Shark and Ray Care Profiles

[CaptainKiwi]

I am not sure if this is the right place to put this but I have just spent the last couple of days scraping the old shark and ray central forum of their care guides. The forum appears to be dead and not moderated, so I did this just as a backup.



A couple of things to note:

1. Not all of these species have been kept - some appear to just be assumptions based on the care of their more commonly kept cousins (see epaulettes for example)
2. Minimum tank size - I did change all of the widths to be at minimum 3ft, and based on everything I have read from experienced keepers I stand by this decision. Personally, I would not put ANY adult shark in anything less then 24 sq ft i.e 8' x 3' x 2' or a 6ft diameter pond.
3. Smaller sharks do not mean less space - cat sharks are much smaller then epaulettes but are also much more active, especially at night.

If people have any suggestions/edits then send them my way!

 

[Carcharodon]

I've followed that site since it's inception as well as some of the earlier postings from members on other forums. There have been a few experienced keepers over the years, but a lot of the content above was generated with enthusiasm over experience.

I absolutely agree on Atelomycterus species - they require more space than epaulettes at every stage of development. Adult Chiloscyllium also need much more space despite being similar size.

I'm generally hesitant to argue for smaller tanks, but the smaller wobbegong species (O. wardi) seems to do fine in standard 240 (8x2), and for them and epaulettes I'd put water quality ahead of volume. More active benthic sharks should be restricted to oval or circular pools.

I also agree on some of these species being speculative. Hemiscyllium strahani in particular has never been kept in private aquaria afaik, or at least exceptionally rarely. In my experience there are behavioral variations between species, and recent data seems to indicate there are at least some size variations as well.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

This is some very good information, thank you for sharing!

 

[CaptainKiwi]

I've followed that site since it's inception as well as some of the earlier postings from members on other forums. There have been a few experienced keepers over the years, but a lot of the content above was generated with enthusiasm over experience.

I absolutely agree on Atelomycterus species - they require more space than epaulettes at every stage of development. Adult Chiloscyllium also need much more space despite being similar size.

I'm generally hesitant to argue for smaller tanks, but the smaller wobbegong species (O. wardi) seems to do fine in standard 240 (8x2), and for them and epaulettes I'd put water quality ahead of volume. More active benthic sharks should be restricted to oval or circular pools.

I also agree on some of these species being speculative. Hemiscyllium strahani in particular has never been kept in private aquaria afaik, or at least exceptionally rarely. In my experience there are behavioral variations between species, and recent data seems to indicate there are at least some size variations as well.

In my opinion, hemiscyllium spp. Are the perfect shark species to keep in captivity due to their size and natural habitat of rock pools - in regards to the different species - there is quite a lot of size difference between the species, apparently the hemiscyllium galei (not on the list but will add it!) maxes out at around 50cm which could make it an ideal candidate for a private aquarium shark! In your experience what was the behaviour difference?

Also I totally agree with the enthusiasm over experience part, I'm in contact with Chris Avila at the moment so hoping to expand the overall knowledge in the community!

 

[Carcharodon]

Chris is the man. I got to visit him in 2009 or 10 and his setup was incredible. Insanely knowledgeable… I hope he’s doing well.

I agree on Hemiscyllium; best overall pet shark. My favorite was always H. ocellatum; much more “outgoing” than hallstromi.

H. galei may only get to 568mm, but it’s also represented by the fewest specimens in recent literature. My guess would be it at least matches freycineti and halmahera at 685+ mm. That latter species is very rare in captivity now but they were coming in 10 or so years ago. The Indonesian species are much harder to come by these days (if they were ever available at all) because they’re protected in their native range.

 

[CaptainKiwi]

Chris is the man. I got to visit him in 2009 or 10 and his setup was incredible. Insanely knowledgeable… I hope he’s doing well.

I agree on Hemiscyllium; best overall pet shark. My favorite was always H. ocellatum; much more “outgoing” than hallstromi.

H. galei may only get to 568mm, but it’s also represented by the fewest specimens in recent literature. My guess would be it at least matches freycineti and halmahera at 685+ mm. That latter species is very rare in captivity now but they were coming in 10 or so years ago. The Indonesian species are much harder to come by these days (if they were ever available at all) because they’re protected in their native range.

I'm currently working with some Exporters to see what Epaulettes are obtainable - as you said the Indonesian ones are a little tricky, but I can't seem to find any exporters of any sort in PNG for Epaulettes on that side. Ocellatum are by far the most common and trispeculare seem to be floating around every now and then but (especially in Europe) the rest seemed to have completely disappeared in the last 10 years.

A part of me wants to fly out to that part and have a look at them all for myself!

 

[Carcharodon]

There are actually some trispeculare in the for sale forum right now; there are probably some occelatum around too. The others are basically unavailable at the moment.

 

[CaptainKiwi]

There are actually some trispeculare in the for sale forum right now; there are probably some occelatum around too. The others are basically unavailable at the moment.

Just done a whole bunch of digging and talking - the epaulettes specifically appear to be a protected group in Indonesia and require permits for any sort of trade. Frustrating! I've contacted the Indonesian Government to discuss this so I'll have to wait and see how that pans out.

Trispeculare and Ocellatum are my fall back option, but in Europe I have met one person who is able to get a hold of trispeculare - I spoke to ORA and apparently they're discontinuing their breeding lines and will only be able to send Short Tail Nurse's over. Such a shame, I would have loved a captive bred Eppie!

 

[Carcharodon]

I wouldn’t count on anything meaningful from the Indo government. I’ve imported from there and Malaysia in the past and you really need someone on the ground over there to handle that stuff for you.

