Epaulette shark in reef tank

[Matt B.]

just watched a video of a guy who had a shark in reef tank. I think it was an epaulette shark. Can you keep one in a 185 gallon reef tank? Never saw this before.

 

[GK3]

just watched a video of a guy who had a shark in reef tank. I think it was an epaulette shark. Can you keep one in a 185 gallon reef tank? Never saw this before.

We you’ll have very little cleanup crew, but other than that I don’t see why it can’t work. 180 is too small though.

 

[RJKain-777]

300 is the smallest I’d go. Longer And wider the better

 

[ichthyogeek]

I think it depends mostly on the dimensions of the tank. I got super interested into shorttail nurse sharks, which max out at around 30" (Epaulettes max out at around 35") a while back. After doing some hunting around for information, I learned that shorttails need around a 96"x48" footprint (and at 30" tall, equates to 600 gallons). As a larger shark, Epaulettes would most likely need a larger footprint tank as adults.

Now...could you keep an epaulette shark in a 185 while it was still growing out a bit? Definitely. But the problem begins when the fish just gets too big and you need to relocated it to a bigger tank.

There's also the matter of feeding, filtration, acquisition, and disease management...None of which are "budget"

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hi, hope all is well.

I would say not to do this. It will not be an ideal environment to put it simply. There are many reasons from size, filtration, feeding, etc.

 

[ScottR]

They are nocturnal animals. I’ve seen them in 150ish gallon tanks and there’s not much to enjoy. They’ll mostly just stay in one place all day.

 

[Matt B.]

Thank you all. I'll pass on the shark but definitely made me think of going in a new direction!

 

[Mareshow]

Thread resurrection! just wondering if there's any other reason not to keep an epaulette in a larger reef tank besides losing some crabs and snails? I have a 750 gallon thats 120x48x30 tall, my snails actually reproduce like crazy and something roaming around keeping their numbers down wouldn't hurt my feelings

 

[Krj-2501]

I think it depends mostly on the dimensions of the tank. I got super interested into shorttail nurse sharks, which max out at around 30" (Epaulettes max out at around 35") a while back. After doing some hunting around for information, I learned that shorttails need around a 96"x48" footprint (and at 30" tall, equates to 600 gallons). As a larger shark, Epaulettes would most likely need a larger footprint tank as adults.

Okay, first - Short tail Nurse sharks are built very different from Epaulettes. Short tail Nurse are wide bodied sharks which swim a lot more than most epaulettes do. Second - a 30"epaulette has about half the girth of a 30" Short tail Nurse, and therefor is much better a moving thru tight spaces than a Short tail Nurse is.

Epaulettes(Hemiscyllium) are a genus of 9 species (at present). Which range in size from less than 2 feet to 3.5 feet. Most species max out between 27-32". Only the Ocellated Epaulette (Hemiscyllium ocellatum), which is the most common species in home aquaria, exceeds 3 feet .

A single Papuan Epaulette(H. hallstromi) or Speckled Epaulette(H. trispeculare) which are roughly 30" could easily be kept in a 360 gallon tank (8' long x 3' wide x 2' tall) for life. A single average adult (36") Ocellated Epaulette could be kept in a 600 gallon tank(10' long x 4' wide x 2' tall) or pond (7' in diameter x 2' deep).

Thread resurrection! just wondering if there's any other reason not to keep an epaulette in a larger reef tank besides losing some crabs and snails? I have a 750 gallon thats 120x48x30 tall, my snails actually reproduce like crazy and something roaming around keeping their numbers down wouldn't hurt my feelings

In my option - either a single Papuan Epaulette or Speckled Epaulette/Carpetshark would be good choice. Other species of "reef safe" sharks would the Atelomycterus catsharks - like the Coral Catshark(Atelomycterus marmoratus). In a 750 gallon you could easily keep a trio of the catsharks for life.