allows you to keep most catsharks and wobbegong sharks
-An 8x4 tank (600 gallons) opens up most bamboo and epaulette sharks
-A 10' diameter or 15x6' oval pool opens up the horn sharks and smoothhound sharks (around 1500 gallons)
-A 12' diameter or 20x8' oval pool opens up the banded hound shark (around 2000 gallons)
-A 15' diameter or 25x10' oval pool gives you room for leopard sharks or whitetip reef sharks (around 4500 gallons)
-A 24' diameter or 35x15' oval pool gives you room for 1-2 blacktip reef sharks or a small group of bonnethead sharks (around 15000 gallons)
I don't have time to type up advice on a setup, but check the most recent shark thread in this forum. I've got a big writeup in there on building a shark pond on a budget. It's really not got to be that complicated, just keep it big and simple.
Ask away with any questions.
O
Oompa Loompa
I'm glad you are reviving this thread sharks are my favorite thing to talk about and what I'm most experienced with I hope op responds
Would be nice. 99.9% of these threads don't end up with anything happening though. Still fun to talk about sharks though and get actual information out there.
It seems like every shark thread gets the exact same advice - "no you can't do it", "they need _____ thousand gallons" (with no mention of an actual size or a footprint, so no real recommendation), "keep bamboo sharks first", etc. There never seems to be any real advice on keeping ORV and semi-ORV sharks on here or any forum, all people's guesses on how it's best done. Which is a shame because there are absolutely people keeping these animals and the info on how they're best kept is out there for anyone to get. I'm more than happy when I get a chance to share it
O
Oompa Loompa
Do you have any knowledge about short tail nurse sharks?
They're a future project for me as I wish to attempt to breed them in order to push the nurse shark out of the aquarium trade and replace them with the short tail nurse shark.
They're a future project for me as I wish to attempt to breed them in order to push the nurse shark out of the aquarium trade and replace them with the short tail nurse shark.
Love em, one of my favorite species. I've got a buddy in Canada who I am pretty sure is still breeding them, if he's not I'm sure he knows where his stock wound up and could hook you up. Pretty rare though, not easy to find. Expensive too, I'd expect at least $5-$6K for a pair.
They get around 28" long, an 8x4/600 gallon would be perfect for a breeding pair or even a trio. As far as care, they seem to be really hardy and easy to breed, they're exactly like a nurse shark just much much smaller.
I don't think you'll ever push nurse sharks out of the trade with these guys. You can get a nurse for a few hundred bucks, these will never get below a few thousand. There's just not enough people working with them and likely never will be. Luckily though, nurse sharks are becoming pretty rare in the hobby. Haven't heard of anyone picking one up in a few years.
I appreciate the offer to hook me up but sadly I am in no position to take care of a shark at this point in my life.
$5k-$6k for a pair of these amazing sharks is high but I personally can justify it so I wouldn’t have that much of a problem paying it.
Do you happen to know if they would breed best in pairs, trios, or groups? Ideally I’d like to have a few pools dedicated to breeding them to maximize their breeding.
What I want to do ideally is make it so that short tail nurse sharks are more common to find than normal nurse sharks and more affordable than them as well. I have thought about it and I believe that after establishing a breeding pair/trio or a few of them and I know how to breed them well I could start contacting people who are very knowledgeable about saltwater sharks and ship them some of the pups should they be interested in breeding them. I fully realize that it is very likely that I won’t get it to the point I want in my life time but I’m fine with that. Any little bit I can do to help these fantastic litte sharks get more available is good for me.
You bring up a good point, I haven’t seen any threads on the saltwater forum I watch about someone having bought a nurse shark.
Ahh yes, I remember now. Liveaquaria.com had two short tail nurse sharks for sale on july 16th, I still have the screenshots.
$5k-$6k for a pair of these amazing sharks is high but I personally can justify it so I wouldn’t have that much of a problem paying it.
Do you happen to know if they would breed best in pairs, trios, or groups? Ideally I’d like to have a few pools dedicated to breeding them to maximize their breeding.
What I want to do ideally is make it so that short tail nurse sharks are more common to find than normal nurse sharks and more affordable than them as well. I have thought about it and I believe that after establishing a breeding pair/trio or a few of them and I know how to breed them well I could start contacting people who are very knowledgeable about saltwater sharks and ship them some of the pups should they be interested in breeding them. I fully realize that it is very likely that I won’t get it to the point I want in my life time but I’m fine with that. Any little bit I can do to help these fantastic litte sharks get more available is good for me.
You bring up a good point, I haven’t seen any threads on the saltwater forum I watch about someone having bought a nurse shark.
Ahh yes, I remember now. Liveaquaria.com had two short tail nurse sharks for sale on july 16th, I still have the screenshots.
Sweet find, haven't been on LADD in a long time.
I am not sure if they breed better in pairs, trios, or groups - that's a great question. Hit up Chris at Canadian Marine Aquaculture - he's bred them and, as far as I know, still has them.
I need to stop posting about sharks, it's getting me back into them. If I ever jumped the gun, it would no doubt be a pair of these.
I'd love to do a bonnethead tank or a whitetip lagoon, and I love zebra sharks, but big saltwater changes are no joke. It takes a lot of manpower to change even 5% of a large system, which would be at least 750 gallons. That's over 200 lbs of salt...
I’ll send him an email, thanks for telling me about him.
Man, sharks are like drugs. You want them even though you know they’re bad for you lol.
One of my favorite sharks is the horn shark and the zebra horn shark, both are wonderful little guys.
I’ve looked into water changes for large salt tanks. From what I’ve gathered the most cost efficient way to go about it is to order the salt in bulk but there’s a problem with that. The salt arrives on a pallet in one giant bag which is made to be used all at once. The brand I was looking at makes 2,000 gallons if I remember correctly. Another problem would be moving the salt around, you would have to have a fork list to get it off the truck and to move it around your property. A large mixing vat would be needed as well.
I’d say if you’re going for a big tank as in the thousands of gallons or you simply have lots of smaller tanks, hundreds to thousands of gallons, then ordering in bulk would make the most sense.
You can’t set up an automatic water changing system on a salt water tank can you?
Man, sharks are like drugs. You want them even though you know they’re bad for you lol.
One of my favorite sharks is the horn shark and the zebra horn shark, both are wonderful little guys.
I’ve looked into water changes for large salt tanks. From what I’ve gathered the most cost efficient way to go about it is to order the salt in bulk but there’s a problem with that. The salt arrives on a pallet in one giant bag which is made to be used all at once. The brand I was looking at makes 2,000 gallons if I remember correctly. Another problem would be moving the salt around, you would have to have a fork list to get it off the truck and to move it around your property. A large mixing vat would be needed as well.
I’d say if you’re going for a big tank as in the thousands of gallons or you simply have lots of smaller tanks, hundreds to thousands of gallons, then ordering in bulk would make the most sense.
You can’t set up an automatic water changing system on a salt water tank can you?
