Whale Shark- Georgia Aquarium question

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Thats true, and its incredibly sad. But Nurse sharks really are beautiful marine creatures and I love watching the three at the aquarium I volunteer at. They really are amazing sharks and its a shame how many wind up in this hobby and are poorly cared for. Why are there not laws protecting them from the hobby? Just because they are not a threatened species?
 
Yep, there are so many of them. It goes with that whole "A fish only grows to the size of it's tank" lie that floats around. Sad situation.
 
Zoodiver;948549; said:
Yep, there are so many of them. It goes with that whole "A fish only grows to the size of it's tank" lie that floats around. Sad situation.
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almost the entire world believes that! I tell them, so if you put a child in a 10x10 room, will he be stunted and not reach his full potential size?

wes
 
Yeah - it's ashame that people are still buying nurse shark pups as "pets".

But you see that part of the problem. Nurse pups are just too darn cheap - often under 200 bucks. And while most states don't have laws that require people to get a special premit to keep a nurse in their home aquaria.

Even though the Nurse is a native species, that is grows very large.

The truth is if like the Nurse - it's best just to visit you local Public Aquarium. Don't even consider owning one.

I'm not saying that can't be in a very Very large Private Aquaria. But I am saying the 99.9% of the people that get nurse sharks as pets. really can't afford to keep it for the shark's entire life- which could be more 30 years.

There certainly needs to be education of the potential keepers part.
 
krj-1168;949735; said:
Yeah - it's ashame that people are still buying nurse shark pups as "pets".

But you see that part of the problem. Nurse pups are just too darn cheap - often under 200 bucks. And while most states don't have laws that require people to get a special premit to keep a nurse in their home aquaria.

Even though the Nurse is a native species, that is grows very large.

The truth is if like the Nurse - it's best just to visit you local Public Aquarium. Don't even consider owning one.

I'm not saying that can't be in a very Very large Private Aquaria. But I am saying the 99.9% of the people that get nurse sharks as pets. really can't afford to keep it for the shark's entire life- which could be more 30 years.

There certainly needs to be education of the potential keepers part.
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I agree. Btw, do you know if bull sharks require a permit to collect, and keept? There are fortunately a few members on this board that have tanks big enough to house nurse sharks, black tips, and a few others :)
 
In the right area, you can keep a bull as long as you collect, transport and house it within the law. But 99% of them are taken illegally - so right off the bat all you are doing is connecting yourself to the black market. I only know of a handful of crews that collect them legally. In some coastal states they are prohibited for private owners.
Public Aquariums have a hard time housing them. It's one of those tank size / feeding correct things again. I might have to start a thread on the ups and downs of bulls. Seems like a lot of interest is sparking with them again.
 
Thanks for clearing that up - Matt.

Personally I don't see what all the interest in wanting to keep a Bull Shark is about.

Maybe it's just that I tend to imagine -If have of someone wants to keep a Bull shark - they must either be a bit crazy or have the personality of a movie supervillian - like Dr. Evil or Dr. No. - LOL
 
Most states don't seem to have restrictions on keeping Bulls. Here in CA you need a permit as the state considers them to be a detrimental species. Same applies for AZ, HI, and NV. As far as wanting to keep one goes, some would want to purely because of ego driven reasons while some like the idea of a challenge that few attempt. For example, if you love keeping koi you may at some point want to drop the big bucks for a Japanese koi with an expensive bloodline. Some of those fish cost 10 times what a bull shark would.
 
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