Weekly Shark Feeding at Big Als, Hamilton Ontario Location

[ewurm]

LOL we just had the discussion in another thread on the forum.

just because a fish is not its full size yet does not in any way shape or form mean that it is not healthy, sick, dying or about to drop dead..

lots of fish out there lead long healthy and happy lives without necessarily making it up to full size, be it in nature or an aqarium..

now, granted, as this fish grows it is important to find it a new larger home.

but you can't simply use its current size of 6 feet as an automatic indicator of health.

it encompasses so much more than that...

look at all the board members on this board who have fish that are not technically their full adult size yet.

are these fish all unhealthy and dying?

no, they are not.

health is not strictly a function of size.

-12 Volt Man

I'll have to disagree, you just disagreed with the curator of a public aquarium that has those species, and at full size I might add. If they filled the entire store with water, then they might have adequate swimming space. Keeping a nurse shark in a pet store is ludicrous.

 

[12 Volt Man]

yes, I disagreed with him. because I see that shark all the time, and looked after it for quite a while.. You can't assess the health of a fish simply based on a 2 minute video on youtube. That was my point. We all have enough experience in the hobby to know the signs of a healthy fish. and that fish is, at least right now, healthy.

it might be ludicrous to keep a nurse at a pet store - I agree.

but that still doesn't mean that their shark is unhealthy, at least right now.


-12 Volt

 

[ewurm]

I'll agree that the shark may be showing no size of ill health, but as Matt said, a Nurse Shark at 7 years old at that size is definitely stunted, and stunted fish are not healthy fish.

 

[12 Volt Man]

I'll agree that the shark may be showing no size of ill health, but as Matt said, a Nurse Shark at 7 years old at that size is definitely stunted, and stunted fish are not healthy fish.

I disagree that stunted fish are automatically not healthy fish.

that means that every 10 inch oscar, every 6 inch silver dollar, every 24 inch clown knife etc that is kept out there my MKFers like you and me is "unhealthy" and we all know that is not necessarily true.

unhealthy fish display signs of being unhealthy.

and besides, 5 feet of growth in 7 years is a FAR faster growth rate than nurses typically experience in nature..at least according to the scientific literature.

they will obviously grow a lot faster in captivity, because of the steady and constant food supply, but if we are comparing this shark to a wild shark with lots of room (as everyone seems to be doing) it has had a great diet and is the envy of hungry wild sharks the world over

-12 Volt.

 

[Brenden]

When it comes down to it, the Shark may be stunted. However a stunted fish can still be healthy, just not fully able to reach its potential. My biggest concern as addressed in my earlier posts was simply the size of a tank. I can go back to the human in a closest example many times still people tend to not understand what I am saying. You can keep a human in a closest for life, sure they will live, but they will never thrive and eventually they sill sucomb due to those circumstances. The same is for all Sharks in systems way to small for them.

 

[filiportela]

awsome shark