Edit: Just seeing that you’re in the UK; that will likely make things easier for you, at least. Importing in the U.S. is much more tightly regulated than in Europe generally.

Edit 2: You can actually get the two Aussie species directly via freight, and I believe import on your end is very straight forward. That would be my recommendation. They're pretty affordable that way, though carrier costs and duties are an unknown for me. Australia also has the benefit of being very reliable; once you get into importing from other countries in the area you're much more likely to receive dead animals or nothing at all.

 

[CaptainKiwi]

I wouldn’t count on anything meaningful from the Indo government. I’ve imported from there and Malaysia in the past and you really need someone on the ground over there to handle that stuff for you.

Edit: Just seeing that you’re in the UK; that will likely make things easier for you, at least. Importing in the U.S. is much more tightly regulated than in Europe generally.

Edit 2: You can actually get the two Aussie species directly via freight, and I believe import on your end is very straight forward. That would be my recommendation. They're pretty affordable that way, though carrier costs and duties are an unknown for me. Australia also has the benefit of being very reliable; once you get into importing from other countries in the area you're much more likely to receive dead animals or nothing at all.

The issue with Indo is that the sharks are easy to find but the permitting system makes their transport and capture a pain, I am trying to work with someone on the ground though!

Do you have any recommended exporters from Australia? I have tried to contact Ocean Reef Marine and Cairns Marine but I got no response from either

 

[Carcharodon]

Oceanreefs should have them.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I am not sure if this is the right place to put this but I have just spent the last couple of days scraping the old shark and ray central forum of their care guides. The forum appears to be dead and not moderated, so I did this just as a backup.



A couple of things to note:

1. Not all of these species have been kept - some appear to just be assumptions based on the care of their more commonly kept cousins (see epaulettes for example)
2. Minimum tank size - I did change all of the widths to be at minimum 3ft, and based on everything I have read from experienced keepers I stand by this decision. Personally, I would not put ANY adult shark in anything less then 24 sq ft i.e 8' x 3' x 2' or a 6ft diameter pond.
3. Smaller sharks do not mean less space - cat sharks are much smaller then epaulettes but are also much more active, especially at night.

If people have any suggestions/edits then send them my way!

Do you know what their criteria for inclusion was? Looks like <150cm adult size?

To bad this site can’t host spreadsheets - I can’t read this on my phone very well.

I’ve kept about 15 or so of these sharks, seems a really eclectic mix. Torazame are cool water, and smoothhounds need HUGE tanks and then they still tend to spy hop.

 

[CaptainKiwi]

Do you know what their criteria for inclusion was? Looks like <150cm adult size?

To bad this site can’t host spreadsheets - I can’t read this on my phone very well.

I’ve kept about 15 or so of these sharks, seems a really eclectic mix. Torazame are cool water, and smoothhounds need HUGE tanks and then they still tend to spy hop.

There seems to be 2 set of care profiles on the site and I just wrote code to pull it all in from the care profile section - I agree that the list is a bit of a mess in every way, but my only knowledge is around epaulettes so I feel very underqualified to start making care assumptions. I would love to add any information you've gathered to it!

I tried to add a normal google sheets link for that reason but the site *really* doesn't like it for some reason - any suggestions?

 

[CaptainKiwi]

Oceanreefs should have them.

Ill send another e-mail!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

There seems to be 2 set of care profiles on the site and I just wrote code to pull it all in from the care profile section - I agree that the list is a bit of a mess in every way, but my only knowledge is around epaulettes so I feel very underqualified to start making care assumptions. I would love to add any information you've gathered to it!

I tried to add a normal google sheets link for that reason but the site *really* doesn't like it for some reason - any suggestions?

I was wrong - you evidently CAN link xls files to a post. One of our fish medics did that with some calculator macros that he wrote.
You have to download the file and work with it offline, but that’s not a huge issue.

 

[CaptainKiwi]

I was wrong - you evidently CAN link xls files to a post. One of our fish medics did that with some calculator macros that he wrote.
You have to download the file and work with it offline, but that’s not a huge issue.

How did he do it? The best way I can find is to link it to a google drive

Edit: I am a silly man!

Edit 2: Is there a way I can edit my original post to add this link instead of the table?

Sheets

 

[Carcharodon]

Do you know what their criteria for inclusion was? Looks like <150cm adult size?

To bad this site can’t host spreadsheets - I can’t read this on my phone very well.

I’ve kept about 15 or so of these sharks, seems a really eclectic mix. Torazame are cool water, and smoothhounds need HUGE tanks and then they still tend to spy hop.

It was pretty random; some of them (like Torazame) were actually kept by forum members, others were just included because of genus or general interest. Some of the guides are pretty spot on but others seem to be guesses.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

How did he do it? The best way I can find is to link it to a google drive

Edit: I am a silly man!

Edit 2: Is there a way I can edit my original post to add this link instead of the table?

Sheets

IDK - what if you wrote up an intro to this and posted it as an article?

 

[CaptainKiwi]

IDK - what if you wrote up an intro to this and posted it as an article?

That sounds like a much better idea to be honest! Also may I ask what species of sharks you've kept and if any of their care requirements are different to what's been listed? I will take out the smooth hounds to start...

 

[Jay Hemdal]

That sounds like a much better idea to be honest! Also may I ask what species of sharks you've kept and if any of their care requirements are different to what's been listed? I will take out the smooth hounds to start...

I was an aquarium curator, I retired in November. “ cared for” is kind of a loose term, I mostly supervised the staff that actually cared for the sharks (grin). I wrote my first magazine article on sharks back in 1981.

Let me look at the sheet again more in depth today…..