Shark egg mishap

Hotelbravo · Oct 14, 2018

So I've had a very lively baby banded cat shark in an egg in my sump for several weeks. Its egg is pretty clear in most spots and clipped to the side of my sump so I can see it with the backlit refugium light.
I've been haven't been able to see the eggyolk for a week and I remembered reading that many sharks don't break out of the shell and end up starving to death.
So I looked up several videos on how to safely remove them from the shell and went ahead with it tonight. It was pretty simple and the operation went smoothly.
However after letting him out of the shell I noticed there actually is still egg yolk attached to him. It's roughly the size of a Skittle.
He already is swimming all around the sump to my surprise since I thought he wouldn't be able to swim for a while.
I'm just really worried about him still having the yolk... Anyone have experience with this?

DSC reef · Oct 15, 2018

I believe you'll be fine, the shark will feed off the yolk until it's gone. Its imperative to get it eating as soon as you can afterwards

Cheilinus · Oct 15, 2018

I've had a similar experience with a whitespotted bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) hatching with a small yolk sac still attached. In my case, she emerged this way on her own. The yolk sac is delicate, and prone to tearing. Keeping the shark on a fine substrate or a smooth bare bottom, away from pieces of LR and course sand/gravel is IMO a necessity until the yolk sac is completely absorbed. This may take a week or more based on a yolk sac of the size that you described. I'm not sure of the specifics of your sump, but any other fish/inverts (if present) will likely see the yolk sac as an easy meal and should be removed. Do not attempt to feed your shark until the remaining yolk sac is completely absorbed. As DSC reef mentioned, the shark will get it's nourishment from the yolk sac. I would even go as far as to wait several days after the visible yolk sac is completely gone before feeding.
Alprazo is very knowledgable about sharks, so hopefully he will see your post and offer some additional insight.
Congrats on the new pup! Good luck, and please keep us posted...

Cheilinus · Oct 15, 2018

duplicate post

Cheilinus · Oct 15, 2018

yet another duplicate post

Hotelbravo · Oct 16, 2018

It seems to be fairly active moving around in my sump. It may not be the most jdeal location for it since my sump is full of Caulerpa and I fear the egg yolk getting tangled in it. I cleared out a corner of the sump and it's just sand down there for him. It's got a large female clown and a blue damsel that don't seem to be paying it any attention at all.
I didn't read the post about not trying to feed it. soooo I ended up squirting some mysis right in front of him. He reacted to the mysis pretty quickly but I'm not sure what he was doing. He looked like he was sucking in sand and blowing it back out.

Hotelbravo · Oct 19, 2018

The shark died this morning. Not sure what happened

Cheilinus · Oct 19, 2018

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. Newly hatched pups are extremely delicate, yolk sac attached or otherwise. Could have been a number of things, or a combination of things. Neonate bamboo sharks are vulnerable to bacterial infections. If the shark ingested something (mysis, food intended for the other fish, something else in the sump, etc...) before the yolk sac was absorbed there's a good chance that it may have started to decompose in it's stomach. Was there any bloating at all? There are lots of other possibilities for the shark passing as well, and sometimes it just happens regardless of how well they are kept, and in spite of our best efforts. Hopefully this won't discourage you from keeping a shark. I recommend going with a more established juvenile vs. an egg or neonate. They are considerably hardier.